WATCH: Once-troubled Hamilton Inn being torn down so new owner can expand

The demolition of the Hamilton Inn, the one-time Dixie Highway motel, started Wednesday morning, and makes way for an expansion of Hamilton Caster, a 111-year-old family-owned-and-operated company.

The company will expand its footprint from just more than 3 acres to 5 acres.

The company purchased the property at 1767 Dixie Highway on Nov. 9, 2018 for $400,000, according to Butler County Auditor’s Office records.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Hamilton Caster, which produces industrial wheels, casters, platform trucks and trailers, is “out of space and hampered” by its inability to accommodate growth, said Dave Lippert, the company’s president since 1995 and an employee since 1982.

Building a new facility allows the company room for the equipment it wants to purchase and lays the framework for the foreseeable future, he said.

Hamilton Caster employs 80 people and expects to hire more once its new facility opens, Lippert said.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Hamilton Caster’s headquarters will not relocate from its main campus at 1637 Dixie Highway, which has been the company’s main address for 98 of the past 111 years.

Lippert said Hamilton Caster was exploring the possibility of other sites within Hamilton but did not consider sites outside the city.

“We never wanted to leave Hamilton,” he said.

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