Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
(Seguin) — Another major economic development deal is coming to the city of Seguin. The city is announcing an expansion of the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant.
Economic Development Director Josh Schneuker says they’ve successfully brought in a number of new companies over the last few years, but he says this project helps an existing company and helps to retain jobs that are already here.
“This is a company that I think is no stranger to Seguin. Tyson Foods is a Fortune 100 Company, one of the world’s largest food companies – is a recognized leader in protein. They’ve been located in Seguin since 1989 and they employ about 546 full-time employees at their Seguin facility. Their facility is about 109,000 square feet sitting on 42 acres of land and has about $9 million of real and personal property on the tax rolls today,” said Schneuker.
Schneuker says Tyson is adding 40,000 square feet to its existing plant, which represents a new $58 million investment in Seguin.
“Economic development staff has been working with Tyson under the code name “Project Fillet” on this expansion opportunity that has been considering Seguin. Tyson is looking to have a dedicated facility to meet the needs and growing demands from customers and Seguin has been shortlisted for that project. So, Project Fillet will deliver a 40,000 square foot expansion to their existing facility along with the purchase and installation of new state-of-the-art equipment and machinery. The project will represent a capital investment of $58 million,” said Schneuker.
This is being described as another big economic development win for the city, which has a long history of securing large projects that bring more jobs and more industrial growth to the city. The jobs in this case are already here, but Schneuker says this project is still a big deal for Seguin.
“No new jobs are going to be created with this but just to put into context that capital investment, projects like United Alloy worth $35 million, CSP was $60 million so this is a fairly substantial capital investment that Tyson is proposing to make in our community,” said Schneuker.
This is an expansion of the existing Tyson plant, but this was also a competitive process, because the company was also considering other locations for expansion. Schneuker says in exchange for the investment in Seguin, the city will offer the company a tax break over a five-year period.
“In order to recruit this project to Seguin, Tyson has been looking at other plants in two other states, economic development staff has proposed a five-year tax abatement to Tyson at an average value of 50 percent. So, this will just be a straight five-year 50 percent tax abatement deal. This tax abatement will be applicable to the new value added to the tax rolls. It will not impact anything existing on the tax rolls so we wouldn’t see any impact to our ad valorem tax base from there. In exchange for the incentive, Tyson has committed to the installation of the real and personal property before May 1 of 2023 and they represent that that investment will be at least $58 million. They’ll commit to retaining their current level of full-time employment at the facility of 546 throughout the term of the agreements so that’s four to five years there and they will be required to submit annual certification that they are in obligation with those performance benchmarks,” said Schneuker.
In addition to the $58 million capital investment, Schneuker says the city will also benefit from Tyson becoming an even better water, sewer and electric customer. It all adds up to more revenue for the city of Seguin.
“We estimate that with this project, we’ll see new net property tax collections over that five-year period to be about $600,000 in new revenue to the city and we are also going to see an increase in utility revenue as well. Tyson is located within all three city utility service areas so with that increase production with manufacturing will come increased utility revenue as well,” said Schneuker.
Schneuker sang the praises of Tyson and says that it has been a great community partner for decades. He says that’s another reason why he believes this deal is so important.
“This is just a tremendous company I really enjoy working with – with Tyson and their team. They do a tremendous amount of great things for our community. They are constantly stepping up. I think during times of need, they have really been leading the way especially with COVID and the policies and procedures that they are implementing at their facility,” said Schneuker.
City officials say the Tyson facility is currently 108,836 square feet and is located at 1200 W. Kingsbury St. in Seguin. The expansion project will add an additional 40,000 square feet to the facility and will include the purchase and installation of new, state-of-the-art machinery and equipment to better serve Tyson’s customers.
The deal was formally approved by the Seguin City Council on Tuesday night.
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