CLEVELAND — Orlando Baking Company is expanding with a new refrigerated warehouse next to its facility in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood along Opportunity Corridor.
On Monday night, the council authorized the city to vacate portions of streets in the area of Rawlings Avenue between East 71st Street and East 79th Street for the warehouse project.
The cold storage warehouse, which will be located at Opportunity Corridor and East 77th Street, will employ 70 workers. The current Orlando Baking Co. has been operating in the neighborhood for decades and employs over 300 people.
The company traces its roots back to a bakery with the same name which opened in Italy in 1872.
In Cleveland, though, the bakery started as a small retail bakery in 1906. Through expansion and steady growth, the company, which had considered relocating to the suburbs, instead made a commitment to stay in the inner city, according to Case Western Reserve University.
In November 2021, city council approved the sale of 17 acres next to the Orlando facility.
The initial commercial freezer will be approximately 150,000 square feet, of which Orlando will operate in about 50,000 square feet. The remainder will be leased out to commercial food companies in and around Cleveland. The total cost of the project is estimated at $31.6 million.
"They have been expanding in place for years and are bursting at the seams, while renting cold storage in other cities," city council said last year when it passed legislation for the warehouse.
It’s a project Cleveland City Council hopes will attract food processing companies seeking cold storage as well as foster future projects and developments along the corridor.
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