Arizona Maricopa Associates LLC, a dairy conglomerate spanning the Southwest U.S., has purchased a former auto parts plant in Grand Rapids, Mich. for $4.4 million. Although not confirmed, the plant is slated to become a dairy plant.
The Arizona/California dairy business is owned by the Arie De Jong family, a long-standing member of the West Coast milk industry. Although the product mix and job count for the new plant is still fuzzy, the factory’s future apparently lies with milk.
“We got a property transfer in today,” City Manager Steve Patrick said Thursday. “The company is dairy-related, but I have not been told for sure if it’s going to be a dairy operation.”
The De Jong family immigrated from Holland to California in 1949, establishing a dairy that followed their European heritage. Settling in Escondido, Calif., in 1949, the business expanded into Arizona in the past decade.