BLOCKVILLE – After nearly a year of anticipation, Empire Specialty Cheese Co., LLC is almost ready to begin production at the former AFA Foods facility in Blockville.

“Fifty jobs will be created right off the bat,” said Kevin Sanvidge, executive director for the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. “They’re investing a lot of money here and will start in bulk making mozzarella cheese and ricotta cheese.”

Empire owner Tony Caparco told the Chautauqua County Legislature in October 2013 of his plans to grow his current workforce of 45 employees to 200 within the next five years at the facility.

Founded in 2000, Empire currently operates a small facility in Conewango Valley with a partnership with the Amish, who provide Grade B milk for the company.

The building, which is close to 95,000 square feet in capacity, recently underwent $400,000 worth of floor renovations on 40,000 square feet of space.

“Hopefully, by the end of October they will be in hiring mode to start training the workforce and begin production in the fourth quarter,” Sanvidge said. “The floors are done and the equipment is coming in and being assembled as we speak.”

At the August meeting of the Chautauqua County Legislature, $616,000 in grants from the New York State Office of Community Renewal were approved to assist Empire in its establishment.

Empire had requested that the county apply for funding on its behalf to finance a portion of the cost of equipment and working capital required to establish operations.

Rich Dixon, chief financial officer of the IDA, added that the agency played a role in obtaining the grant funding.

“This is a prime example of where the Industrial Development Agency didn’t use any of its tax abatement powers,” he said. “We worked with Empire, and we continue to work with them on a weekly basis, but they’ll be paying the entire amount of sales and property taxes.”

Sanvidge said Empire plans to make the cheese in bulk and sell it to restaurants and local distributors and will continue a partnership with the Amish.

“They want to go into private label also and sell it to all forms of food distribution,” he said. “They’ll eventually go into many different types of cheese.”

Caparco and co-owner Jerry Matteis commended the Industrial Development Agency for their help in the matter when the announcement to move to Blockville was made in October 2013.

Prior to the cheese company purchasing the former AFA Foods building, a German company named saturn petcare inc. had bid on the building.

A number of issues prevented the company from transferring its manufacturing facility to Chautauqua County. Water supply was one of them, according to Bill Daly, former IDA director.

“It wasn’t just the fact of if they could get water – it was also the expense of water. They use a lot of water,” Daly said after the deal fell through in June 2013.

Sanvidge was appointed as director of the IDA in May after Daly resigned.

“One of the first things Sanvidge did when he got here was reach out to the German company to find out what happened,” Dixon said. “They said they weren’t coming to America. It wasn’t just here the water was not the only issue.”

Sanvidge added that, at the time, saturn had planned to manufacture dog food locally because of certain tariffs that had prevented the company from importing their product into America. Now, the tariffs have been lifted.

“Therefore, they’re going to manufacture it in Germany and bring it here,” Sanvidge said.

Additionally, a well has been drilled on the property for Empire, who is also working with the South and Center Sewer District.