Construction of a large industrial warehouse could soon be underway on a vacant Dove Street site owned by the city of Port Huron and recently OK’d for sale to a Canadian aerosol manufacturer.

The city’s planning commission signed off on site plans last Tuesday for a new 80,000-square-foot facility with 38 parking spaces and truck docks at 2831 Dove St. for the company Empack Spraytech Inc.

Although plans included building the whole facility upfront, representatives told Port Huron officials it could be a while before any major production picks up.

Architect Leroy Stevens said they’ve done the layout for the site, leaving room for future growth. But he said they haven’t gotten into all of the engineering or building designs of the facility. He called it a good fit for the industrial park overall.

“It’s important to know that this isn’t a speculative building. They’re building it for their own use, and they have a company in Ontario that’s been in business for 25 years. So, it’s family owned,” Stevens said. “… They’re looking to expand into Michigan. I think it’s a great opportunity for our community to have a business moving in.”

City Manager James Freed announced to City Council members earlier this year that they were clawing back the eight-acre parcel on Dove from a previous buyer after plans for a 100,000-square-foot spec building fell short.

That was a $164,600 purchase in December 2022. The property is currently still listed under the city’s ownership, though a $177,100 buy from Empack was approved by council in March this year.

At the time, Freed had indicated the company’s impact would prove a “significant development” with a building investment in the millions and new jobs to the area.

Some of those details, however, remain unannounced.

Ara Nalbandian, a vice president for Empack, was the signatory on that deal and also appeared before planning commissioners on Tuesday.

Planning Director David Haynes asked what sort of customers Empack would be working with in Michigan.

Nalbandian said they were cautious about sharing specifics because of non-disclosure agreements, but that it would be “a lot of global” names.

“Our company produces consumer and industrial goods, which include aerosols, lotions, creams. It could be automotive, industrial, and personal care products,” he said. “This facility will most likely be focused more on automotive and industrial (work) and other products.”

In addition to the warehouse itself, which would be structural steel, site plans show two truck wells and lanes — one set as proposed and another for the future — as well as a future retaining pond.

It also shows room for more parking as they grow.

Stevens emphasized leaving room for future expansion within the building, laying the groundwork as a distribution site with a few employees and bringing in products from Ontario before improving capacity.

“That’s why we’re really saying we need space to increase the parking as that happens,” he said. “But that’s probably over the next several years, not in a week. But I’ve worked with plans like this. It’s kind of amazing. Let’s just order a line. So, if you want to slice tomatoes, you order a line that takes a year, year and a half to get that line. So, we’ll start with a few things and grow. But we want to put up the whole building so we have it for storage and expanding easy inside.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: City green-lights site plans for Canadian manufacturer's massive warehouse