Honey Company Proposes Molino Processing, Warehouse Facility On Highway 97

August 29, 2023

An established honey company looking to construct a facility on Highway 97 in Molino.

East Hill Honey Company of Pensacola has grown to the point that a much larger processing and bottling facility is needed, according to documents filed with the Escambia County Development Review Committee.

The proposed project is located on a seven acre site at 2900 Highway 97 on the east side of the intersection with Pilgrim Trail. There is currently a mobile home and an 1,800 square foot metal building on the property, and the company will construct an 6,000 square foot metal building.  The new building will house honey extraction equipment in addition to honey packing and warehouse operations.

“This project proposal would allow the company to keep those activities local rather than outsourcing this to another area,” the company said in an application document.

The Escambia County Development Review Committee will hold a pre-application meeting on the plan on Wednesday.

Comments

24 Responses to “Honey Company Proposes Molino Processing, Warehouse Facility On Highway 97”

  1. W. Ward on August 31st, 2023 6:05 am

    I just wonder how many people that think this is a great idea live in Dogwood Park or Pilgrim Hills? If you don’t live here it won’t affect you, that’s why you think it’s great idea. If the shoe were on the other foot it would be a different story. Living just a mile away will have no effect whatsoever. Now if you live within a quarter mile radius of the intersection it’s a different story. It’s always a great idea when it’s not in your backyard or few doors down from your house. Sure it’s great that the business wants to expand. I was a beekeeper for 15 years so understand the bee keeping business. I support it fully but I’m not a fan manufacturing, processing & warehousing being put in a quiet residential community. What happens should the business fail a few years down the road? Who moves in then? Well it’s too late to say anything at that point. There’s one two miles south & maybe seven miles north. What it boils down to is some like it & some don’t, welcome to America.

  2. biscuit on August 31st, 2023 1:40 am

    A kennel of Barking dogs next door to the property, disturbing the whole neighborhood, day and night, & people complaining about a warehouse??? I doubt we will ever hear a truck coming or going….

  3. Glenda on August 30th, 2023 2:52 pm

    I welcome new business and jobs vs more subdivisions. Welcome East Hill Honey.

  4. Kathy R on August 30th, 2023 10:03 am

    I’m with you “just saying”! That property is HORRIBLE!

  5. Ray on August 30th, 2023 7:11 am

    no one is never happy and they always have to much time on there hands to sit and complaint about everything. That company nought the land they can do as they please with the land that’s why we live in America land of the free

  6. Carrie on August 29th, 2023 11:41 pm

    Sweet! Better then having 15 new homes built across the hwy from me. I say go for it. Keep it local. My son loves the beard balm.

  7. David Huie Green on August 29th, 2023 7:12 pm

    SWEET

  8. Jlb on August 29th, 2023 5:55 pm

    Good luck. I love buying local honey

  9. Jimbo on August 29th, 2023 3:03 pm

    Sounds like a good business to me. I am always amazed when I get on here and people talk about living in the country and how it will change. “LIVING IN THE COUNTRY” is nothing more than placing your home near neighbors who own a lot of land and they ALLOW you to feel some solitude. Eventually they will die, move or sell and the “country” will be gone. The only way to enjoy this solitude is for you to buy MANY acres of land to insulate yourself. Otherwise, your solitude and “country living” is on someone else’s dime and will eventually go away no matter how much you complain.

  10. MargieLu on August 29th, 2023 1:13 pm

    Congratulations, East Hill Honey! As a fellow beekeeper and a north county resident who is extremely interested in keeping the rural and agricultural properties of Molino amd North Escambia County from being overdeveloped, this project would definitely get my approval. For those who imagine trucks coming and going year round, the honey business (as far as harvesting and extracting) is a SEASONAL endeavour. A packaging facility would store the honey harvested each summer and could operate the remainder of the year as needed to store bulk honey harvests, prepare honey for bottling, and stage honey in retail packaging for distribution. East Hill Honey is already widely known throughout the panhandle, and already delivers regionally. This is only a processing facility to improve this agribusiness. I highly doubt any additional traffic in/out of their existing facility would be a huge impact on traffic, the environment, OR to the rural asthetics of the area. We live in a community of much larger barns, cotton sheds, and other ag facilities and what East Hill Honey is proposing will not raise your taxes, likely won’t need additional infrastructure (as far as I can tell by the drawing) and would benefit the neighboring area by keeping a flourishing agribusiness from needlessly relocating.

