One of the nation’s largest suppliers of work uniforms is eyeing land in a business park on Saco Street as a possible location for a laundry building that could house up to 140 workers.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant confirmed this week that Cintas, a publicly traded company that employs 23,000 people at 351 locations in the United States and Canada, has a seven-acre lot in the Westbrook Heights Business Park under contract.

“It’s a nice, solid company,” Bryant said. “The project will create jobs.”

Bryant said another company also has a second large lot in the business park under contract, but declined to name the company.

At the City Council meeting on Monday night, councilors voted, 7-0, to give final approval to a three-year, $2.4 million bond to pay for the land and the cost of infrastructure improvements to the site. The city plans to pay off the debt by selling off the lots in the park.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the city is having ongoing discussions with Cintas, which presented a preliminary proposal to the Planning Board in June. On June 7, the Planning Board voted, 6-1, to approve the final site plan review for the project, with board member Anna Wrobel casting the only vote against the proposal.

The proposal presented by South Portland engineering firm DeLuca Hoffman on behalf of Cintas, calls for a single-story, 58,000-square-foot building. Bryant said the company would clean and distribute work uniforms at the site. The company’s proposal said the building would be designed for a maximum workforce of 140, but said the facility would likely operate in shifts of 70.

Cintas had sales of over $3 billion for fiscal year 2005, according to the company’s Web site.

Cintas Spokesman Wade Gates confirmed Monday evening that the company was considering building a new laundry facility in Westbrook. He said he did not know when the company would be making a decision.

“We’re continuing to look at our options in Maine,” said Gates. “We’re continuing to grow in that area, and we’re continuing to look at what would make sense for our customers in the area.”

Cintas already has a presence in Westbrook, operating a uniform cleaning plant on Eisenhower Drive that employs about 50 people. If the Westbrook Heights project is built, the company plans to fold the Eisenhower Drive operations into the new building. Currently, the Eisenhower Drive laundry operation cleans uniforms for all of Cintas’ Maine customers. Gates said if the company goes forward with plans to build a new building in Westbrook Heights, all of Cintas’ uniforms in Maine would still be cleaned in Westbrook.

While the project has received all the necessary approvals, Bryant said Cintas is still considering the project and has not made the decision to go forward with the plan.

The interest in the business park is good news for the city, which agreed in June to purchase 40 acres of land off Saco Street from the Boivin family for the business park. The Boivin family had been looking to develop the business park for several years, but decided earlier this year to pull out of the project. The city viewed the project as being a vital cog in Westbrook’s future economic development, and stepped in to purchase the land and continue the development of the business park.

One of the reasons the project was falling apart was there was not a large profit margin for a private developer. In June, Bryant estimated that once the city sells all of the lots in the development, the city stands to make an estimated profit of approximately $95,000.

Director of Economic and Community Development Erik Carson said there is a shortage of developable space in other area business parks, and the interest expressed by Cintas and other companies in the Westbrook Heights Business Park bode well for the project’s ultimate success.

“This plan is going to be a success because there are so few opportunities elsewhere,” said Carson. “People want to move here.”

Bryant said he is hopeful Cintas will decide to move forward with its proposal and become a cornerstone of the new business park. “I think Cintas would be a good addition to Westbrook and a strong component of the Westbrook Heights Business Park,” he said.

A computer-generated rendering of the proposed Cintas building for the Westbrook Heights Business Park.