J.J. McDonnell & Co., a Maryland distributor of seafood, is moving to a new and bigger plant in Elkridge this month, more than doubling its footprint as it plans for growth.
The 62,000-square-foot facility at 7010 Brookdale Drive in Elkridge, Maryland will allow the firm to add new products and increase its processing and "value-added" goods, such as marinated fish, said J.J. McDonnell owner George McManus.
The firm was renting about 25,000 square feet in the seafood market at the Maryland Food Center in Jessup, its base for more than 30 years. But the location couldn't keep up with changing safety and cleanliness standards, McManus said.
"We want to be in the food business for the next 20 or 30 years like we have been and … the building where we were was not capable at all," he said. "In a sense we had no choice."
McManus started at the company as a truck driver while attending Loyola University of Maryland and bought the business in 1986, when it had just eight employees and four trucks. Today the firm has 26 trucks and employs 130 people, bringing on 30 in the last two years as it expanded its territory.
McManus declined to say how much he had invested in the new refrigerated plant, but broker John Wilhide, a senior vice president at CBRE, said leasing a warehouse before it was complete made it easier — and cheaper — to outfit it to J.J. McDonnell's requirements. The building will house the firm's warehouse, distribution center and corporate offices and has a 15-year lease.