A company which makes ice cream and other frozen desserts plans to open a production facility with more than 90 jobs in Cudahy.
Hinsdale, Illinois-based OakBridge Foods LLC is planning the operation for a newly constructed light industrial building at 5404 S. Pennsylvania Ave., just east of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.
OakBridge Foods is seeking a $6 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation to help finance the $13.1 million development. Those funds would pay for equipment purchase and working capital.
That’s according to a report from First-Ring Industrial Redevelopment Enterprise Inc.
The nonprofit group, known as FIRE, is to review the proposed tax credit allocation at its May 5 board meeting, according to the meeting agenda.
New Market Tax Credits help finance new commercial buildings in lower-income neighborhoods. Those tax credits are provided to various groups by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The 50,000-square-foot facility “will address the current shortage in ice cream production capacity and take advantage of the opportunity created by existing supply constraints, along with the anticipated growth in the ice cream market,” according to the FIRE report.
The operation will “focus on serving middle-market ice cream brands that rely on dependable co-packing partnerships for their production, as well as national brands and supermarkets that outsource their manufacturing,” the report said.
It’s expected to have 92 full-time employees.
OakBridge Foods’ principals include two former owners of Chicago-based Al Gelato, which made products for six different ice cream brands, the report said.
Those included Uncle Harry’s ice cream cakes. OakBridge’s principals include former Uncle Harry’s senior managers.
The 61,400-square-foot Cudahy building was recently completed on a speculative basis by Land By Label Development Co., according to its listing with Cushman & Wakefield/Boerke Co. commercial real estate brokerage.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ice cream making facility with more than 90 jobs planned for Cudahy
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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