TEXAS COUNTY, OK-Smithfield Beef Group Inc. of Green Bay, WI and with New York City-based ContiGroup Cos. Inc. will build a 650,000-sf plant in the Oklahoma panhandle. The $200-million project, which will be spread over 250 acres, is expected to bring 2,500 to 3,000 jobs to the region.
Ground will break in January on the beef-processing plant, with completion set for mid-2008. The development site is located along State Highway 54 between the cities of Hooker and Tyrone. Vaughn, Coltrane, Pharr & Associates Inc. of Tucker, GA is the project's lead design engineer.
According to Richard V. Vesta, president and CEO of Smithfield Beef Group, Texas County was selected because of its location, water supply, transportation infrastructure and labor pool. "We also received tremendous cooperation from the state's elected and appointed officials," Vesta says in a press release.
Although dirt has not yet moved on the project, Betty L. Viljoen, executive director of the Panhandle Regional Economic Development Coalition Inc., says she's been fielding calls for other potential developments as a result of the Smithfield-ContiGroup decision. "The Oklahoma Department of Commerce told me they'd had a few inquiries from support-type industries while Smithfield was looking for sites," she says. "They're now interested in the panhandle so I can see more development coming in this direction." The increase in population from those developments will also mean an increase in population. "There's the entrance for retail," Viljoen adds.
Viljoen tells GlobeSt.com that, as of now, the pressing need in the wake of the Smithfield announcement is housing, especially in the short term. "Right now, our immediate need seems to be accommodating construction workers," she says. In addition, other construction is going on in the area, putting additional strain on the dwindling housing supply. "All our hotels and motels are running at full capacity and the apartment complexes are at 98% capacity," she says.
But Viljoen explains that local communities are preparing for the potential growth by doing everything from re-evaluating schools and educational systems to passing ordinances. "The communities are showing great cooperation with one another," she says, "and are working proactively rather than reactively."
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