Employment has suffered as a result of the recession. Finding a job can be a real challenge, especially for people with disabilities.

But Joshua Nulton is looking to provide a new option for disabled workers in the Dayton area.

Nulton, a partner/owner of Wapakoneta-based New Option Dayhab, is expanding his company, which is a privately-owned provider of vocational services for mentally- and physically-disabled workers. He opened his third location this month — which will also serve as the company’s new headquarters — in a 10,000-square-foot location in Piqua.

The new facility, at 234 First St., will provide space for disabled workers to manufacture and produce products, as well as office space for the company’s office program. Because of the location, Nulton expects to add four or five disabled workers in the next few weeks and a dozen staff employees in the next year.

Nulton and his two business partners signed a three-year lease for the space in September and moved in this week. The Piqua facility offers New Option Dayhab the ability to bring workers in from Dayton, Darke County and all of Miami County.

The building, the former site of Piqua Engineering, has an additional 90,000 square feet of space for expansion, something Nulton hopes to be able to move into as the business grows.

“We’re looking forward to utilizing it,” Nulton said. “And there’s plenty of room for growth.”

All of the work New Option Dayhab provides is done in-house. The work is centered around its own brand of fishing product, New Option Tackle. A Web site selling the fishing products is currently being developed. It now has three facilities, with smaller locations in Wapakoneta and Lewistown. It currently has about 24 disabled workers and 10 staff employees. Disabled employees can bring home as much as $100 a week for 20 hours of work.

The Piqua facility is much larger than its other facilities. While the Wapakoneta site has room for about 12 workers and the Lewistown location has room for two dozen workers, Nulton said the Piqua facility has room for more than 65 workers.

But Nulton also expects job growth for his staff employees. Nulton said he will need to hire 12 more employees during the next 12 months. The positions would include drivers, direct care workers and other jobs.

Unlike some competitors, New Option has one staff employee for every four disabled workers. Most county competitors have one employee for every 12 or 14 workers, Nulton said. The smaller ratio provides workers with more one-on-one training and supervision.

New Option Dayhab has two different programs for its workers. One is the manufacturing and production of fishing equipment, including lures, tackle and bobbers. The other is an office program, where workers scan, copy and shred documents, send e-mails and perform other office tasks.

Tim Echemann, owner/broker with Sidney-based Industrial Property Brokers, brokered the deal. The space had been empty for nearly fours years, since Piqua Engineering left.

Echemann said aside from location, the building offered the right mix of space for New Option.

“It has industrial space, it has room for computer and office work; it’s exactly what they need there,” Echemann said.

New Option started about three years ago in the Sandusky area. After a Shelby County competitor shut down and left a large number of individuals out of work, Nulton decided to open the Wapakoneta location, serving Shelby, Auglaize and Logan counties. In July, competitors in Miami County announced they were closing down, so again, Nulton saw the opportunity to provide work to those unemployed disabled workers.

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