PEABODY – The City’s Planning Board met Thursday for a building permit plan review, one of which was for 5 Fifth Street, which is where Bertolino Foods is located.
Since his family owns the property where Bertolino Foods resides, Dave Harrison submitted the building permit application and presented on the topic during Thursday’s meeting. Harrison said that since Bertolino Foods moved into the facility at 5 Fifth Street in 2016, the “growth has been tremendous.”
According to Harrison, Bertolino Foods CEO Leo Bertolino’s sole goal is to hire more people, and he needs to increase the size of his facilities in order to accommodate that.
Harrison emphasized that Bertolino Foods’ products are now sold coast to coast. He added that Bertolino Foods currently has almost 180 employees and 50 additional temporary employees, but Bertolino Foods is hoping to add about 50 more employees over the next few years.
Harrison’s application states that he is “proposing for the additional office space to be a class A, 60-foot by 125-foot, 2-story office space with a total square footage of both floors measuring ±15,000 square feet.”
This additional office space will serve as Bertolino Foods’ new corporate headquarters, and it will be attached to the existing structure on the south-east corner. There will be a green space left between the current and new structures, and the new addition will be built on a level lawn and parking lot.
Since the Department of Public Services had not yet reviewed the project, the Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the application, although that motion was conditional on a favorable DPS review of the project.
