What started as a token investment in the Bowling Green market has turned into a fast-growing project for Owensboro-based Castlen Steel.

The 15-year-old company, started out of the garage of founders Matt and Laura Castlen, observed Wednesday its third expansion announcement in Warren County.

Castlen is leasing 10,000 square feet of warehouse space from Continental Machinery Movers at 5884 Nashville Road and has set up a sales division now employing 10 people.

That sales division will complement the metal fabrication work being done at the original Castlen plant in Owensboro and at the Smiths Grove facility that opened in 2016 and was expanded in 2019.

“The vision that Matt and I had, we’re glad to see it come to fruition,” said Mike Miller, the Castlen vice president who opened the Smiths Grove plant. “We saw a need in Bowling Green for selling steel to the farmer down the road and to major industries.”

A customer base that includes Sister Schubert’s Bakery, Smucker’s, Owl’s Head Alloys and Bowling Green Metalforming has grown to the point that Castlen’s founder saw a need to grow beyond the 9,000 square feet he added to the Smiths Grove plant in 2019.

“We thought it was important to have a stand-alone sales facility,” said Matt Castlen, who represents the Owensboro area in the Kentucky State Senate. “We’re doing business with a lot of different plants and wanted to be closer to them.”

The new Castlen sales facility is close to the South Central Kentucky Industrial Park, but Castlen said his customer base isn’t limited to the manufacturers that occupy that park.

“We’re doing business with farms and with industrial and commercial customers,” said Castlen, 34. “We offer structural steel, aluminum, plate steel, stainless steel and rebar.”

Castlen, whose company has grown to 125 employees between the Owensboro and Warren County locations, said he has room for more growth at the Nashville Road facility. He looks to expand along with Bowling Green’s industrial base.

“What a great town to expand in,” said Castlen, speaking at a Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting. “Bowling Green has a lot of different industries coming in. We’re glad to be a part of that.”