Editorial: New dairy processing plant a big win for St. Johns, Greater Lansing
Thursday’s announcement of a $555 million project to bring a dairy processing operation to St. Johns means jobs, new industry opportunities and exciting business implications are all headed to Greater Lansing by 2020.
To say this is simply good news is understating the value of the project. This is a big win.
Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), promises a “profound impact” on the region that will have positive implications for decades.
“This isn’t just landing a couple businesses with jobs,” he said. “This is establishing a new level of ag tech production that’s going to enormously impact the entire dairy ecosystem of our whole state.”
The last time Greater Lansing saw a project of this magnitude – combining new jobs, industry expansion and trickle down opportunities for business – was tied to GM around a decade ago.
To pull the project off, Bingham Township offered up 55 acres to the City of St. Johns in a revenue share agreement.
The total project will span 146 acres and will host to a $470 million facility owned by a partnership headed by Glanbia Nutritionals, a multi-national dairy company headquartered in Ireland, responsible for much of the American-style cheddar cheese found on the market.
There will also be an $85 million adjacent facility belonging to Iowa-based Proliant Dairy Ingredients, which produces dairy solids used in food and feed manufacturing.
The project is a big win for St. Johns, for Greater Lansing and for Michigan that sets the example for regionalism and cooperation, and helps place the region as a whole more firmly on the map for economic growth.
Increased business implications will inherently follow as opportunities surrounding in-state dairy production arise. Shipping, trucking, packaging, etc. are all conceivable areas of impact that will be possible when the facility becomes operational – currently planned for 2020.
Read more:$555 million dairy processing operation will add nearly 300 jobs
Read more:Local leaders react to the $555M dairy operation planned in St. Johns
Other partners already signed on to the project include the Michigan Milk Producers Association – a dairy co-op with a manufacturing facility in Ovid – and the Michigan Strategic Fund – which approved a proposal Thursday to make the project an Agricultural Processing Renaissance Zone, meaning state and local property taxes will be frozen on the site for 15 years.
Dwight Nash, a dairy farmer from Elsie has been advocating for a project like this one for a decade.
"It's going to feel like a breath of fresh air,” he said. Keeping milk from farms like his in Michigan will decrease costs from shipping, marketing and more according to Nash.
The project is a big win for St. Johns, for Greater Lansing and for the people of Michigan.
– an LSJ editorial
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The LSJ Editorial Board speaks for the LSJ as an institution. Editorials do not carry an individual byline because stances on issues are never decided by one person. Contact the board by emailing opinions@lsj.com.