Sept. 29, 2021

Wholestone Farms Inc. is moving ahead with its planned $500 million-plus pork processing plant in northeast Sioux Falls.

The company recently closed on the land for its 170-acre project in northeast Sioux Falls near Benson Road and Interstate 229, near the new Gage Brothers Concrete Materials location.

The nearly $12.5 million purchase is the next step toward a groundbreaking that could happen as soon as late next year.

“The next step we’re doing is the preliminary layout and engineering, so that process will take us the next six to 12 months, and we’ve started down that path,” said board chair Dr. Luke Minion. “There’s a lot that goes into design and engineering … and we have state-level permits we have to go through that’s included in that process of engineering.”

Minion also is CEO of Minnesota-based Pipestone, which created Wholestone in 2016. The company evolved to form a producer-owned processing plant at a former Hormel site in Fremont, Neb.

That’s the same business model being applied to the Sioux Falls plant, which is designed to process 3 million hogs annually on an eight-hour shift.

Wholestone currently includes 220 farmers, and they have the opportunity to participate first in the Sioux Falls project, Minion said.

Hundreds of others have reached out to him since the announcement earlier this year, he said.

“Hundeds wouldn’t be an exaggeration,” he said. “What this project represents to farmers is just an opportunity to be a part of the supply chain.”

There’s a list of interested producers, and he continues to meet with others, he said.

“We’re just so grateful to be where we are with the project overall in Fremont and to have so many farmers interested. It’s a wonderful feeling, though it’s a challenge to work through. We meet and listen to every person who has a request, and some we’ll be able to accommodate and some we won’t, but we definitely are willing to talk.”

The Sioux Falls plant initially is scheduled to employ 1,100 people – a number that could grow if more shifts are added.

Minion and Wholestone CEO Scott Webb will continue to speak to community groups about the plan.

“Sioux Falls has been great, truly. I live here in Sioux Falls, and we’ve had just a lot of questions that are appropriate and people want to know, but at the same time we’ve had a lot of positive comments and congratulations and encouraging us to keep going,” Minion said.

“These are very large, significant plants, so we haven’t changed anything in terms of our course and our plan and our goal. We’re going to be in the permit process and layout and design, and in parallel we’re trying to be involved in Sioux Falls and in the state.”

The plant will take roughly 2 1/2 years from construction to opening, putting operations beginning in 2025. Wholestone plans to be involved sooner than that in community efforts to add more workforce housing, Minion said.

“I know the need is not singular and not just about Wholestone,” he said. “We will be involved starting next year trying to roll our sleeves up and be part of a solution for housing. We may start in small ways, but we’re going to get started because it’s a lot of jobs around the community.”

Pork producer-owned company plans to build $500M Sioux Falls facility