The Knox County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a resolution that will continue paving the way for AgroRenew, a local bioplastics startup, to break ground this summer on a new manufacturing facility inside the U.S. 41 Industrial Park.
Brian Southern, the founder of AgroRenew, alongside Chris Pfaff, president of Knox County Indiana Economic Development, went before the commissioners during their regular meeting at City Hall, 201 Vigo St., to ask their blessing on a resolution carving out a new Economic Development Area from the current one drawn around the industrial park.
Doing so will create a deal similar to that struck between the county and Duke Energy years ago. When the new power plant was built in Edwardsport, a Tax Increment Finance Zone and EDA were drawn around the footprint of the plant itself. A Redevelopment Commission was then created to collect the additional property taxes generated from the development, and that money was allowed to pass through to Duke itself. Officials there used it to pay off the bonds sold to build the plant.
With this new EDA, the same will be true for AgroRenew, county officials said. If all is approved, then the company will be able to collect property tax revenue generated from improvements made within the EDA, and that money can then be used to pay off the bonds sold to fund construction.
A declaratory resolution was already approved by the Knox County Redevelopment Commission, and the plan was given the Area Plan Commission’s blessing as well, commissioners said.
With the commissioners’ approval now in hand, the plan will go back to the RDC, whose members will hold a public hearing and then likely approve the measure with a confirmatory resolution.
Southern, too, offered an update on the progress being made by AgroRnew LLC.
Standing alongside city and county elected officials and leaders with the Pantheon: A Business and Innovation Theater, Southern last fall announced that the U.S. 41 Industrial Park would see its first significant investment in nearly a decade — the construction of a processing facility that will repurpose food waste from Knox County's melon industry into biodegradable plastics.
Southern indicated that they are still working with KCIED in securing about 40 acres on which to build. They hope to break ground on the near 200,000-square-foot facility sometime in June.
And instead of building in three phases — as was originally the plan — Southern on Wednesday announced that they will do it all at once, likely saving AgroRenew $2 million in construction costs.
When completed, it will represent an $83 million investment, creating nearly 300 new jobs.
“We are very happy with the progress we’ve made,” Southern told the commissioners. “I can’t say enough about the cooperation and support we’ve received from the city and county and just everybody making sure we get this project moving forward.”
Southern said they hope to begin the hiring process in early July, an announcement made both at the commissioners meeting and at KCIED’s annual banquet Wednesday, held at Vincennes University’s Robert E. Green Activities Center. Southern served as the keynote speaker for the event.
The first wave of 80 employees, he said, should be on board by Sept. 1.
“Then everything will start taking off pretty quickly,” he told the commissioners.
In addition to news on the AgroRenew plant itself, Southern told the commissioners that he continues to work alongside other entrepreneurs at the Pantheon.
His own idea was born from collaboration there last year, he said.
This time, he said AgroRenew will designate more than 20 acres to working alongside other area farmers who want to experiment with harvesting techniques.
“We think this will benefit the entire county’s produce growers,” Southern told the commissioners, “allowing them to use our farmland to try out new techniques, giving them a place to do that so it doesn’t affect their current production capacity.”
Commission president Kellie Streeter, also president of the Knox County RDC, said she was “grateful and thankful” to have been a part of AgroRenew’s progress thus far. And she thanked Southern, not only for the investment of the bioplastics plant and the jobs that will result from it, but also for mentoring other entrepreneurs at the Pantheon.
“I’ve just been proud to be a part of this,” she said.
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