click to enlarge - Courtesy of Champlain Consulting Engineers
- An overhead shot of the Rhino building and the space for the proposed addition
Rhino Foods, the company that makes the cookie dough used by Ben & Jerry’s and other ice cream companies, has applied to more than double the size of its Burlington manufacturing space.
The company is seeking permission to build a 65,000-square-foot addition to its existing 44,000-square-foot plant on Queen City Park Road in the city’s South End. Plans also show new truck loading docks. The addition would cost about $10 million, according to the company’s application to the Burlington Design Advisory Board.
Rhino Foods, a family-owned company that started in the 1980s, has grown rapidly in the past few years. During a May presentation to the Ward 5 Neighborhood Planning Assembly, Martin Courcelle of Champlain Consulting Engineers said revenues from 2017 to 2022 had doubled, from $30 million to $60 million. Employment grew from 98 in 2015 to 204 in 2022, according to the presentation. The company expects to hire more than 40 additional employees as part of the project.
If Rhino Foods receives all of the necessary approvals, it expects to start construction in spring 2024 and complete the project in 2025.
The facility is across the street from the headquarters of Burton Snowboards, which has been working for four years to create a music venue with Higher Ground in its unused warehouse space. But neighbors have fought the plan, saying it would attract noise and unwanted traffic to nearby residential areas.
Rhino could also face some neighborhood opposition. On June 19, Susan Mason Lazarev, who lives in a nearby condo,
started an online petition asking Rhino to use electricity instead of diesel to power the refrigerated trucks that will be parked at the addition.
“As a B-Corp, they have a certified code of conduct to be a responsible and sustainable business that cares about people, the community and the environment,” Mason Lazarev wrote.
“Idling diesel trucks at the loading bays is not only noisy and disruptive to residential neighbors but also contributes to air pollution and carbon emissions.”
Rhino’s president and CEO, Rooney Castle, did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday.