WNT Table Talk Pies Expanding – September 21st, 2016
Category: Southgate Bakery
WNT Table Talk Pies Groundbreaking
WNT Table Talk Pies Groundbreaking – October 20th, 2016
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Sold out: Every available parcel in this once-vacant Massachusetts industrial park has been purchased
By Alban Murtishi, MassLive.com
on October 20, 2016 at 2:44 PM, updated October 20, 2016 at 3:17 PM
WORCESTER — A project 22 years, six months and some days in the making, the city of Worcester has finally sold all of the parcels available in what was once a South Worcester industrial wasteland.
“SWIP is done,” City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said.
Chacharone Properties, Advanced Machinery and Table Talk Pies have finalized deals to develop six parcels of land equivalent to about 95,000 square feet of new construction. The entire South Worcester Industrial Park is more than 200,000 square feet of land.
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James Chacharone, president of Chacharone Properties, announced at a groundbreaking for Table Talk Pies that he wants to construct a manufacturing building about 7,500 square feet on spec which he hopes to fill with an industrial tenant. Chacharone’s purchase was the last remaining parcel in the industrial park area.
Chacharone’s company is also building Table Talk Pies’ new, 50,000 square foot manufacturing plant, which will open in approximately six months.
Ground broken in Worcester for new Table Talk Pies building
By Aaron Nicodemus
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER — In six months or so, Table Talk Pies will have a new, modern manufacturing building in South Worcester.
Table Talk, which currently bakes 2 million 4-inch snack pies and 400,000 regular sized pies per week at its facility in Kelley Square, will occupy a new 50,000-square foot facility being built by a Worcester development firm, Chacharone Properties. Once built, the facility will employ 80 workers and crank out thousands of pies an hour.
“My only regret is that my father and grandfather can’t be here to witness this great day,” said Table Talk Pies owner Harry Kokkinis, who represents the third generation of his family to run the company. “Not only are we able to build the type of building that Table Talk needs to expand, but it’s also in the place we want to be. … Worcester is so important to us, it has given us so much.”
Table Talk was founded in 1924 by Greek immigrants Theodore Tonna, Mr. Kokkinis’ grandfather, and Angelo Cotsidas. After being sold in 1965 to Beechnut, the company changed hands several times before closing down in 1984. In 1986, Mr. Tonna’s son-in-law, Christo Cocaine (whose name had changed from the original Kokkinis) reopened Table Talk, focusing on selling snack pies to grocers and convenience stores. In 2016, the business is expected to earn nearly $100 million in sales, with 300 full-time and seasonal employees.
And now, Table Talk Pies will be able to keep growing in the city in which it was born.
Table Talk breaks ground on 1-million-pies-per-week facility
BY SAM BONACCI
10/20/2016
Harry Kokkinis, president of Table Talk Pies, said it was important to have this new Table Talk facility located in Worcester.
Table Talk Pies broke ground on a new manufacturing site in Worcester that will produce 1 million pies a week once it comes online.
The groundbreaking took place at the South Worcester Industrial Park on Thursday morning and was attended by numerous city officials, representatives of Table Talk as well as James Chacharone, founder of Worcester-based Chacharone Properties that is developing the site.
The Table Talk project covers the construction of a 50,000-square-foot modern industrial building set to be completed in approximately six months. The site will bring 30 jobs from the company’s existing facility on Water Street and create an additional 50 full-time jobs.
Table Talk Pies is a family business that was established in 1924. Harry Kokkinis, president of Table Talk Pies, said that the company spent four months looking for a proper site for the expanded manufacturing capacity and could not find an existing structure in Worcester.
The property’s construction is being handled by RP Masiello Inc. of Boylston, which has worked on eight other projects with Chacharone Properties.
Tax deals approved for Table Talk, Armory St. in South Worcester
By Nick Kotsopoulos
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER – The City Council Economic Development Committee Tuesday night endorsed a pair of tax-relief deals to facilitate the private redevelopment of three city-owned parcels in the South Worcester Industrial Park, including construction of a 50,000-square-foot industrial building for Table Talk Pies.
By a unanimous vote, the three-member committee approved a tax-increment financing deal for the redevelopment of parcels at 25 Southgate St. and 17 Southgate Place, which is where the $4.6 million Table Talk building will be constructed.
Table Talk will lease the building from the developer, Chacharone Properties LLC.
The committee also approved a so-called TIF agreement for a parcel at 65 Armory St., where the developer plans to construct an 8,000-square-foot building that will be marketed for lease.
Chacharone Properties is acquiring all three parcels from the city.
Approval of the tax-relief deals is considered key to the redevelopment of the properties. The committee’s recommendations will next go before the entire City Council for final approval.
Can Table Talk Pies’ expansion into this desolate South Worcester Industrial Park spark a return to industry for neighborhood? – MASS LIVE
By Melissa Hanson | mhanson@masslive.com
WORCESTER — The expansion of Table Talk Pies to the South Worcester Industrial Park could attract other businesses, creating jobs and bolstering the tax base, in an area of the city that has been inactive for years, officials said.
Table Talk is planning to lease a new building on Southgate Street, which will be constructed by Chacharone Properties, LLC, according to a letter from City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. to the City Council for its meeting on Tuesday.
Augustus in a phone interview on Friday afternoon said the Table Talk building will be the first new construction in the area.
