SOUTH POINT — In December Chatham Steel left The Point industrial park, leaving economic development leaders wondering where the next tenant would come from.

Yet in half a year a longtime manufacturing concern almost around the corner from the industrial park will call The Point home shortly when McSweeney’s Inc. moves in.

“We didn’t have any more room to grow,” said Sandra Blackburn, vice president and daughter of McSweeney’s founder, Larry McSweeney.

Right now McSweeney’s is on County Road 5 in a 27,000-square-foot building but that space will double when the drill steel manufacturer takes over the Chatham building.

After the move McSweeney’s workforce of 148 is expected to increase by between 10 to 25 employees within the year.

The company follows the philosophy of diversification. While a large portion of its work focuses on the mining industry, it also produces product for a variety of businesses.

“We make the replacement snow plow blades and construction blades for Roadtec that digs up asphalt,” Blackburn said.

The manufacturer began in 1977 by a man who had a vision.

“My dad only went to eighth grade, but dad was an entrepreneur,” Blackburn said. “He wanted to have more than when he was a young man.”

For 46 years McSweeney’s has been a family affair.

“We’d get together for dinner or a gathering and talk business,” she said. “We eat, sleep and breathe it.”