The Castellini Co., however, said it will keep its affiliate, the 150-employee Crosset Co., north of the river.
It will cost $11 million to move the Castellini Co. to a 25-acre site in Wilder in Campbell County, wedged between the Licking River and the AA Highway (Ky. 9) and close to Interstate 275.
About 60 percent of the company's 300 employees already live in Campbell County. Castellini is also applying for a $1 million loan from the commonwealth.
Wilder Mayor Jerry Williams said he was ''very pleased'' with the news. ''We're very excited. It's a win for a lot of people.'' Castellini will become the second-largest employer in Wilder, behind Newport Steel.
Construction will begin immediately on a 140,000-square-foot warehouse and office for the company.
''One thing that's really important is how hard (Cincinnati) worked to try to come up with the site,'' Castellini spokesman Joe Bride said. ''But our need to have a location close to the interstate was really important.''
Cincinnati's entire produce industry and its 575 jobs must move off the riverfront to make way for the Bengals' new $400.3 million stadium complex.
Cincinnati Councilman Phil Heimlich said Castellini's decision is a great disappointment.
''Unfortunately, it's part of a pattern of jobs leaving the city that we must turn around,'' Mr. Heimlich said. ''There's no question that the stadium is having a negative effect.''
Mr. Bride said Castellini would have moved with or without the stadium. Before the stadium plan gained steam, the company was proposing a riverfront development of apartments and hotels on its land. Instead Hamilton County paid Castellini about $36 million for the 28 acres it occupied.
Cincinnati offered 60 acres in Riverside-Sedamsville, which would require a $10 million widening of River Road to accommodate the industry. Castellini always had concerns about access on River Road, as well as convenience for its employees.
''The company worried that if they moved to a location that was hard to get to, they might lose some of their employees,'' said Bryan Quinsey, vice president of Tri-County Economic Development Corp. (Tri-ED), which represents Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.
Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls credited her city's Economic Development Department with being ''very aggressive'' in trying to keep Castellini in town.
''From the city's standpoint, it's regrettable that he's decided to leave,'' she said.
Ms. Qualls said the city is ''going to work very hard'' to keep the other produce vendors in town. Cincinnati officials once thought moving the produce industry would be an all-or-nothing deal, with the city's 12 smaller companies following Castellini.
Those smaller produce dealers might stay, Caruso Inc. CEO Kevin Caruso has told the Enquirer. The group is meeting regularly and talking seriously about the dealers moving to Cincinnati's Riverside-Sedamsville site on their own.
But there is also room for the smaller produce wholesalers in Wilder, next to the land Castellini will occupy. The Northern Kentucky Port Authority has an option on the 30-acre plot owned by the Rumpke Consolidated Cos.
Mr. Heimlich said Cincinnati needs an aggressive group like Northern Kentucky's Tri-ED.
''I hope that the regionalism committee that we have established will be a focal point for developing cooperative ventures with Hamilton County to keep businesses and attract businesses to the city,'' he said.
Castellini passed up a chance in August to buy a 28-acre site in Wilder, saying it would continue to look at sites in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.
It became clear in October that Wilder had the edge. The Enquirer reported that Cincinnati's economic development director, Andi Udris, predicted the move because Castellini wasn't responding to the city's offers. Early this month, Kentucky sources said it was ''90 percent'' certain Castellini would move to Wilder.
Lucy May contributed to this report.
