By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

HOOVER–Nearly 20 people braved the cold Nov. 18 to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility for Swagelok, Inc., called Swagelok Alabama.

The ceremony marked the start of construction of the 20,000-square-foot facility, which will be located on Cahaba Valley Road near The Church at Brook Hills.

“We chose Birmingham to service a portion of six states throughout the Southeast,” Swagelok Alabama President Thomas Lozick said after the ceremony. “We are a Swagelok authorized distributor for fluid system components. Birmingham was a wonderful central location to service our customer base throughout all of Alabama.”

Headquartered in Solon, Ohio, Swagelok is an international company that provides fluid system solutions and specializes in industrial pipes and valves, flexible tubing and hoses, fittings and filters, according to a press release.

Swagelok provides major services in the oil and gas, power, alternative fuels and semiconductor industries, the release said. Swagelok operates in more than 70 countries worldwide.

The Birmingham facility will comprise administrative offices and an inventory warehouse.

“We also have offices in Mobile, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee, but this will be our main branch where we’ll service the majority of our business from,” Lozick said. “The search to find a building started a year ago. We were originally going to maybe lease a building, and we decided in order to get what we really want or what we really need to service our customers the right way, our only option was to build a facility that would fit our needs to service our customers.”

TurnerBatson Architects is the architect of record for the project.

The design team consists of Dave Reese, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Gary Walton, Project Architect; Kristin Corley, Interior Design; and Lindsay Brazzel, Interior Design.

The general contractor is JohnsonKreis Construction, a Birmingham-based contractor performing commercial construction throughout the Southeastern states.

Project Manager is Alan English.

Construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2015.

“We currently are based out of Pelham, and many of our associates live in the area, so we wanted to be convenient to our associates and not impact their lives, and also really be centrally located to our customer base,” Lozick said. “We found Shelby County very easy and nice to do business with, so we wanted to continue to develop that relationship.

“We just really appreciate all the help everybody has given us in getting to this point,” Lozick added. “We look forward to moving in in July and being a great neighbor to the community.”