John F. Martin & Sons will bring the bacon home to Womelsdorf
Reading Eagle
A meat-processing company is renovating the former Valley Forge Flag Co. building in Womelsdorf.
After sitting vacant for years, the former Valley Forge Flag Co. building is getting an extreme makeover.
To transform the building into a bacon factory for John F. Martin & Sons, construction crews started by removing the walls of the steel-frame building and placing hydraulic lifts by each of the roof columns. One morning they lifted the roof a foot an hour. By the end of the day they had raised that section of the roof seven feet.
The roof raising was key in renovating the Womelsdorf flag factory and making space for tall equipment, high stacks for storage and larger HVAC units.
The company doesn’t slaughter but processes the meat in an 83,000 square-foot plant in a rural, agricultural area in northern Lancaster County. When looking for a new site to increase production, management wanted a property with better access for delivery trucks, yet not too far away from the main plant.
Martin found the 190,000-square-foot building in Womelsdorf and liked it after a first walk-through. It’s about 12 miles from Stevens, right along Route 422.
“It has sufficient land there,” he said. “It gives us the potential for expansion and growth.”
Martin management worried the building wouldn’t work because the roof was too low for its equipment and refrigeration. It also wasn’t a food-production space, so a total renovation was necessary.
Crews first raised the roof in a production area from 13 feet to 20 feet. Next, they’ll lift the roof in a storage and warehouse area from 17 feet to 30 feet in two phases.
Martin chose to renovate the property instead of building new to re-use the space and save money.
Renovating also saves time.
“Everything’s a better schedule when you’re working with an existing building,” Echternach said.
Locally, there’s a trend to reuse older industrial building instead of building new, said Jim Adams, a senior agent at ReMax of Reading in Spring Township, who handles industrial, commercial and retail real estate.
“Building new is probably the last resort,” Adams said. “I don’t think it’s fiscally driven, but timeline driven.”
Going through the land-development and permitting process for a new building is a challenge and can be off-putting for businesses. Renovations still need to comply with construction codes but can be much simpler, Adams said.
Companies usually look for properties with good access to highways, high ceilings and loading docks. However, some older buildings can be inefficient with space spread over several floors, for example.
The renovation started in mid-July, and Martin expects the plant to be finished in the first quarter of 2014. The company received financing assistance through tax-exempt bonds of up to $7 million from Berks County Industrial Development Authority for the $10.3 million project.
Martin will move its bacon production to a portion of the building and add a fourth slicing line. About 35 employees will relocate there, and an additional 10 to 15 jobs will be added, Martin said.
The move will allow ham production to increase at the Stevens site.
Later, Martin expects to move distribution to the Womelsdorf plant, with the potential to employ 100 there.
“We’re excited about the project,” Martin said. “We’re excited to get in there and get started being part of the town there.”
Contact Erin Negley: 610-371-5047 or enegley@readingeagle.com .
