DES MOINES – The Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company finalized the purchase of the 132-acre site of its planned 2,000-head per day beef-processing facility in Mills County on Dec. 30, 2022. The sale price was not disclosed.
“I’m very appreciative of the cooperation, flexibility, patience and professionalism that the owners, their representatives and officials in Mills County demonstrated throughout this process,” said principal developer Chad Tentinger. “Land purchases for projects of this size often take quite a while to complete and they often have unforeseen challenges, but everyone worked together very well from Day One and through negotiations until final documents were signed.”
The site is located on the northwest quadrant of Interstate 29 and Bunge Road intersection just south of the Pottawattamie-Mills county line. Groundbreaking will take place in 2023.
“A facility of our size and scale requires a certain level of infrastructure and public utilities. In addition to those requirements, this site checks all the boxes for logistics when it comes to the level of truck traffic for cattle and raw goods coming into the plant and processed goods leaving the facility,” he said. “Its proximity to I-80 is another logistical plus. With the eventual need for up to 800 employees, its location in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan statistical area is another valuable attribute.”
Tentinger noted that the site is zoned for industrial development with emphasis on agribusiness-type operations, Bunge North America operates a soybean processing facility on the opposite side of Interstate 29, just east of the Cattlemen’s Heritage site. An ethanol plant is located nearby.
“Our facility and its state-of-the-art operations fit the neighborhood, but we’ll also be putting our best foot forward in terms of an attractive public-facing design,” Tentinger said.
The company last year selected Gross-Wen Technologies, a leading algae-based wastewater treatment company, to provide contained treatment at the site. The technology will capture and offset several thousand tons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere.
“That’s the equivalent of avoiding the use of 242,000 gallons of gasoline every year,” Tentinger said. “The nitrogen and phosphorus that it will recover will be converted into valuable, natural fertilizer for re-use by area farmers as part of our goal to create a carbon-neutral footprint.”
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About Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company: Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company led by project developer Chad Tentinger, founder, and owner of Ten Corp Inc. and an Iowa cattle producer, was incorporated in 2021 with the goal to provide a market for cattle raised by smaller, independent cattle producers within a 200-mile radius of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The planned 2,000-head-per-day processing facility is scheduled to open in late 2024.