SKALLY'S OLD WORLD BAKERY
What: Makes bagels and pita bread for its brand and as third party supplier
Main facility: 1933 West Galbraith Rd., North College Hill
Phone: 513-931-3560
Owner: Family-owned
Website: www.oldworldbakery.com
Mass production of bagels and pita bread could be coming soon to Liberty Twp. if Skally’s Old World Bakery of North College Hill obtains a zoning change and chooses a site in the township to expand, said the project’s developer.
Old World Bakery makes bread products for sale under its brand name and is also a third-party supplier for private label brands, said Stephanie Kuhlman, a commercial realtor for Industrial Developers Ltd., which is managing the company’s site selection and construction process. The family-owned business has run out of space to meet demand at its current 42,000-square-foot facility on West Galbraith Road, Kuhlman said.
Proposals are to build a nearly 400,000-square-foot bakery manufacturing plant on about 50 acres adjacent to Interstate 75 and Millikin Road, according to site plans submitted to Liberty Twp. Operations would start with about 60 employees and climb to about 200 within three to five years as production lines are added, she said.
“Their business model is growing. They’ve had other distributors that want them to make their product, and they’re just out of room,” Kuhlman said.
“They can’t take on any more business and they can’t grow until they get a new building.”
Currently, Old World Bakery, founded in 1977, has about 100 employees. When both production lines run at full capacity, the company forms, bakes and packages 24,000 bagels and 10,000 loaves of pita bread every hour, according to its website, oldworldbakery.com.
Over the last year or so, Old World Bakery has been looking for a second location to build a larger, modern bakery factory and has narrowed its choices down to four sites: Hamilton County, Indiana, and two sites in Butler County — one in Liberty Twp. off Millikin Road at land owned by Liberty Heights Church and another one that she declined to name. The College Hill location would remain open, and could become a research and development facility, she said.
The company likes the Liberty Twp. location, but it must obtain zoning changes before a final site decision is made, she said.
The township’s long-range plan calls for the area to be used for light manufacturing and office uses, but the property Old World has in mind is currently zoned for agriculture, said David Fehr, Butler County’s director of development.
After plans were presented on July 14 to Butler County Planning Commission, the board recommended changing the zoning with some conditions to business planned unit development, which would allow for the commercial activity, Fehr said.
But before construction can proceed, Old World still has to get approvals from Liberty Twp.’s Zoning Commission, which is scheduled to meet next on Aug. 3, and from township trustees, he said.
“They’ve spent quite a bit of money on engineering and the zone change application so I would say they’re pretty serious about this site,” he said. “I’m not seeing any roadblocks.”
The public can provide input at the zoning commission meeting and when township trustees hold a public hearing, which is likely to be in September, according to the local government.
The food maker is also comparing tax breaks and incentives offered at the other locations in the running as it adds up the costs to make the investment. And the Millikin Road Liberty Twp. site needs infrastructure improvements while other locations are ready to build on, Kuhlman said.
If the plans move forward to build in Liberty Twp., the company would add to the township’s growing business base — feeding higher property tax revenues to Lakota Local Schools — and open near a potential new highway exit in the works.
Currently under construction in the area of Liberty Twp.'s Liberty Way interchange with I-75 is the $350 million Liberty Center retail complex, set to open in October. The Christ Hospital Health Network also plans to build a new medical center with emergency services east of the exit. Cincinnati Children's is expanding its Liberty Campus and commercial real estate firm Midland Retail is currently building a new shopping center along Cincinnati-Dayton Road to house Chipotle and other tenants.
The township is working towards adding a new I-75 interchange at Millikin Road, but those plans are still in early stages.
Economic impact studies of a new exit still need to be conducted. The township also needs to line up funding for the project. But if a new exit was built, it could open up another 1,200 acres for development, said township trustee Christine Matacic.
Not only would the proposed Old World Bakery expansion be located next to where the future interchange could open, it also sit next to where a proposed extension of Cox Road would go if those long-term plans move forward as well, according to the building drawings.
“I think for future commercial growth, we’re going to need Millikin interchange,” Matacic said.
Staff Writer Eric Schwartzberg contributed to this report
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