Eastpointe approves development district to help Winter’s Sausage expansion plans

EASTPOINTE — At a recent Eastpointe City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously to establish an industrial development district to allow for a longtime local business to expand.

Winter's Sausage Manufacturing Co., which has been located at 22011 Gratiot Ave. in Eastpointe since 1951, submitted a notice of intention to file an application for the establishment of an industrial development district/plant rehabilitation district. The notice states the company intends to expand its facility in a two-phase project, which will create new jobs and retain 65 more. The company said the district will help it in its eventual goal of securing an industrial facilities tax exemption certificate for its real property investments.

“Winter’s Sausage is an Eastpointe family-owned business that’s been in operation since 1951, and it is one of the only large industrial employers that we have in our city,” said Ian McCain, Eastpointe’s economic development manager, at City Council’s July 16 meeting.

McCain said that even though other cities have attempted to convince them to relocate, the company has stayed in Eastpointe and has “given back to the community on numerous occasions over the years.”

Greg VanHazenbrouck, the company’s vice president, said the two-stage plans involve adding onto the existing building.

“What we’re doing is we are attaching to the existing building itself. We are putting on a refrigerated facility, production space, floor space,” he said.

The project is being completed in two stages due to DTE Energy doing what VanHazenbrouck called “an underground reattachment on power.”

“We don’t have the quote for that, so that is forcing our hand to do stage one, which we can actually start building half of the addition and hopefully (be) using it before DTE would even have the quote ready to go,” he said.

VanHazenbrouck mentioned the expansion would involve relocating some of the existing power poles along Gratiot Avenue.

“We have to get moving on the addition because our business has grown to a point where we’re running out of space,” he said.

According to VanHazenbrouck, Winter's Sausage purchases beef, pork, chicken and turkey meat and processes it into different products including hot dogs, bratwurst, knockwurst, Slovenian and Italian sausages, and more. He said he expects each stage of the project to bring on seven additional jobs, or 14 total.

“We have a great customer base. We have a good volume of business right now,” VanHazenbrouck said. “And the volume, of course, we pretty much exceeded it throughout the summer months here. … Without the expansion we are a stagnant company, which is very, very good right now, but there’s no more room for further growth.”

Before council voted on the motion, Council member Harvey Curley — the only council member to speak about the motion — asked VanHazenbrouck if the landmark cow statue would remain on top of the building.

“We fully intend to do that,” said VanHazenbrouck.

“Thank God,” Curley said. “People drive into Eastpointe from Detroit and if they don’t see that cow, they won’t know what city they’re in.”

Before the company’s plans to rezone the district came to council at the July 16 meeting, a public comment portion was held to give residents the opportunity to voice their concerns about and support for the company. Due to some confusion, the residents spoke regarding renewing the company’s business license, not the development plans, despite Eastpointe Mayor Michael Klinefelt’s attempt to clarify.

“That whole conversation — we’re not talking about if the business gets a license or not, or if we’re going to allow them to continue operating or stop them operating,” City Council member Cardi DeMonaco Jr. explained.