A deal is near to bring a job-producing greenhouse lettuce farm to Yorkville. City officials and grower Bright Farms both say they are getting closer to a development agreement to bring the lettuce production facility to a 100-acre site at the northeast corner of Eldamain and Corneils roads on the far northwest side of the city, north of the Menards Distribution Center.
Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson told aldermen at their March 22 meeting that the staff expects to be bringing them a final agreement for approval in April. The key unknown at this point is whether the city will succeed in obtaining a $1 million federal grant to help pay for the extension of sanitary sewer service to the property.
The city has applied for a $1 million federal Community Development Block Grant to help cover the cost of the $2.8 million sewer extension. However, Bright Farms Project Manager Sean O’Neill said after the meeting that the grower would be willing to renegotiate if the city does not get the grant money.
Bright Farms ultimately plans to build four eight-acre greenhouses “modules” and employ about 200 people to grow the salad greens. “It will be intensively farmed,” O’Neill said. “We’ll make Yorkville the lettuce capital of the world.”
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