A York, Pa., company is creating 70 jobs for welders, machine operators, truck drivers and others in Richmond after re-opening a factory and warehouse in South Side that most recently was used to build large bridge components.

Kinsley Companies has begun advertising for a range of industrial and manufacturing workers as it seeks to start fabricating steel in the former home of Williams Bridge Co. at 700 E. 4th St., between Gordon and Dinwiddie

Williams shut down 18 months ago and put the 27-acre property that lies just west of Interstate 95 on the market.

Crews from Kinsley’s construction arm have started renovating the buildings and preparing to install new equipment for fabricating steel products, according to Taryn Khun, a company spokesman.

Kinsley paid about $7.1 million in mid-November to acquire the property in seeking to expand its operations and sales in Virginia and North Carolina. The company is investing $12.5 million to get the buildings ready for operations, according to court records and Richmond BizSense, an online business publication that first reported on the company’s entry into this market.

Begun decades ago as a concrete subcontractor, Kinsley has grown into a multifaceted regional building firm with seven divisions that handle everything from residential and commercial building development to highway and bridge construction.

The Richmond facility will be the company’s fourth steel fabrication plant, and officials said that the operation is projected to produce 20,000 tons of product yearly after it opens.

The property, which also houses other industrial businesses, has been an industrial site for 100 years. At one point, the site was home to a city equipment and vehicle maintenance shop and, during World War II, it housed a Navy training school for diesel engine mechanics

Before Williams acquired the property in the late 1980s, Bristol Steel & Iron Works operated on the property. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS