Skyrocketing growth in the projection TV market has prompted Corning Inc. to launch a second major expansion this year of its Clermont County-based Precision Lens unit. The unit expects to add 300 jobs within three years.

        Corning's board of directors this week approved a $55 million investment for a 200,000-square-foot addition to Precision Lens' Union Township plant. That plant now covers about 400,000 square feet.

        The new investment is on top of a $32 million project earlier this year to relocate a warehouse and equip that space with additional lens-making equipment. That expansion, which added about 200 jobs, increased the plant's employment to about 1,300, said Chuck Wise, chief financial officer.

        When completed in 2002, Precision Lens said, the latest expansion will increase its lens production capacity by 60 percent. Mr. Wise said the company doesn't disclose its projection TV lens production figures but added, “We're one of the leading suppliers in the world of projection TV lenses.”

        He said the market is being fueled by the strong economy and new technology that is improving the picture quality while shrinking the size of projection TV units.

        Precision Lens has sales of under $200 million. Corning said sales last year increased 30 percent, and the projection TV market is expected to increase 25 percent annually through 2004.

        “Corning Precision Lens Inc. has been, and continues to be, well-positioned for significant growth in this thriving marketplace,” said Robert L. Ecklin, Corning's executive vice president, en vironmental and corporate marketing.

        Clermont County commissioners Wednesday approved a 75 percent, 10-year tax abatement on the expansion project's real and personal property taxes. Union Township trustees earlier approved the abatement, and the West Clermont School District has approved an annual payment in lieu of the taxes, said Matt Van Sant, vice president of the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce.

        The tax abatement exempts about $900,000 of the $1.2 million annual tax collections on the expansion, he said.

        Mr. Wise said Precision Lens, founded in 1930 as U.S. Watch Crystal Manufacturing Co., hopes to break ground on the plant expansion, directly behind its existing plant, within a month.

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