Schweitzer Engineering releases plans for expansion in Moscow

One of the region’s largest manufacturers announced plans Monday to get even bigger.

Pullman-based Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories announced $90 million worth of investments to pay for expansion at three facilities, including the largest coming next to the existing SEL factory in Moscow.

“I think it’s fair to say we are having a good year. We are growing,” Executive Vice President Joey Nestegard said. “These projects take a fair bit of time, about two years to design and build, so we have to plan in advance for our capacity needs.”

The company was founded in 1982 by Edmund Schweitzer to fulfill a mission to make electrical power safer, more reliable and affordable, according to the company website.

That work expanded out of Schweitzer’s basement to now encompass more than 100 locations globally. Nestegard said the company currently employs about 7,500 people and that number should grow once the new facilities open.

SEL just two years ago opened a printed-circuit board fabrication facility in Moscow, at 2615 Reisenauer Road. The new 150,000-square foot building will be built next door to the existing structure.

“We are going to build electronic devices, or more of the devices we build here in Pullman, Lewiston and West Lafayette, Indiana,” he said. “We just need more capacity.”

In addition to the newly designed and built structure in Moscow, which is expected to cost about $50 million, SEL is spending about half that to refurbish an existing 170,000-square-foot building in Boise.

That facility should be open next year. The new building in Moscow should be completed sometime in 2027.

Lastly, the company will build a 50,000-square foot office building in Charlotte, North Carolina. Once completed, the employees will vacate the old structure, which will then be converted into a manufacturing facility, Nestegard said.

That $15 million project, which likely will be also completed in 2027, will expand SEL operations in the Southeast, he said.

“As we build the buildings and bring online new production equipment, we’ll staff up to meet the new capacity,” Nestegard said.

The details of the expansion have been part of long-range planning for some time, he said.

“Some of the uncertainty that comes from all the tariffs and trade has caused us to tap the brakes at times on these proposals even though we need the capacity,” Nestegard said. “They are a reality of business.

“We just got to the point where we needed to make the investments, and now is the right time.”