  11. mnon on August 29th, 2023 12:19 pm

    too funny, I don’t honestly care what anyone’s opinion is of my statement. Name-calling, punching down, or whatever fits your capitalist or socialist views. Facts are they put one processing warehouse there, big deal it’s honey. Next will be a this and then that until the area is an industrial area with a community right in the middle. Forty years later it’s Cantonment, 60 Years later it’s Century, and the entire area around the zone is low-income housing. Doesn’t matter I won’t live long enough to see it, It is just a shame you will have no land to pass on to your children that you worked, saved and built up because no one will want to live in the middle of that. I’m already talking to several toxic waste disposal companies to sell my land to. So there you go, you guys can have a toxic waste disposal site right in Molino to go with your housing developments and housing projects. Seems the better plan is to move further northwest into the woods. At least that area will have fiber. Peace out.

  12. Just Saying on August 29th, 2023 12:12 pm

    For people complaining about appearances…surely it couldn’t be any worse than that mud pit eye sore across 97 that has trashed the entrance to Pilgrim Hills for years now?

    I say congrats to East Hill Honey on their success! Go for it! This is really no different than a farmer building a new barn or setting up a vegetable stand.

  13. Old Skinny on August 29th, 2023 10:28 am

    OH NOOOOO! Your entire way of life is going to change, nothing will ever be the same … all the deer, birds and trees are going to die … GIVE ME A BREAK! Congratulations on building your small operation into a big operation …. The American Dream comes true for this hard-working family.

  14. Fellow Farmer on August 29th, 2023 10:08 am

    For those wanting it to fail, they already operate in your community near Jimmy’s Grill and most people don’t even know they are there. They want to expand their business to keep their entire process local. It’s an agricultural business and if you don’t support a way for farmers to find new lines of revenue, they are either going somewhere else or sell to a developer. It’s getting harder and harder to justify the expenses to run a business to feed other people. If you don’t want more developers buying ag land, support projects like this!

  15. retired on August 29th, 2023 9:12 am

    they going to have a retail store also?

  16. Jason on August 29th, 2023 8:55 am

    Some of these comments are so funny. Hide a 6000 sq ft building, that’s not that big. how many barns are out that way that are that big or bigger. Heavy equipment 24/7 and large trucks for a honey operation? You guys are funny. Quit bitching.

  17. DLo on August 29th, 2023 8:23 am

    Hey Mron, honey processing is defined as farm activity by the FDA, maybe don’t sling mud at a local business trying to expand, especially when you know nothing about the business and what it entails.

  18. W. Ward on August 29th, 2023 8:09 am

    Apparently the people that want to build have no clue about what they are asking. First of all I like the fact that it’s a local company & I applaud their efforts to expand. But the facts are this, Pilgrim Trails is right across the street & their is a constant flow of traffic in the mornings & afternoons, somewhat less during the day. This facility would on the south side of Pine Circle which is on the south edge of a crest in the road where the road makes a sweeping turn. So that means north & southbound traffic which is normally flying, not driving, is gonna to require EMS to stock up on body bags. The map conveniently doesn’t show to the north. The good point, FHP will be here much more often, currently they are non-existent. I don’t care what it’s zoned this is supposed to be a quiet, “residential” area. Not commercial or industrial. Between the logging trucks, tractor trailers, traffic to & from Atmore & the casino, get ready. Changing the speed limit sign will be an act in futility. So the current residential property is turning commercial, “Bad Idea” period! Just the other day people were complaining about a tanker passing school bus just north of here. As for outsourcing to a different area, that is an excuse on the application, nothing more. There is plenty of commercial property available all over Escambia County & an industrial area a few miles south on Hwy 29. NO! NO! NO!

  19. mk on August 29th, 2023 7:34 am

    This would be awesome, a local business that is a health benefit. We need more agriculture businesses in this area.

  20. JJ on August 29th, 2023 7:17 am

    Mnon:
    LOL. I LIVE IN Molino with a large agrriculture field RIGHT across from my house. Less than 80′.
    That puts me in the country as Oliver Douglas loved.
    Honey factory is NOT going to have big trucks coming and going as you stated. Box trucks arent BIG RIGS. you should move to East Hills,not too many trucks goes up Scott st or Bobe

  21. RWA on August 29th, 2023 7:05 am

    At least it’s not a Dollar General. Or, a car wash. It’s a locally owned business that could possibly give back to the community.

  22. Me on August 29th, 2023 6:43 am

    It’s a locally owned and operated honey processing facility, not a Chinese fireworks factory. Relax. Honey is agriculture.

  23. mnon on August 29th, 2023 6:18 am

    ugh, here we go, let us start turning the surroundings of a community into an industrial zone. So the people living right on the edge of Dogwood Park get to hear heavy equipment 24/7 and trucks coming in and out. I hope it fails for those that live in that community because it is all zoned residential or agricultural, yet I’m sure the money will turn it industrial.

  24. Local on August 29th, 2023 5:12 am

    Wish they could hide that size building on the back of the property