Two large, Tualatin-based employers are looking to relocate their operations to Canby, as the industrial park in southwest Canby continues to develop: Stanton Furniture and Caruso Produce.
As Canby Economic Development Director Jamie Stickel explained during last week’s city council meeting, both companies have been working with the city for months now.
Caruso Produce is the smaller of the two and is scheduled to go before the planning commission first. Caruso Produce, is a third generation, family owned company that sources fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world and distributes them to local stores and vendors.
The company grew into one of the region’s top wholesalers under president Joe Caruso, whose father and uncles had founded the company in 1945. In 2015, Joe passed the reins to his son, Sam Caruso.
According to documents filed with the city planning department, Caruso hopes to build a new, 95,000 square foot warehouse and company headquarters on a 10-acre parcel in the Canby Pioneer Industrial Park on Sequoia Parkway, just south of Dragonberry Produce.
Primary access will be two 50 foot driveways on SE Fourth Avenue, a portion of which the developer would be expected to improve to city standards as a condition of the project’s approval.
The company says they are looking to relocate after outgrowing their current facility in Tualatin. In planning documents, they describe their new home in Canby as, quote, a “new, state-of-the-art produce distribution facility … containing a combination of cooler storage,
conditioned warehouse staging and loading areas along with an accessory office space to house 100 percent of the Caruso operations.”
The facility would house approximately 70 employees, divided between three shifts. It is expected to operate 24 hours a day.
The project is scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Dec. 23.
The second company is Stanton Furniture, an Oregon-based manufacturer of high quality sofas, sectionals, pull out couches, chairs and recliners that come with a lifetime warranty.
Though they have not yet filed their final site design review application with the city, pre-app information provided to the Canby Now Podcast indicates their plans to construct a 150,000 square foot facility on nearby property that fronts Mulino and SE Township Road.
They hope to relocate the entirety of their operations from Tualatin, along with their approximately 300 employees working day and night shifts. This project is expected to come before planning on Jan. 13.