Cumberland Container expanding its operations into the historic Eli Walker building in downtown Monterey to accommodate new technology.
Owner Mark Jared said the company is making the largest investment in its 57-year history to bring the first cold corrugator into the United States. Jared said the new technology requires additional space.
“The Eli Walker building in its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s had 200 people working there and it was a sewing facility,” Jared said. “And we’ve spent a lot of money to upgrade it and get it back into the lifeline of the Monterey city.”
Jared said the company is currently recruiting for 20 new positions. Jared said the new cold corrugator technology is expected to arrive by the end of the year
“There’s a long history of that building and we’re kind of revive that building,” Jared said. “We’ve spent a lot of money to upgrade that facility. Right now, the crepe myrtles around there are starting to bloom. I mean we’ve spent money in beautifying the garden area. We try to keep it up and we want to be a positive effect on the government, on the community.”
Jared said the company also installed a new heating and cooling system as part of the significant investment into the structure.
“We’ve got a great team,” Jared said. “But the big issue that we’ve had is that the Eli Walker building has flooded in the past because the rainwater will not disperse fast enough from the downtown area. Everything from the depot down just runs down into the loading docks of the Eli Walker building. And because the water can’t get pumped out fast enough, we’ve experienced flooding. So it’s kind of hard to move inventory and we do corrugated sheets and corrugated sheets and water don’t mix very well.”
Jared said the company is working with Monterey officials to address the drainage issues along Railroad Avenue using designated city funds. Jared said the company also values its relationship with the local government, noting that the Monterey aldermen recently voted to move yard sale vendors away from the facility’s driveway to improve truck access.
“I think the Monterey government’s been very cooperative,” Jared said. “They’ve recognized and I understand they’ve voted to help us out, so we certainly appreciate and we value our relationship with the town government.”
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