On any given day throughout the year, the Chamber’s Economic Development Team is working with companies to show them the benefits of doing business in Memphis and the specifics of how to make that happen. From ceiling heights to gas lines to square footage, each company and industry has different requirements for space and resources, and we work with our partners to make sure each company’s needs are met and that those jobs and revenues stay in Memphis.Cargill’s history in Memphis dates back nearly a century, with properties in the area as early as 1937. Today, Cargill is the largest privately-owned company in the U.S., and they’re still in Memphis… but instead of milling corn, they’re producing fish food out of thin air.When Cargill closed its corn mill facility on President’s Island in 2015, the city lost 400 jobs and its largest single water customer – rates for everyone else eventually went up 22% as a result. Not long after, the company began pursuing a venture to produce sustainable fishmeal on a massive, commercial scale. This advanced technology would not only fill huge demand within the market, but sustain the natural resources otherwise used to feed the massive numbers of fish within the food chain. The new project would bring jobs, revenue, and advanced technology to an existing Cargill property somewhere in North America – and we wanted it to be Memphis.

1976 

Cargill establishes its largest Memphis property yet with land on President’s Island for a corn processing facility, the most modern and automated of its kind at the time.

2010

EDGE awards Cargill an eight-year Retention PILOT representing 370 retained jobs, 27 net new jobs and a $72 million investment in the President’s Island facility.

September 2014

Cargill announces the closing of most of their President’s Island corn milling facility because of logistical challenges created by its distance from the Corn Belt (located primarily between Nebraska and Illinois). The 440-employee facility is scaled down to around 50 employees on a much smaller property.

The company loses the incentives granted with their 2010 PILOT.

As the city’s single largest MLGW water customer at the time, water rates for everyone else eventually go up 22% after its closing.

November 2014

Cargill announces a partnership with Calysta, a sustainable fishmeal production company to create NouriTech. By combining Cargill’s manufacturing capabilities and assets with Calysta’s proprietary gas fermentation technology, the new company aims to produce FeedKind protein, a new product that will meet immense demand within the aquaculture industry without depleting natural resources.

2015

Calysta and Cargill agree to locate their new corporate entity at one of Cargill’s existing facilities. The companies begin an extensive search for the location. Memphis is in competition with several other potential North American sites, including Houston, Mobile, Ala. and Alberta, Canada.Throughout this process, the Chamber works with Cargill and Calysta as a conduit among the many organizations involved in the process of attracting companies to Memphis, including (but not limited to) the Tennessee Valley Authority, the State of Tennessee, EDGE, the Workforce Investment Network (WIN), and MLGW. The Chamber’s existing relationship with Cargill and the other organizations drives the One Stop Shop to convene in order for the company to review every logistical detail of how this relocation would work.

2016

Cargill and Calysta announce that they have selected the 37-acre Cargill property on President’s Island as the future home of NouriTech. While the technology itself is not new, this facility will be the first to produce these fishmeal proteins on a commercial scale outside of NouriTech’s Market Introduction Facility in the U.K.

“Cargill has been a part of the Memphis community for 40 years,” Brian Silvey, Cargill’s Global Vice President of Bioindustrial said in a release at the time. “With the strong support of the state of Tennessee, Shelby County and City of Memphis, we are pleased that the venture chose to locate the facility in Memphis.”Many details were involved in the process of converting the existing Cargill property to one that would support the new technology of NouriTech. In order to use their proprietary gas fermentation process to produce a consumable product the new facility required an odorless gas line, something MLGW does not typically provide for safety reasons. The Chamber coordinated NouriTech with MLGW to accomplish this.

April 26, 2017

The official groundbreaking ceremony for NouriTech is held on President’s Island.Chamber President & CEO Phil Trenary joins the groundbreaking event along with other officials. The Chamber works with Cargill and Calysta to promote the event.

2017

NouriTech is awarded a 12-year, $120 million Jobs PILOT through EDGE to invest in the Memphis facility. $25 million of this investment must be spent with minority and women business enterprises and Shelby County certified locally owned small businesses. The company is expected to create 66 new jobs with an average salary of $62,955 before benefits.

Cargill is also awarded a 6-year Jobs PILOT for the remaining part of its existing corn mill facility. The company plans to invest $20 million and add 24 jobs with an average salary of $60,417. The facility will be equipped to supply crude corn oil to an on-site oil refinery.The Chamber’s Workforce Development team worked with WIN and other local partners to hold job fairs and recruitment events to fill the new facility’s workforce needs, including outreach to the former Cargill employees who were laid off when the corn processing facility was closed.

2018

First phase of construction estimated to be complete.

2020

Second phase of construction estimated to be complete.

FUTURE

This facility is called “North America One”. With demand for renewable fishmeal showing no signs of slowing down, officials hope that this model in Memphis will lead to additional facilities around the world, creating a sustainable global model.This post is part of a Chamber series explaining the pieces, players, and processes behind growth in this city. It’s an exciting time to be in Memphis – click here to read more and join the conversation.Sources: Memphis Daily News, EDGE, Calysta, Cargill, NouriTech