CorStone Industries, America’s largest manufacturer of acrylic sinks and bath lavatories announced Tuesday they will be expanding their Greenville plant in preparation for adding a line of whirlpool tubs.

CorStone, whose product lines include CorStone, Peachtree Forge, Pro-Cast and Cor-Select, will add a 31,500 square foot building and the expansion is expected to generate up to 75 new jobs at the plant.

&uot;Over the years our customers asked us if we could make tubs for them as well,&uot; said CorStone President and CEO Sam Roberts. &uot;So this is just a logical extension of our manufacturing process.&uot;

CorStone currently produces 450,000 sink units per year for retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.

&uot;The production figure for sinks and whirlpool tubs will grow to 800,000 units per year when the expansion is completed,&uot; Roberts said. &uot;Of that number, 100,000 whirlpool tubs will be manufactured.&uot;

Roberts said that in considering the increase in production and the new line of products he and his management team looked at &uot;three other states and nine municipalities&uot; but decided that they couldn’t leave their &uot;home&uot; in Greenville.

&uot;Greenville has proved to be a very stable place both in its workforce and politically,&uot; said Roberts, praising the work of Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon and Ricky McLaney, the city’s top economic developer for supporting existing industry while at the same time luring new industry to the city. &uot;We’re very encouraged about the whole area continuing to grow.&uot;

The construction cost of the new building will be handled through the City of Greenville and the Greenville Industrial Development Board with CorStone entering into a lease purchase agreement to repay the city.

&uot;With low interest rates this will give us the ability to refinance some bonds on this facility and on the WestPoint building to take advantage of low rates,&uot; McLendon said. &uot;It’s a way for us to help our existing industry to grow because it’s very important for us to take care of them as well as our new industry.&uot;

Roberts is also developing a new product line called Corcrete that is similar to concrete but is the byproduct of the acrylic sink and tub manufacturing process. Corcrete can be mixed just like concrete and used in a variety of applications.

More importantly it will allow CorStone to be 100 percent &uot;landfill free&uot; meaning there will be no waste products, something that Roberts said is very important to him.

&uot;Whatever leaves (the plant) will be finished product,&uot; Roberts said. &uot;We generate about two-and-one-half million pounds of scrap each year and it costs us $175,000 per year just hauling it off.&uot;

CorStone, which currently has 57 employees, was founded by Roberts in 1995 and is currently headquartered in North Attleboro, Mass. Construction on CorStone’s new building will begin this month and is expected to be completed in October.