JACKSONVILLE, FL – Elkins Construction has been selected by Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc., to serve as the construction manager for the company’s new bakery facility in Valdosta, GA.
When completed in September 2008, the 168,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution plant will house state-of-the-art equipment producing a combination of the company’s famous potato bread and rolls for distribution throughout the Southeast. Martin’s continues to distribute its line of potato roll and bread products up and down the East Coast. Their current and only location in Pennsylvania forces their drivers to travel 1,100 miles one way to deliver their product to the Georgia and Florida markets. The new facility will alleviate the long haul, and adds a new industry to the Valdosta-Lowndes County area.
“We are proud to have been selected to construct this important addition to the Valdosta business and industrial community,” said Gordon Steadman, Vice President of Development for Elkins and an alumnus of Valdosta State University. The facility will be located on a 40-acre site near Interstate 75 at Exit 13 in Lowndes County.
The family owned and operated company remains headquartered in Chambersburg, PA, where it began in 1957 in the kitchen of the Martin home located in the heart of “Pennsylvania Dutch” country. Using a recipe that had been handed down through generations, their potato rolls’ popularity steadily increased over the company’s first 20 years, compelling the family in 1978 to move the bakery from the family’s restaurant into a production plant, where Martin’s continues to do business today.
To celebrate the new project, Elkins employees threw a “Big Marty Party,” named after Martin’s Famous “Big Marty” rolls. Close to 60 Elkins employees sampled the bakery’s products served up with pulled pork, hot dogs and barbecue chicken.
“These are the best rolls in the world. We ate them regularly when I lived up North. I am so excited that I’ll be able to buy them down here,” said Elkins Preconstruction Services Assistant Jordan Lewis, who took a package of the rolls home from work. “For breakfast tomorrow,” she said, smiling.
Headquartered in downtown Jacksonville, FL, Elkins Construction is a privately held construction firm serving clients with construction management, design/build and general contracting needs throughout the Southeast since 1955.