Enid City Commission has approved an economic development agreement with ADM Milling.
ADM Milling plans an investment of more than $32 million to modernize its Enid facilities — closing both 7,500 cwt milling units and building a 15,000 cwt milling unit.
“A new milling unit will reduce emergency downtime and allow the mill to consistently operate at capacity, which will allow ADM to capture sales growth with new customers,” information provided to the commission states.
Through new Tax Increment District No. 8, the city of Enid will provide an investment incentive to ADM equal to 50 percent of the new ad valorem taxes generated by the capital investment — estimated at $1.4 million over the approximately 11.5 year term of the TIF, the information states.
The remaining incremental ad valorem taxes will fund approximately $350,000 in traffic improvements to North 4th to serve the truck traffic supporting ADM operations, and organizational costs of the TIF estimated to be $1.05 million.
Commissioners approved the agreement, 6-0, during a meeting Tuesday night. Ward 6 Commissioner George Pankonin was absent.
ADM announced the upgrade plans in Enid in August.
“The Enid flour mill has served as an important hub for the region’s wheat harvest for many decades, and upgrades to the facility will provide even better service to our customers in the future,” said Mark Kolkhorst, president of ADM Milling in a press release in August. “Improvements include replacing two existing milling units with a single, highly-automated, state-of-the-art unit, which will efficiently meet existing customer needs, and provide capacity to reach out to new customers.
The project will take around a year, with construction expected to begin sometime in the next several months. The plant will stay open throughout the upgrades.
John Dick, commercial manager at ADM Milling, said in March the mill can produce 1.8 million pounds of flour each day. The facility also has a 2.5 million bushel elevator for processing storage. The Enid flour mill facility was built in 1928.
ADM domestically has around 500 procurement locations, 250 ingredient manufacturing facilities and 38 innovations centers, comprising of around 32,000 employees.
The Enid mill, with around 70 employees, was purchased from Pillsbury in 1993.
“Not only are these upgrades important to our customers and our business, but they’re important to our suppliers in and around Enid,” Kolkhorst said. “Here in the heart of wheat country, we depend on a great group of local farmers to supply our mill. We appreciate our partnership with them, and look forward to continuing to work with them from our improved facility.”
Story provided by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Jessica Miller
