When Macrina Bakery moves its headquarters to Kent from Seattle the facility will include a cafe.

Scott France, Macrina CEO, confirmed during a Feb. 23 phone interview that the bakery will add a Kent cafe to its three Seattle cafes.

The Kent bakery is expected to open by late summer, France said. City officials had indicated a possible April opening.

“I’d love it to be April,” France said. “But we’re looking toward July to open or mid to late summer.”

Macrina is moving its operation and 150 employees to Kent for more space and better lease rates than its current location at 1943 First Ave. S. The new location will be at 19215 66th Ave. S., in north Kent.

The bakery supplies numerous restaurants, markets and hotels from Edmonds to Tacoma to Port Townsend. Macrina started in 1993 in Seattle.

“We tried a few offers locally (Seattle) but we couldn’t get the rate or length of lease we wanted,” France said. “Our real estate agent suggested we may want to look south.”

The new operation will feature about 40,000 square feet of space for the bakery, storage, cafe and offices. The current location has about 20,000 square feet.

“We’re super excited,” France said about the move. “We’ll have room for more production, our employees will have a better commute and we’re excited to have parking (for employees and delivery trucks). This will help allow us to grow.”

Many of the company’s employees live south of Seattle so they will have a similar commute or a better one, France said. Delivery drivers show up at about 1 or 2 a.m. in order to pack up trucks and get baked goods out early in the morning.

France said the Kent cafe will feature pastries, bread and other breakfast-type items in the morning with salad and soup items for lunch as well as dessert items such as cakes. The days and hours of operations are yet to be determined.