Andersen Plastics Inc., a blow molder of milk jugs in Battle Ground, Wash., recently bought a $1.1 million industrial site in nearby Brush Prairie, Wash., for a planned expansion of its manufacturing capacity.
The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash., reported July 3 that Andersen — a spin-off of Andersen Dairy Inc. of Battle Ground that opened in 1987 — chose for its new plant a 5.2-acre site with a 12,000-square-foot building that formerly was a livestock-feed store.
Andersen Plastics officials did not return calls seeking comment. According to the newspaper, the Andersen companies employ 230 in Battle Ground.
Andersen Plastics is literally caught in the middle of a city project to connect separate sections of Grace Avenue, a north-south street on Battle Ground's east side, according to recent reports in the Columbian and the Vancouver Business Journal. Andersen Plastics' current facility is at the intersection of the avenue's north section and Main Street, inside a long curved stretch of road that follows adjacent railroad tracks.
According to the newspapers, the city plans to build a new section of Grace Avenue to connect and shorten the distance between the north and south ends that would run directly through Andersen Plastics' property.
In a July 28 telephone interview, city spokeswoman Bonnie Gilberti said that although the road project has been granted $1.7 million in federal funds — and could get another $1 million if a proposed Senate spending bill is approved — construction of the new extension will not begin until 2012. The city has not decided to seize the Andersen property through eminent domain, she said.
“With [the company's] talk of expansion and the city's need to fix an intersection that causes a lot of [traffic] problems, there's still some discussion that needs to occur. Nothing is set in stone yet,” she said.
According to the Business Journal's June 4 story, Andersen Plastics officials said the Grace Avenue plant employs 40, and an expansion could add 30 workers to the company's payroll.
The story said that if the company and city fail to reach agreement on another Battle Ground manufacturing site, Andersen Plastics could relocate all of its operations to the Brush Prairie site.