The Watertown Local Development Corp. has some competition for an unidentified company it is trying to lure to a century-old warehouse off West Main Street.

Donald W. Rutherford, the WLDC’s CEO, said the company is looking at a site in another, unnamed county for a manufacturing venture. He’s been working for several months to get the company to move into the former distribution center at 570 W. Main St. that once housed Cleaves Enterprises.

If the company chooses the former Cleaves building, it initially would bring 50 jobs and invest money in the facility.

“We’re doing everything we can to get them to locate in the city of Watertown,” Mr. Rutherford said last week, adding he has pointed out the advantages of moving here.

He expects the company to make a decision soon on which site is chosen.

The 15.5-acre site is owned by Edmund Street Realty LLC, Cumberland Foreside, Maine.

In April, the development corporation, also known as the Watertown Trust, unanimously approved giving Mr. Rutherford permission either to go forward with a purchase contract for the Cleaves property or to use a purchase option to acquire the property for $465,000.

With that much land available there, Mr. Rutherford has talked about the trust possibly turning the mostly undeveloped site into the city’s second industrial park, especially since the City Center Industrial Park on Bellew Avenue has only four or five vacant parcels remaining.

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