WEST LOOP — With plans to double their workforce, Blue Plate Catering have broken ground on their new headquarters in the neighborhood.
The new 70,000-square-foot facility at 333 N. Ogden Ave. will help the company hire more than 500 new employees, founder and CEO Jim Horan said. Accompanied by Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., the catering company celebrated the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this month.
The new headquarters will include 5,000-square-feet of retail space that serves food made in house, a training facility and tasting rooms for clients. The project is set to be completed by April of 2016.
The rooftop of the new headquarters will have a dining area and garden where Blue Plate Catering will plant herbs for use in Blue Plate meals.
"Over time, as the neighborhood develops, we will be expanding our services," Horan said.
Left: Blue Plate Catering founder and CEO Jim Horan Right: Blue Plate Catering employees attend a groundbreaking at the future Blue Plate Catering site in the West Loop. [Jeff Schear Visuals for Blue Plate Catering]
In the end, the 65-year-old founder said he wants Blue Plate Catering to be an employee-owned company.
"If [the employees] can own the company, that would be an ideal situation," Horan said. "The reason we're so successful is because we have some of the best service in the city provided by people that care."
The catering company plans to move out of their existing 10,000-square-foot space at 1061 W. Van Buren in the West Loop.
Blue Plate Catering opened its first kitchen in 1983. Today, the company ranks among the top hospitality companies in Chicago, offering catering services to a number of corporate, non-profit, social and cultural institutions.
A model of the future 70,000-square-foot Blue Plate Catering facility at 333 N. Ogden Ave. [Jeff Schear Visuals for Blue Plate Catering]
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