Crown Linen Plans Expansion into Ft. Myers FL

Miami-based Crown Linen LLC, Miami, recently purchased 7.1 acres of vacant land in Lee County, FL, for $490,000. It plans to build a plant in Fort Myers that’s capable of processing 25 million lbs. of laundry annually, according to a news story. Operations are expected to start by the third quarter of 2015.

Crown specializes in servicing hotels and resorts, and currently processes customers’ laundry out of its Miami facility. Generally, Crown laundries have a one-day turnaround for laundry, and serve customers within a two-hour drive, says General Manager Pablo Lucchesi. With the Fort Myers' plant's central location in Southwest Florida, and its proximity to Interstate 75, it will be able to service accounts from Marco Island to Sarasota, FL. The company already has several customers in Naples, Sanibel Island and Captiva Island.

“When the laundry is operating at capacity we'll have a staff of about 100 to 135 people, including laundry operators, mechanics, drivers and the management team,” said Lucchesi. That's good news for an area noted for higher unemployment, according to Jim Wall, a spokesman for CareerSource Southwest Florida, the jobs services organization operated by Southwest Florida’s Workforce Development Board.

Watch for a feature article on Crown Linen’s Miami plant in February’s Textile Services magazine.