GARNER - A California company that supplies McDonald's with the makings for its fast-food menu is planning a $23.5 million warehouse in Garner that will employ as many as 225 workers.

Golden State Foods would build the 133,000-square-foot distribution center in Greenfield North business park, near a rail line, Interstate 40 and U.S. 70.

The center will supply about 500 McDonald's restaurants in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Provisions for those restaurants now come from Golden State's warehouse in Lexington, which also is due for a sizable expansion.

The Garner warehouse, which would be built by Craig Davis Properties of Cary, is to be completed in August 2009. The employees will be added over two years; a small number could be transferred from other Golden State sites.

"All the jobs are not new jobs, but they are new jobs for Garner," Mayor Ronnie Williams said. "We feel they'll be a good corporate citizen."

The Golden State warehouse bolsters the eastern Triangle's developing niche as a regional hub for food-service distribution centers.

In 2006, U.S. Food Service began a $16 million expansion at its Zebulon warehouse, which supplies food, kitchen equipment and related products to restaurants, schools, hotels, hospitals and other clients. That same year, Sysco opened a distribution center in Selma that eventually could employ as many as 600 workers.

Golden State would receive local property tax breaks valued at $100,000 over five years but no state incentives, Williams said.

Privately owned Golden State is a leading supplier for McDonald's with about 130 products, including beef patties, sauces, buns, ketchup, and mayonnaise. The Irvine, Calif.-based company distributes goods to 20,000 restaurants from about a dozen distribution centers, including one in Egypt. The company had about $2.6 billion in sales last year and 3,000 employees worldwide.

Founded in 1947, the company is owned by the investment group Wetterau Associates of St. Louis.

Jack Dunn, president of Craig Davis Properties, said Golden State had considered sites in at least two other states.

The company's selection of Garner for the facility comes about half a year after Butterball, the nation's largest turkey producer, said it would move its headquarters from Mount Olive to Greenfield North business park.

"That speaks volumes for Garner, as it relates to somebody going through that extensive a relocation process and landing in Garner," Dunn said.

The proposed site of a $600 million Nabisco cookie plant that was called off in the 1980s, Greenfield North and Greenfield Business Park were vacant for years.

However, with land in Raleigh and near Research Triangle Park increasingly expensive and difficult to find, the parks are filling with tenants.

Flooring manufacturer Pergo has a plant and distribution center in Greenfield. Pizza companies Dominos and Papa John's have distribution facilities there, along with Keystone automotive parts. In 2006, Gregory Poole Equipment, the state's largest Caterpillar dealer, bought 36 acres in Greenfield North.

Last year, Brock Cabinets of Fayetteville said it would move its warehouse, offices and 35 employees from Raleigh to Greenfield Business Park.

"It's another significant corporate presence for Garner," Dunn said. "It's an attractive thing anytime you get those caliber jobs and that kind of tax base."