The city worked to take down an old factory at the industrial park years ago, and tried to create parcels that were ready to develop, the city manager said.
Table Talk Pie Expanding
By Nick Kotsopoulos
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Sep 1, 2016 at 8:02 PM
Updated Sep 2, 2016 at 8:46 AM
WORCESTER – Table Talk Pies wants to expand its operations to a 50,000-square-foot industrial building to be constructed in the South Worcester Industrial Park.
With a workforce of 300 people at its Worcester headquarters at Kelley Square and at a recently added location in Shrewsbury, Table Talk intends to have two permanent shifts working at the new facility, with a capacity for a third shift, according to city officials.
City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., in his report to the City Council, said the company initially plans to hire 50 additional, permanent, full-time employees at the SWIP location, which he said is needed to meet its growing operational needs.
By the end of 2019, Table Talk hopes to have as many as 80 full-time employees there, consisting of 70 hourly positions and 10 salaried positions.
“The proposed project will put two vacant, non-tax-generating, city-owned parcels back to productive reuse, retain and expand Table Talk Pies’ operations in Worcester, retain 30 full-time jobs that will be relocating from Table Talk’s Washington Street facility to SWIP, creating a minimum of 50 full-time jobs, and generate new tax revenue for the city,” Mr. Augustus’ report said.
Citing Michael E. Traynor, the city’s chief development officer, the report says Chacharone Properties LLC, a local property owner and developer, is acquiring two city-owned parcels in the industrial park – 17 Southgate Place and 25 Southgate St. – where it plans to construct the new building for Table Talk.
The building is to include six docks, eight overhead doors, 24-foot high ceilings, 5,000 square feet of office space, 45,000 square feet of manufacturing/warehouse space and parking for about 75 cars and seven tractor-trailers, according to Mr. Traynor, who estimated the project’s total cost at $4.6 million.
He said Table Talk needs to have the building completed and operational by July 1.
Mr. Augustus said the project is expected to be completed within nine months of receiving a building permit.
To help finance the project, Chacharone is seeking a 20-year tax-increment financing plan from the city that would give the company an average tax exemption of 80 percent over the course of the deal.
The exemption proposed in the so-called TIF would be applied to the added value that would result from the new construction.
The total assessed value of the properties at 17 Southgate Place and 25 Southgate St. is currently $210,800, according to Mr. Traynor, and the developer will pay full taxes on that.
He said the proposed new building is expected to increase the total assessed value to $3.4 million, and the 80 percent exemption will be applied to the increase.
Over the 20-year life of the TIF, it is projected to generate tax savings for Chacharone of roughly $2.2 million.
Meanwhile, the city would receive an estimated total of $750,000 in tax revenue from the project during the term of the TIF.
Because the city now owns the parcels, it receives no tax revenue from them.
“This TIF plan has incentivized the sale of two vacant, city-owned parcels currently generating no tax revenue,” Mr. Traynor said. “Upon completion of the TIF plan, the city will realize an estimated $200,000 in tax revenue annually.”
District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera, who has played an instrumental role in recent years in getting the long-stalled SWIP redevelopment project jump-started, said Table Talk’s expansion to the industrial park is a major boost for that part of the city.
She credited the city administration, the City Council and neighborhood stakeholders for not giving up when SWIP had difficulty generating any interest at all for many years.
“It’s exciting to have this expansion take place in the SWIP,” said Ms. Rivera, whose district includes the industrial park. “The (city) administration has been great and got this project back on track by putting it in the forefront. There are a lot of really good things happening there now and none of it would have been possible without all the people who stuck with it.
“These people never gave up and they put in a lot of hard work to make this all possible,” she added. “They showed that this can get done, and it is getting done. They are amazing. How can you not fight for a project like this?”
Table Talk is a family business established in 1924 by two Greek immigrants, Theodore Tonna and Angelo Cotsidas. Christo Cocaine followed them by running the business for many years, and it is now being run by the third generation.
Mr. Traynor said Table Talk is committed to ensuring that at least 50 percent of the new jobs created at the SWIP facility will be filled by Worcester residents.
Tax deal sought for Table Talk to expand – Telegram.com Worcester MA.
By Nick Kotsopoulos
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER – Table Talk Pies wants to expand its operations to a 50,000-square-foot industrial building to be constructed in the South Worcester Industrial Park.
With a workforce of 300 people at its Worcester headquarters at Kelley Square and at a recently added location in Shrewsbury, Table Talk intends to have two permanent shifts working at the new facility, with a capacity for a third shift, according to city officials.
City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., in his report to the City Council, said the company initially plans to hire 50 additional, permanent, full-time employees at the SWIP location, which he said is needed to meet its growing operational needs.
By the end of 2019, Table Talk hopes to have as many as 80 full-time employees there, consisting of 70 hourly positions and 10 salaried positions.
“The proposed project will put two vacant, non-tax-generating, city-owned parcels back to productive reuse, retain and expand Table Talk Pies’ operations in Worcester, retain 30 full-time jobs that will be relocating from Table Talk’s Washington Street facility to SWIP, creating a minimum of 50 full-time jobs, and generate new tax revenue for the city,” Mr. Augustus’ report said.
Citing Michael E. Traynor, the city’s chief development officer, the report says Chacharone Properties LLC, a local property owner and developer, is acquiring two city-owned parcels in the industrial park – 17 Southgate Place and 25 Southgate St. – where it plans to construct the new building for Table Talk.
