Greenleaf Holdco LLC will soon move forward with its $82 million expansion of its indoor hydroponic farms that grow its Pure Green Farms brand of lettuce. And it will do so with the support of the South Bend Common Council, which unanimously approved an extension of tax abatements originally awarded in 2022 on Monday, Jan. 13 to give the company time to finish its work with it set to fail to meet its original deadline of Jan. 24, 2025.
Greenleaf Holdco now has until the end of 2026 to allow the nine-year property tax breaks and the five-year personal property abatements to kick in. The addition to the farm — which went into production in 2021 — is a $12 million investment, company officials said, with related equipment for the project estimated at nearly $70 million. The project is expected to result in 75 additional employee hirings once completed. Company officials said starting hourly wages at the facility are near $15 per hour.
Joe McGuire, CEO of Greenleaf Holdco, told the council the South Bend greenhouses' success has come from understanding the plants that it grows and the supply chains that need to be managed with a perishable product. "We do have a lot of good technology, and we don't ignore that," McGuire said in answering a question from Council member Oliver Davis. "We have some really sharp people working at the farm, but at the end of a day, it's managing very perishable supply chains."
With the current plan for expansion, the output from the hydroponic greenhouses is expected to jump from 2 million pounds of leafy product annually to 8 million pounds a year.
Source: southbendtribune.com