CRL breaks ground on 310,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in California

C.R. Laurence Co., Los Angeles, broke ground today [Aug. 18] on a 310,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Vernon, Calif., according to a release.Eleven acres of land on 55th Street were prepared for the facility, which is estimated to be complete in February 2011.The mayor of Vernon, Hilario Gonzales, participated along with members of the Vernon City Council, the city manager and other dignitaries.

“With this new manufacturing facility, CRL will have close to 1,000,000 square feet of office, distribution, and manufacturing operations in Vernon," said Donald E. Friese, CRL’s chairman and CEO, in the release.“This past year has been marked with tremendous growth for CRL. CRL of Europe recently completed the construction of our new 75,000-square-foot headquarters near Manchester, England, and is now serving customers from this location. We also completed and moved into our new 65,000-square-foot facility at 2450 Vernon Ave., across the street from our headquarters complex. This facility houses the manufacturing operations of our newly acquired Jackson Manufacturing and Blumcraft of Pittsburgh companies.”

The new manufacturing facility is intended to house new growth as CRL expands its manufacturing operations and product lines, Friese said in the release. "Our 38th Street manufacturing facility will continue to be fully operational."

Tilt-up panel construction will be used for the new manufacturing structure.Oltmans Construction, Whittier, Calif., is the contractor and also was responsible for the construction of CRL’s new Vernon Avenue facility.The project architect is RGA Office of Architectural Design, Irvine, Calif.

C.R. Laurence has manufacturing operations in Cicero, Ill.; England; and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.