Chicago-based Smithfield Foods has selected Epstein as the design-build contractor on a $1.3 billion fresh pork and packaged meat processing facility it plans to build in Sioux City, S.D., a 1.1 million-square-foot project that South Dakota’s governor is calling the largest business investment in the state’s history.
The new facility is planned for Foundation Park, a more than 1,000-acre heavy industrial park northwest of Sioux Falls. It is slated to replace the Smithfield plant in downtown Sioux Falls, which has operated for more than 100 years.
“The new facility will be the most modern of its kind in the US, with advanced automation technology and information systems,” Shane Smith, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods, said at a news conference announcing the project.
Construction work began last spring. Groundbreaking for the approximately 211-acre site is expected in the first half of 2027 and production is expected to begin in late 2028.
“Our current facility in Sioux Falls is over 100 years old,” Smithfield spokesman Ray Atkinson said. “While we have invested in and improved the plant over time, it is time to build a new facility from the ground up with advanced technology and a design that supports a streamlined and highly efficient processing flow.”
Smithfield project engineer Mark Wilhelm told the Sioux Falls City Council at a March meeting that the company’s goal is to minimize odors, control processes and support cleaner air.
Sioux Falls has approved a conditional use permit and $90 million in tax increment financing to offset the cost of building a new wastewater treatment plant to support the new location.
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said in the announcement that “Sioux Falls could have easily lost this plant. We don’t want to take it for granted that Smithfield was supposed to stay here.”
A group of 21 people in Minnehaha County, where most of Sioux Falls is located, is suing the city, alleging it rushed the conditional use permit and didn’t adequately study potential traffic and odor impacts. They also fear that the value of their properties will decrease.
Smithfield’s move to a new location is also being driven by philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who founded PREMIER Bankcard and has committed $50 million through the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation to enable the purchase of the current Smithfield property upon completion of the new facility.
Plans for Redevelopment of the area, to be called the Sanford District, is not yet available, although the foundation promises comprehensive master planning. process with community input. He is currently creating a working group to study good practice and case studies of large major redevelopment areas.
Smithfield Foods processes more than 28 million hogs annually from 10,000 hog farms located in 30 states. Smithfield currently employs 3,200 people in Sioux Falls and accounts for $200 million in annual payroll, according to the company.
The project is still subject to various approvals, Atkinson said.
