Chester Inc. breaks ground on new headquarters facility for Sensit Technologies in Valparaiso

Valparaiso community members, the Valpo Chamber, and local supporters came together to celebrate Chester Inc. breaking ground on a new headquarters facility for Sensit Technologies on Monday, November 17.

“This is a great beginning for Sensit with this facility,” said Adam Peuquet, co-owner of Chester Inc. “We have built numerous projects and worked with them for 25 years. This is the fifth big one that we’ve done. Through numerous construction and innovation projects together, it’s exciting to see them keep growing in the community and creating jobs around the area.”

The new location, located at 3805 Bowman Drive in Valparaiso, will sit right next to their current facility in the Eastport Centre. This new headquarters facility for Sensit Technologies will be a space for design and manufacturing. It will service a complete line of gas leak detection instruments, combustible gas indicators, and confined space monitors.

“All their buildings are going to be under one roof,” Peuquet said. “It’s a great opportunity for their team to consolidate everything in one facility. They’re spread apart into numerous buildings, which can create problems with efficiency and productivity. Bringing everybody under one roof will help out with that.” 

Rob Stark, president of Sensit Technologies, has been pleased with the company’s growth over the years, and this project adds one more piece to the puzzle.

“Supporting growth as a business is the biggest thing,” Stark said. “It’s a great purpose to protect life, property, and the environment from hazardous gases. There’s a demand for what we do. It became inevitable that, at some point, we would need a new home to house ourselves. Today marks the beginning of that plan.”

For Sensit Technologies, working with Chester has been a match made in heaven, with two-and-a-half decades of excellent projects to show for it.

“It’s been super important for us to team up with Chester on these projects,” Stark said. “They’re very local, so the commute between our buildings is not far at all. Most importantly, when the opportunity became available for this piece of land, it wasn’t far from our existing buildings. It allowed us to retain a lot of our Valparaiso employees.”

With companies such as Sensit Technologies and Chester Inc., one of the biggest similarities is the evolution of both companies that were formed as family-based businesses and have grown in the Valparaiso community. 

“Developments like this should encourage people who come into Valparaiso that there are jobs being created in this area,” Peuquet said. “Companies have been here a long time to keep their employees local. There’s nothing better than a company that hires local individuals who enjoy being in this area and keeping them here to grow together.”

Chester Inc. is proud to play a part in such a huge milestone of Sensit Technologies’ future in Northwest Indiana. This project aligns with the company’s goal of utilizing design-build construction to boost corporate citizenship in the community. After 25 years of partnership with Sensit Technologies to make this happen, there’s optimism in even bigger successes for the next 25 years and beyond.

“It’s exciting because we can visually see some of the progress from our existing buildings,” Stark said. “We get to see a construction process happening up close, receiving live updates along the way.”

For more information on Chester Inc., you can visit chesterinc.com.