The Knox County Commissioners passed a resolution Wednesday concerning the industrial park.
Recently the Knox County Redevelopment Commission and AgroRenew, the company planning to build a bioplastics facility at the park, have been discussing options for tax increment financing or TIF.
AgroRenew will turn watermelon and other produce waste into reusable bioplastics.
The resolution the commissioners passed approves carving out some parcels of the land at the park for TIF.
Knox County Indiana Economic Development CEO Chris Pfaff explained that they have been working with AgroRenew to secure property within the park.
The intent is for around 40 acres be conveyed to the company for the plant in the TIF zone.
AgroRenew’s founder Brian Southern says they have a detailed design complete for a 192-thousand square foot building and have been awaiting for the TIF creating process to be complete and will soon schedule a groundbreaking.
Southern says they plan to build the building in three phases all at the same time.
Southern also says hiring for the plant will start this summer and they will be hiring more people than they had initially anticipated.
Groundbreaking for the AgroRenew plant is set for mid-June. The exact date is yet to be determined.
In addition, Southern says they have planted their first experimental watermelon crop in a 22 acre field near Elkhorn Road.
Southern, is a business consultant at the Pantheon in downtown Vincennes. The business co-working space is credited for allowing the pieces to come together for Southern’s plan of building the new plant.
Southern says his work at the Pantheon in downtown Vincennes has resulted in assisting another company get started that will conduct experimental tests on harvesting techniques….
He says that work will will benefit the entire county’s produce growers by allowing them to utilize AgroRenew’s farmland to try new techniques that won’t affect those growers’ current production capacity.
