Allen Harim is moving its corporate headquarters to the former Vlasic pickle plant in Millsboro.

The poultry company has owned the facility since 2014 and now plans to relocate its offices in early 2018.

President and CEO Joe Moran said the company chose to move from Seaford, which has been its home for 50 years, to Millsboro to be closer to Allen Harim’s main processing plant in Harbeson. The company had outgrown its space in Seaford, he said, and having its headquarters in Millsboro puts the company closer to its main hatchery in Dagsboro.

“This is an ideal location that gives us an opportunity to create a more modern and efficient workspace,” he said.

To build the offices, Allen Harim has hired Salisbury-based contractor Delmarva Veteran Builders, which hires military veterans for construction projects.

“We are honored to be chosen to be part of this project,” Delmarva Veteran Builders President Chris Eccleston said. “We applaud Allen Harim’s continued investment on Delmarva and their commitment to our veterans.”

The company plans to renovate 20,000 square feet of space for the 50 employees who work at the corporate office. Company officials say the exterior facade will be improved, and Allen Harim is exploring using solar energy for part of the facility.

Besides the corporate headquarters, Allen Harim officials say the 460,000-square-foot former pickle plant will have a consignment warehouse for packing materials and a deboning operation that will take chickens processed in Harbeson and repackage them.

“This is work that’s already being done outside the state, and we’re excited to be bringing that work back to Delaware,” Moran said.

He added that the deboning operation will create about 165 jobs.

Allen Harim purchased the former Vlasic plant with the intention of using it for processing chicken. But nearby residents fought back, saying a chicken processing plant would bring more groundwater pollution to an area that was already a designated brownfields site. Citizens groups challenged Allen Harim in court and in October 2015, the company announced it would not process chickens at the facility.

Moran said the company is committed to upgrading the wastewater treatment process at the plant and that deboning uses only a fraction of the water used in a traditional processing plant.

“We listened to the neighbors and heard their concerns,” he said.

Jay Meyer, who lives in the nearby Possum Point development, said there are still major concerns, particularly in light of Mountaire, also in Millsboro, receiving a violation notice from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control after nitrates were found in the groundwater. In the Mountaire case there were a whole host of environmental violations related to the company’s wastewater disposal. Meyer said that has residents of Possum Point spooked about what could happen with Allen Harim and the Vlasic site, which already has a history of environmental issues.

“It’s still a major concern,” he said. “Look what’s going on up the street and how its affected everybody.”