MetalSite to add 100 new positions

FINDLAY TOWNSHIP - MetalSite, which auctions steel products over the Web, said it will add 100 new positions by the end of the year.

"Revenues are up 400 percent," said Maggie Bray, a spokeswoman for the 2-year-old technology firm. The company declined to provide actual revenue figures.

Forty steel producers and distributors currently sell products on the MetalSite Web site, Ms. Bray said.

Such growth recently attracted the attention of Internet Capital Group Inc., a suburban Philadelphia venture capital company, which last month acquired a 44 percent stake in MetalSite for $180 million.

The company, which currently employs 50, has signed a letter of intent with its landlord, the Soffer Organization, to nearly double its space from 15,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet, said John Engel, the company's corporate controller.

Plans call for the company, which is being represented by Trammell Crow Co., to take over the entire second floor of Building Two in the Penn Center West office development. MetalSite has been in Penn Center West since its inception.

"The employees are comfortable with this location," said Mr. Engel.

Richard Cassetti, senior vice president of Trammell Crow, said John Daniel Associates, currently located on the second floor, will move.

The 100 new workers will be added as quickly as possible, and the move should be completed by June, Mr. Engel said.

Besides ICG, MetalSite stakeholders include Bethlehem Steel; LTV Steel Corp. of Cleveland; Ryerson Tull, a Chicago corporate services center; Steel Dynamics Inc., a Fort Wayne, Ind., company; and Weirton Steel Corp., which founded MetalSite.