By Brandi Makuski

City plan commissioners on Monday gave a unanimous thumbs-up for Service Cold Storage to nearly double its size in the East Park Commerce Center.

The company, which broke ground on its business park location in 2013, will almost double in size, adding 97,333 square-feet to its 168,000-square-foot facility in a planned second phase of development.

“Because it’s zoned [as] planned industrial development district, any improvements are required to come before you,” Michael Ostrowski told the commission. Ostrowski, the city’s community development director, who added a third expansion is also possible on the site.

Service Cold Storage CEO and President Les Dobbe called the city a “great partner” to work with, but also added, “I hope we have some company in the business park soon,” making reference to the multiple as-of-yet-unfilled sites in East Park Commerce Center.

The cold storage warehouse facility is located at 5700 E.M. Copps Drive.

Dobbe said the expansion came earlier than planned, but is due to a need for additional frozen food space in the prepared food market, which he said is growing faster than the space available in frozen food storage companies.

“Right now, in the prepared food space, and the raw commodities space for frozen foods, frozen foods are growing at about three-and-a-half percent a year, and there’s a lag for accommodation in that frozen food space — I think expansion in the United States is at about one-and-a-half percent a year,” Dobbe said. “So you have a gap in the amount of available space and the amount of new foods that are being produced in that area.”

Service Cold Storage broke ground on the site in 2013 with plans to construct to the east. With the city’s approval, construction will begin on the addition at some point over the next five weeks, according to Dobbe.

Dobbe said his company has about 30 employees but plans to add 10 more with the expansion. The construction should be complete by October, he added.