Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Less than four months after officially acquiring the former Sumitomo Rubber USA plant, the property's new Taiwan owners have landed their first tenant in the sprawling Sheridan Drive complex.
HOTA Industrial Manufacturing, which is also based in Taiwan, has signed a lease to occupy 100,000-square-feet in the Town of Tonawanda industrial site.
HOTA will be creating 50 jobs initially, although that number may balloon upwards as the firm increases its foothold in the United States.
"It's a start and a great way to start," said John Flynn, Town of Tonawanda supervisor.
Founded in 1966, HOTA Industrial manufactures a wide range of products found in electric vehicles, motorcycles and, also, in the aerospace industry.
Among its products gears and shafts for motorcycles and cars and pressure transmission systems used in vehicles and robotics.
The company had been scouting for a U.S. base to handle its North American client base.
"Just to have people in there opens the door for other manufacturers," Flynn said,
Sumitomo abruptly closed the Tonawanda plant in November 2024, putting more than 1,500 people out of work.
In early 2025, an aggressive pitch put together by Invest Buffalo Niagara's CEO Tom Kucharski and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz helped bring HWA FONG International - a Taiwan-based automotive and aerospace parts manufacturer - to the plant.
HWA FONG agreed to pay $28 million for the 2 million-square-foot industrial site and the firm immediately began pitching the plant to many of its peer companies.
HWA FONG officials said they hope that combined all the companies they bring to the former Sumitomo plant - now branded the Hwa Fong Industrial Park - could create at least 550 new jobs.
HOTA Industrial is coming to Tonawanda
HOTA Industrial is coming to Tonawanda
