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Spitz facility up for sale in Bow Island

Aug 7, 2018 | 11:09 AM

BOW ISLAND — Employees at the Spitz Sunflower Seed Factory worked their last day earlier this month and the site has officially been listed for sale.

PepsiCo announced in February they would be shutting down the Bow Island facility and more than 50 people would be out of work.

An official with the company said July 12th was the last full day of operations at the plant.

Since then, the listing has gone up, detailing the 22.88 acre property and everything on it which includes a warehouse, shop, cleaning and production plants and an office space. In total, there is more than 52,000 square feet of available space.

Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds said there was a lot of interest in the site when the initial announcement was made and inquires keep coming in.

He said he’s excited at the possibility of what could come to the town and added that at $2,000,000, it’s priced right. He’s confident it’ll move quickly.

“We’ve had people looking at doing something with wheat, we’ve had people looking at doing something with pulse crops. Of course lots wondering if the property be suitable for cannabis production, but quite a variety of ideas,” he said.

When the facility closed, it meant 53 people were suddenly without work but Reynolds said anyone who showed interest in the site was vocal about hiring back the former staff.

He said there is sometimes a concern that when a business locates to a smaller community, there won’t be enough people to make up the work force.

He said this isn’t the case with Bow Island and adds that if they aren’t in town yet, they will be soon.

“When a new business starts up, depending on the scale of it, they’re always looking for staff and in this case they’d be looking for people who’d be familiar with the facility, with the property and I think that makes that start up much easier, even if they are processing something else,” he said.

“We have a work force that’s pretty adaptable and actually somewhat mobile,” Reynolds added.

Reynolds said he and the County of 40 Mile are forwarding on any inquires on the property to the realtors.

In a statement, PepsiCo said “we’ve had lots of interest and we are optimistic that it will sell quickly”.