The Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls is moving to a new location, opening its current land for the city of Sioux Falls for development of a new district.
State and Sioux Falls city leaders came together Monday to announce what they called “a defining moment” in South Dakota history. Smithfield Foods announced a $1.3 billion investment over the next three years. It’s coming in the form of a new state-of-the-art facility in northwest Sioux Falls’ Foundation Park at the I-29 and I-90 intersection.
According to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the state is providing $12 million in investments. That’s $6 million to secure land in Foundation Park and another $6 million from the Future Fund for infrastructure of the project. GOED said the dollars are helping prep the site to be “build ready.”
Shane Smith is President and CEO of Smithfield Foods.
“The new facility will be the most modern of its kind in the U.S., featuring advanced automation technology and IT systems," Smith said. "It will be the largest combined packaged meats and fresh pork processing facility in Smithfield’s network with more than 1.1 million square feet of production space and will deliver efficiency gains to Smithfield’s fresh pork and packaged meats operations.”
Construction is expected in the first half of next year. Early estimates say it could be operational at the end of 2028. It will employ around 3,200 people, the same as the existing plant. It also increases Smithfield’s daily hog-processing capabilities. It’ll include modern tech for odor control, a common complaint about the existing facility that’s been in Sioux Falls over a century.
With that, T. Denny Sanford is donating $50 million to the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, the largest gift in city history. Those funds are being used to purchase and take over the existing Smithfield site. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken told SDPB that $37 million of that donation is paying for the 120 acres of land. The remaining dollars will fund demolition and remediation of the current Smithfield plant. The land will be developed into the “Sanford District” down the road.
TenHaken said Sioux Falls is in a unique situation with the gift.
“It’s extremely rare in a metropolitan city of 5-7 million [people] that you get 120-acres in the core of your downtown, more or less a city of 225,000 that you get 120 acres," TenHaken said. "So, it’s really unheard of for this to happen quite honestly.”
TenHaken told reporters Monday there will be a tax increment financing project that’ll go towards the Sanford District.
Smithfield Foods has faced some scrutiny, largely over its majority-ownership, WH Group. WH Group is Chinese owned.
TenHaken responded to some of the criticisms.
"That plant provides $3.5 billion of economic impact to our state, so without it we don't have $3.5 billion of economic impact. Thousands of farmers, thousands of ag producers bring their hogs their every single day to put food on the table in their communities. So, they are a critical part of Sioux Falls, to our South Dakota economy."
TenHaken said the city has worked with Smithfield for a century, and "will continue to for another 100 years," adding that Smithfield's entire American management team is located in the United States.
