Meeting demand for armor — New company expects to employ 250 at former shipyard

Old Navy base buildings that once buzzed with America’s effort to defeat Germany and keep the Soviet Union at bay will once again take on a military role.

A start-up company with plans to make armored vehicles will set up shop in part of the old shipyard and could employ 250 people within a year.

Privately-owned Protected Vehicles Inc., which was organized in October, hopes to turn out up to 700 mine-resistant vehicles a year in 255,000 square feet of industrial space it is leasing from Charleston Marine Manufacturing Corp. beside North Charleston’s Riverfront Park. The company employs 35 people now.

“It’s perfect for our needs,” said Protected Vehicles President and CEO Garth Barrett as he walked Wednesday through a cavernous structure outfitted with cranes. “We can produce everything from flat steel to the final product. All of the equipment stays here. That’s part of our lease agreement with CMMC.”

Barrett points to the war in Iraq and the continuing conflict in Afghanistan as an immediate market for the four-wheeled and six-wheeled vehicles his company will be outfitting with protective armor. “There is a huge demand,” he said.

A native of the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Barrett retired from that country’s Special Air Service, a unit similar to the U.S. Navy SEALs, and went on to join the South African army, where he rose to the rank of colonel.

Asked if he had qualms about starting a new company, Barrett said he has concerns like any other businessman, but his are of a different nature.

“My question is not about succeeding. It’s about what level of success,” he said. “I’m more worried about being swamped than I am about not doing any business.”

Protected Vehicles will do contract manufacturing, meaning it will outfit vehicles but not develop them.

Barrett said he is still lining up contracts.

Protected Vehicles is investing about $5 million in the operation, but Barrett said it would be millions more if the company had to buy the equipment or build the structures.

“It would be impossible for us to build a building like this,” he said. “It would be tens of millions of dollars.”

Barrett scouted sites for his company last year in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., but found what he was looking for at the old shipyard, near the site where he started Technical Solutions Group in 1997. That company moved to Ladson and now is Force Protection Inc., which also builds mine- and bullet-resistant vehicles. Barrett left Force Protection last August.

“It’s a hub area, a trade-free zone and it has easy port access,” Barrett said.

Protected Vehicles, which will produce armored vehicles smaller than those coming from the Ladson company, has a five-year lease on seven buildings with an option to renew its lease for another five years.

Production is expected to start in March.

The facilities are occupied now by Metal Trades Inc., which is moving its metal fabrication operation to its Yonge’s Island facility, said Metal Trades President Rusty Corbin.

Protected Vehicles is leasing office space from the Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority on Truxtun Avenue until it moves into new facilities a block away on the Cooper River.

Workers are ripping out carpet and refurbishing the buildings for the new company. “People need to work in an environment where they feel comfortable,” Barrett said.

About 200 hourly employees are expected to make between $10 and $22 an hour, while 50 salaried personnel will earn from $25,000 to $100,000 a year, Barrett said.

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or [email protected].