$325 Million Sustainable Beef Plant - North Platte

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North Platte City Council approves $21.5 million grant for Sustainable Beef Plant plan

Todd von Kampen
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — North Platte put its official faith in Sustainable Beef LLC Tuesday night with a unanimous City Council vote to assist the city’s largest economic development project in decades.

The 8-0 tally adopted a redevelopment plan that would sell a retired city sewer lagoon for a 1,500-head-per-day beef processing plant and grant $21.5 million in tax increment financing to prepare it for construction.

The decisive vote came 8½ months after project organizers, including several western Nebraska cattle growers and Westco Cooperative CEO David Briggs of Alliance, went public with their plan March 18.

It also followed a final 1½-hour public hearing — the last of several since then — and an hour of questions from council members and Mayor Brandon Kelliher.

If all goes well, Briggs said, construction of the $325 million plant will start before spring and the first cattle will be processed in early 2024.