Car kit manufacturer looks for Morgan County property

Kirkham Motorsports, a manufacturer of component kits of the 1965 Shelby Cobra, is looking to relocate to Morgan County from Provo, Economic Development Director James Ebert told county commissioners at their Nov. 7 meeting. The company makes the car frames and bodies at their factory in an old MiG fighter factory in Poland. The rest of the car is made at its site in Provo. 

David Kirkham, the company’s owner, is currently looking for 500 to 1,000 acres in the south end of Morgan County to build a new facility, Ebert said. While Kirkham Motorsports is currently headquartered in Provo, “I think what they felt is they're getting kind of built around and they're ready to move to a more rural location,” Ebert said. “I think they've been looking at Morgan for a while because they've been having this discussion for a long period of time. I actually talked to someone else who said they had a conversation with them about five years ago, and they thought they were looking at moving about five years ago. So, I think they're in a position now where they're really ready to move forward.”

Kirkham Motorsports is considered a clean business with minimal manufacturing, noise, and infrastructure demands and with more than $5 million in annual sales, “it does appear that they're in a good financial stable position right now and they're probably positioned to make a move of their headquarters if that's what their choice is to do,” Ebert said.

Kirkham envisions his facility as being more than a manufacturing site, according to Ebert. Instead, Kirkham thinks it could be a recreation destination like High West Distillery in Wanship which provides tours of their operation, along with a tasting room, restaurant, and gift shop.

“Instead of having just a manufacturing and assembly building, he's trying to make it a destination, understanding that people traveled from all over the country, all over the world, to come and be a part of this,” Ebert said. “And whether it's to be part of driving one of the cars, or whether it's an experience of seeing them, or whether it's actually the purchasing, the delivery of it, he wants to build that experience within this headquarters.” 

Kirkham is hoping he can get Morgan County’s support to move ahead with his project, along with help funding infrastructure in the area through an RDA, Ebert said. 

“I think it could be a potentially good use, particularly if it's developed out in a way that is similar to the High West distillery because that would be a tourism-based sort of use,” Ebert said. “So, I don't have any issues that way. They obviously are going to be responsible for finding a property that will work for them and I'm going to evaluate the rezoning request in the context of that. And whether it's done as a Planned Area Development, or we tailor a zone to fit the property, or if it fits within an existing zone, great.”

While commissioners expressed skepticism that Kirkham could find a site that big in Morgan County, they concluded the discussion that evening by saying they would be willing to explore the idea with him in the future. λ