DAVENPORT, Iowa — A planned multi-million dollar bacon factory in north Davenport has been put on hold due to construction costs, according to the factory ownership.
Fair Oaks Foods initially announced a $134 million facility to be located on Enterprise Way near the Kraft Heinz plant.
A groundbreaking was held with the company and City of Davenport officials on Sept. 1, 2022, but the site has sat dormant since then.
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News 8 reached out to Fair Oaks, who released the following statement through the QC Chamber:
We continue to work on our opportunity to build a facility in Davenport. We have taken a pause due to higher projected costs resulting from the pandemic. We are diligently working through these challenges and will share updates as we have them.
The business is expected to create nearly 250 jobs, with the facility planned to be over 150,000 square feet.
Fair Oaks Foods had planned to open the facility in early 2024 and expected the development to have an annual economic impact of $182 million.
At the time of the groundbreaking, then-COO Joseph Freda said that Davenport was chosen out of 127 candidate locations across the U.S. because of the readiness of the land, energy needs and community support.
The company is based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin (about 1 hour and 20 minutes north of Chicago). It is a family-owned company that produces bacon, meatball, sausages and other meat products sold to food service, national grocery stores and quick service restaurants.