Back in 1991, BEI Associates Inc. was retained by Detroit based Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. to design a state-of-the-art generic pharmaceutical facility in Detroit on Elijah McCoy Drive south of Grand Boulevard.  The 64,000 square foot facility included areas for manufacturing, laboratory, clean rooms, warehousing, shipping and receiving, as well as corporate offices.  In order to meet FDA regulations, special design consideration was given to processing and laboratory ventilation, dust collection and humidity control.  The notion of a generic pharmaceutical production facility in Detroit was the brainchild of Dr. Arnold Curry, a noted oncologist, who had the vision and drive to develop this project with substantial financial help from the City of Detroit.  Caraco's early years of existence were beset with insufficient volume, production quality issues and plenty of red ink.  However, perseverance and a steady improvement in quality control and production volume paid off.

Recently, under new ownership and management, Caraco retained BEI to design an expansion and renovation of the facility due to increased business.  The major expansion consists of an 100,000 square foot addition initially envisioned as a replacement for the existing warehouse, which BEI is redesigning into manufacturing and laboratory space.  However, because business continues to grow, the expansion will become additional manufacturing and laboratory space with warehousing being handled off-site until additional adjacent land owned by the City is purchased.  As part of the expansion and renovation project, the parking lot was master planned and redesigned to accommodate additional parking for the increased work force and to satisfy zoning parking requirements.  Also, a new cooling tower was installed to accommodate the expansion.  Renovation work within the existing facility included the redesign of the packaging area, the relocation of the existing mechanical room into the warehouse and further conversion of a portion of the warehouse into a two-story manufacturing area.  The new manufacturing space design included the installation of two major pieces of equipment – a Saizoner (mechanical mixer) and a Fluid Bed Dryer along with associated foundation and process utility design.  The existing warehouse will continue to be converted into manufacturing space to meet Caraco's increasing business volume.