Jamison Door Company is staying in Hagerstown, and it's going big. Design-build firm ARCO Design/Build says it has broken ground on a 355,000-square-foot manufacturing plant for Jamison and its Italian parent, BMP Group, the first piece of a planned 58-acre campus in Washington County (via ARCO Design/Build on PR Newswire).
The plant is going up at the Mount Aetna Technology Park, where Jamison and BMP will be the first tenant. ARCO says the first phase should be finished in the first quarter of 2028, with manufacturing starting soon after, and planning is already underway for a second phase.
Jamison has been making doors in Washington County since 1906. Its product line is specialized: cold storage doors, high-speed roll-up doors, dock levelers and aircraft hangar doors, sold into food and beverage, pharmaceutical, warehouse and aerospace work. The new building is meant to add capacity and automation, along with space for research and product testing, and to bring production of some of BMP Group's European brands to the U.S.
The numbers behind the project came out earlier this year. In a March release, Jamison and BMP put the first phase at $35 million to $50 million and said the campus would create up to 250 long-term jobs by 2030. They said the plant would sit on about 25 of the 58 acres, leaving the rest for later phases that would turn the site into a full BMP Group campus.
Local government has put money on the table. On Feb. 24, the Washington County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve up to $2 million in hotel rental tax support for Jamison, paid over five years, according to the county's meeting minutes. It's a performance-based deal: Jamison has to buy the Mount Aetna property and build the plant as proposed, payments are tied to investment and job milestones, and any money already paid would be clawed back if the project doesn't go forward. Business and Economic Development Director Jonathan Horowitz and Jamison CEO Dwight Clark presented the request. Jamison's March release also credited a $2 million grant from the state's Senator George Edwards Fund.
The project has been building for a while. In December 2024, Clark told employees and local leaders at a breakfast marking the company's 118th year that Jamison had taken investment from an Italian firm and was looking at building new plants, DC News Now reported at the time.
There's a construction angle to the partnership, too. ARCO says Jamison has worked as a subcontractor to ARCO for about 30 years. BMP Group Chairman and CEO Danilo Benotto said in the release that Hagerstown is the heart of the Jamison brand and that the company needs to stay there to keep making its products in the U.S. ARCO President Aaron Weir said the job fits the firm's focus on building facilities for manufacturers.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is a big-builder job. ARCO is a national design-build firm with more than 50 offices, and it hasn't named subcontractors. But a 355,000-square-foot plant running into 2028 means a lot of trade work in the Hagerstown area, and national GCs often lean on regional subs for site work, concrete, electrical and finishes.
If you're a Washington County or Franklin County, Pa., shop that wants a piece of it, the move is to get in front of ARCO's team now, while work is still being bought out. Ask how they handle prequalification and which packages are still open.
Longer term, a campus that could add up to 250 jobs, with more phases planned, is the kind of employer that brings steady service, maintenance and housing work to the area.