Leprino Foods hopes to expand its facility here by 90,000 sq ft, but it has told local officials it might instead look to build a new facility out west if it doesn't get tax incentives for the expansion.

ALLENDALE, Mich.-Leprino Foods hopes to expand its facility here by 90,000 sq ft, but it has told local officials it might instead look to build a new facility out west if it doesn't get tax incentives for the expansion.

Leprino would spend more than $80 million on the project, and is asking to have a 2.3-acre section of the company's property declared an agricultural processing Renaissance Zone which would offer some tax exemptions.

"We definitely need it for our plant to be able to grow," plant mgr. Nick Opper said.

The project would add 53 jobs. The plant normally employs about 170 workers.

Leprino, based in Denver, opened the 250,000-square-foot plant in 1988.