MASON CITY – Local officials are finally coming clean on the fact that a slaughterhouse is set to come to Mason City, and job estimates are double what NIT reported last month.
NIT first broke news of a potential slaughterhouse development coming to Mason City on February 8. Local elected an un-elected officials refused comment for that story and our follow-up story this week, which had more proof the development was coming to town.
Finally today, North Iowa Corridor CEO Chad Schreck confirmed that a hog slaughterhouse is coming to Mason City – and it is bigger than NIT was initially told by inside sources.
Mr. Schreck earlier referred to the development as “speculation” and “rumor” as NIT dug for answers. However, today, he was good enough to send NIT the same information that apparently he gave the Globe Gazette prior to today.
Here is Mr. Schreck’s email response, somewhat outlining the new slaughterhouse development project for Mason City:
I apologize for my late response, we had a death in the family this past week and we were back with family this weekend until late Monday evening following funeral proceedings. I’ll do my best to answer your questions, as we were given the ok to share some details about the opportunity you’re referencing as of today.
Confidentiality is critical in economic development efforts with larger businesses/projects, because most companies need to protect sensitive corporate information. In many cases making things public too soon can significantly affect their profitability, share prices, competitive position, or result in political pressures. If we speak publically about businesses considering our area for projects before they are comfortable with it, they won’t come here, and our partners at the state and site selection firms will no longer trust us as a place to bring projects to for consideration. It’s not unlike your profession, if the media outted sources, they would probably stop giving you information and most people wouldn’t risk bringing you information in the future. We do our best to balance the public need to know with client needs to give us all the best chance for a successful outcome.
At this point, we have received the ok to share some basic details and parameters of the project referenced. There will be a story in the Globe with these details today as well. Our process typically is for any economic development project in the Cities or County to come through the Corridor. In this case, we were contacted by the state regarding a potential pork-processing facility, and we coordinated with the City to determine if it was something they would want to pursue, which is our standard procedure. As more details were provided, and questions answered, it has progressed since December to the point where we are under strong consideration.
This opportunity is for a $240 million pork-processing project with 900-1000 jobs with a $40+ million annual payroll, and potential to double both those job numbers down the road, as well as add significant tax base. We are coordinating with the prospect, state, and local officials to work through all details. It would also be a 2 year construction timeframe, on a state of the art 600,000+ sq/ft facility that would bring hundreds of construction/trades jobs over that period.
As it pertains to the activity on the south end, I can confirm that we support the City’s initiative for the urban renewal area. We and the City have identified that area as a key priority for development due to the significant infrastructure with water, sewer, electric, natural gas, 4 lane road access, as well as proximity to rail. This is a strong draw for this client, but we also have a lot of interest and activity with other prospects that this work will help prepare for. We also have the Certified Site there, and the area in general is well-suited to grow. Our goal is to ensure the City is ready for development, and this is a key step in preparing the area for what we hope will be significant action over the next several years.
We’re excited about the potential of our community and high level of interest we are seeing from various prospective businesses. They are noticing the activity here, and we’ve had a lot of projects coming our way. These are really all the main details we are able to provide at this time, but if things do progress, we will update that as soon as we are able to.
Thanks,
Chad Schreck
President & CEO
North Iowa Corridor EDC
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