GLASS WAREHOUSE.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

More than a decade ago, the sprawling plant at 1400 Cross St., on the western boundary of the Whiteaker neighborhood, churned out pound upon pound of Chef Francisco frozen soup.

Today, except for the Chef Francisco sign on the south side of the building, little remains to remind passers-by that the site was once a thriving food processor filled with hundreds of smocked and hairnetted workers.

In its latest incarnation, the building serves primarily as warehouse space for Coach Glass, a Eugene-based supplier of oversize windshields for recreational vehicles. Hundreds of crates of the jumbo glass panels are stacked high in the building's former freezer section.

The building's metamorphosis from manufacturing space to warehouse illustrates both the decline in Lane County's food processing industry in the late '90s and also the current shortage of large warehouse spaces.

Chef Francisco's parent company H.J. Heinz Co. shut the Eugene plant in 1995, laid off its 215 employees, and shifted soup production to a factory in Pennsylvania.

Industry employment slumped from 1,917 workers in 1994 to 1,575 workers in 2000, then lost an additional 100 jobs in 2001 when Agripac's vegetable processing plant - the site of the new federal courthouse - closed, said Brian Rooney, a labor economist with the Oregon Employment Department.

Since then, employment in the industry has stabilized, supported by a range of growing natural and organic food producers, such as cereal maker Golden Temple, yogurt maker Springfield Creamery and salsa maker Emerald Valley Kitchen.

Average annual employment in food processing was 1,201 workers in 2004 - the latest data available - compared with 4,000 to 5,000 workers in each of the county's largest manufacturing sectors: wood products and transportation equipment, Rooney said.

Even though the former Chef Francisco building might be considered underutilized, it provides needed affordable warehouse space, real estate sources say.

"It serves an important niche in the market," said Jeff Elder, a Eugene commercial broker. "There's a need for warehouse space at this price."

John Tokatly, the building's owner, said the price of warehouse space in the building varies depending on the size of space and what kind of product is being stored.

Elder said similar-type space leases for about 25 cents a square foot, compared with up to 50 cents a square foot for new, state-of-the-art warehouse space.

Eventually, a food manufacturer could reclaim the building, he said.

"If the building was vacant now and time wasn't an issue to refill it, I think there's definitely a demand for that type of space by food-related producers," Elder said.

The trick, though, is one of timing, said Jack Roberts, executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, a business recruitment agency.

"The timing has to be just right," Roberts said. "There has to be someone ready to move in at that level."

Although some local food-processing companies are expanding, they aren't ready for a space that big, and the site doesn't lend itself well to be split up to house multiple manufacturers, real estate sources say.

The building, parts of which date to the 1940s, was designed for a single manufacturer, Elder said. It has just one loading dock, for example, to serve the entire 126,000-square-foot building.

Today, Tokatly uses about two-thirds of the building for his company, Coach Glass.

The space isn't a perfect fit for Tokatly's business, either.

"We made it work for us," Tokatly said. "It was not ideal, but it was available."

Tokatly said he would prefer a site on Interstate 5 with freeway exposure, but so far hasn't been able to find one.

"There's a shortage of the size of warehouse space that Coach Glass wants," Roberts said.

Coach Glass started leasing warehouse space in the former Chef Francisco building in 1997, and gradually increased its presence there.

Tokatly said that after several years of leasing, he did the math and figured it was cheaper to buy the building than to continue to rent space in it.

A company controlled by Tokatly's brother bought the building on Dec. 1, 2000, for $1.65 million from Dan and Ursula Chamness, according to Lane County property records. Tokatly said he later bought out his brother.

Coach Glass uses most of the building. The rest is leased to a handful of tenants, including storage for La-Z-Boy Furniture and Grain Millers, and a showroom and offices for Sew-On Embroidery, a business specializing in embroidered garments for corporations and resorts. Sew-on renovated about 9,000 square feet that used to be Chef Francisco's test kitchen.

The space works well for the business, said Ted Norman, Sew-On Embroidery co-owner.

"The size of our clients is fairly large, so they're able to come to see us, and where we're located doesn't really matter," he said. "Outside it just looks like a warehouse, but inside, we have set up a really nice showroom."

Coach Glass, which supplies glass shops, RV dealers and some RV manufacturers, expects its growth to piggyback on that of the RV industry.

Local fluctuations in sales by RV manufacturers don't have much impact on Coach Glass' business, Tokatly said. About 80 percent of the company's business is supplying aftermarket replacement glass.

That's a sizeable market, with an estimated 8.2 million RVs on the nation's roads, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.

Tokatly, who learned the auto glass trade from his father in Beirut, Lebanon, moved to Eugene 18 years ago and founded A-1 Auto Glass, which has stores in Eugene and Corvallis.

A-1 did work for the huge Junction City-based Guaranty RV dealer and in the early '90s, and began to increase its inventory of windshields for RVs.

It keeps about 35,000 windshields in stock, Tokatly said.

"It was a natural just being in the glass business and there was demand for this specialty product," Tokatly said.

COACH GLASS

Main user of the former Chef Francisco building in Eugene's Whiteaker neighborhood

Business: Supplies RV windshields to glass shops, manufacturers and dealers

Locations: 1400 Cross St., Eugene; Indiana, Florida and Arizona

Employees: 23 in Eugene; plus nine at other locations

Financials: Not disclosed; privately held company

CAPTION(S):

Coach Glass employee Dave Santopietro prepares a windshield for an RV at the Coach Glass distribution center in the old Chef Francisco building. Coach Glass uses part of the former Chef Francisco food processing plant; other businesses share the space.