They're already planning a company outing to Fifth Third Park this summer at Sun Coast Packaging of Sodus, and for employees of their Grand Rapids division they could practically walk to the game thanks to the company's newest acquisition. The Sodus-based specialty bag and packaging provider now has a new anchor position for their northern tier having closed on a deal to purchase a building virtually in the shadows of Fifth Third Ball Park in Comstock Park north of Grand Rapids.
Company President Fred Grams tells me that when Sun Coast Packaging acquired Shapiro Packaging last September, they weren't certain where the Shapiro employees would land because the building they had been leasing had been sold, leaving them just nine months to find an alternative.
He says his crew had eye-balled two options around the Grand Rapids market as leasing options, and in the final stages he took his wife, Anita, along to make a final run-through and ultimately the decision. He says he was almost certain and ready to sign, but Anita wanted to look at the alternative at 4211 Division Avenue in Comstock Park first. One look and she was convinced that the Division Avenue site was superior in every way. As negotiations advanced, the OPMA Properties building was offered for sale as an option to leasing and they sealed the deal.
Chip Bowling of X Ventures, a Grand Rapids-based commercial brokerage negotiated the deal for Sun Coast with the team from NAI Wisinski of West Michigan, representing OPMA Properties.
Sun Coast now owns the 9,333 square foot building in Comstock Park, a couple of blocks from the minor league baseball park along US-131.
Grams says there are currently four people working out of Comstock Park with plans to hire a fifth in the coming weeks, while the Sodus headquarters building is host to 26 employees for the growing company.
Sun Coast Packaging is a privately held, family-owned company that moved operations to Sodus a couple of years ago from their birthplace in downtown Baroda, expanding at that point from some 5,000 square feet to more than 300,000 square feet at 4125 Pipestone Road in Sodus. They also have warehouse operations elsewhere in Michigan as well as in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mississippi and Oregon.
The company provides bags and packaging for multiple industries including food industry products for dairy, flour, sugar, spices, batter mix, and nutritional additives…the horticulture industry for potting soil and peat moss…the chemical industry…the landscaping industry for decorative rock & stone packaging, mulch and more…even municipalities for lawn and leaf bags and sand bags for flood control. Additionally, they work extensively in the pet and animal food industries, feed & seed applications, beans, grains, and more. Other uses for Sun Coast materials are metal and foundry businesses, plastics, polypropylene and polyethelene resins, fertilizer sellers and the like.
Sun Coast acquired Shapiro last fall to add to the product line-up. Shapiro has been an expert in polypropylene woven bags, produce bags for the food industry, and many products for the retail packaging industry from shipping bags to packaging containers for medicine and food.
As was the case in the purchase of Shapiro last fall, terms of the deal for the Comstock Park office complex were not disclosed.
Learn more about Sun Coast and their expertise by clicking the link below to their website:
