EVERETT – StockPot Inc. plans to build an $80 million soup production plant and culinary campus in southwest Everett, replacing a facility near Maltby on land earmarked for a sewage plant.

The fast-growing soup maker, a division of Campbell Soup Co., has purchased 18 acres near Hardeson Road and Merrill Creek Parkway in the Seaway Center business park.

The announcement ends StockPot’s search for a new home, one that economic development officials feared would take the company outside the region.

“Our first preference was to stay here. Puget Sound is our home,” said Kathleen Horner, StockPot’s president. “I’m delighted, and I know our employees will be delighted.”

Horner said the company already has building permits, and construction could start within “days or weeks,” with the plant to open a year from now.

The acreage will allow StockPot to build a 220,000-square-foot building – about the size of the Tulalip Wal-Mart Supercenter. The new soup plant, double the size of StockPot’s existing home on Highway 9, will allow it to increase production by up to 50 percent in the years to come, Horner said. Expansion beyond that also is possible, she added.

“For us, the size of the site was important. We had to find a site on which we could expand,” she said.

In addition to housing production facilities, the new building will have a test kitchen and other culinary facilities that visiting chefs can use.

StockPot, which started in Redmond 24 years ago and moved to south Snohomish County in 1999, leads the industry in producing fresh, refrigerated soups and sauces. The company’s products are sold primarily to restaurants, cruise ships, college dining halls and at self-serve kiosks and in the refrigerated sections of some supermarkets.

The products have achieved double-digit growth over the past four years, according to parent company Campbell.

StockPot’s decision to stay in Snohomish County after being forced to relocate cheers local officials.

“We are very happy that an employer of StockPot’s size is staying in Snohomish County,” said Mark Funk, assistant to Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon. “We think that is a very positive development. We are pleased they have worked out this deal.”

StockPot’s priority was to find a new location that was convenient for its 400 employees, Horner said. About 60 percent of the work force lives in the county, she said.

The company also had another strong incentive to remain in the region. King County, developer of the Brightwater sewage plant, promised a benefit package of more than $23.4 million to StockPot if it relocated in King, Pierce or Snohomish counties.

The Everett site, in addition to being convenient for employees, also has good access to major highways, and the land was available at a reasonable price, Horner said.

The company purchased the property from Panattoni Development Co., which already has built and sold several industrial buildings nearby.

Horner said numerous Everett city officials and chamber members have visited StockPot’s existing plant and met the company’s executives over the past few months. She said the city has been cooperative throughout the permit process.

“I’m elated,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said. It’s “400 jobs in our community. This is the culmination of a lot of effort and about two years working with this company.”

Kate Reardon, spokeswoman for the city of Everett, said StockPot will install state-of-the-art air scrubbers to control odors from the soup manufacturing process. The company spent $1.5 million on such equipment last year after residents south of Maltby complained about an onion soup smell.

Reporter Amy Rolph contributed to this story.

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@ heraldnet.com.