Taisei Construction Corp., Cypress, recently completed a 53,000-sq-ft herbal healthcare supplements plant in the western Riverside County community of Mira Loma for Wakunaga of America. The construction phase spanned 11 months and was finished one month early.

The five-acre plant, located at the intersection of East Philadelphia Avenue and Venture Drive, represents a major expansion of an eight-acre site occupied by Wakunaga since 1992. The new tilt-up-concrete facility has 29,000 sq ft of production space, 11,400 sq ft of office space and about 12,500 sq ft of warehouse space.

Wakunaga already has a 23,000-sq-ft plant on a contiguous 2.3 acres. That plant will remain operational. Wakunaga will continue to age its garlic at the Mira Loma site and retain its corporate office in Mission Viejo.

Peter Tuma, Taisai�s vice president/construction, says the project, one of the few of its kind to be built in inland Southern California in the last year, created about 200 construction jobs. Wakunaga expects to have about 100 employees working in the new plant in the next year or so.

In addition to Tuma, Taisei�s project team included Warren Lee, manager; Mario Morales, shell superintendent; and Garrett Lumbattis, interiors superintendent. The architect for the project was Ware Malcomb, Irvine.