STURGIS -- The Sturgis Industrial Park is getting a new tenant.

Bar-Sto Precision Machine, a firearms company based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., plans to relocate to Sturgis next year.

The company, which manufactures replacement pistol barrels, firearms accessories and high-end custom firearms, is building a 6,000-square-foot building and will move in by September 2010.

Bar-Sto employs 10 people at its California plant, and chief executive officer Irv Stone said three or four of those workers might move to Sturgis. Three-year projections call for Bar-Sto to bring 18 jobs to Sturgis.

Mayor Maury LaRue said before the groundbreaking that Friday ended a four-year project that featured many entities working together.

"It's nice that this happens in tough economic times," LaRue said.

LaRue said Sturgis is positioning itself as a precision manufacturing park. He said other gun manufacturers and the Sanford Undergound Laboratory at Homestake in Lead provide spinoff opportunities.