A Renewed Partnership. A Historic Chapter for Sioux Falls.
By: Mayor Paul TenHaken
Since 1909, Smithfield Foods and its earlier iterations have been woven into the story of Sioux Falls. Generations of families have built their livelihoods there. Neighborhoods have grown up around it. Our downtown skyline has long been defined by it. Today, we stand at the edge of a decision that will shape the next hundred years just as profoundly as the last.
Smithfield’s plan to invest more than $1 billion in a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility at Foundation Park is not just a business announcement. It is a generational commitment to Sioux Falls, to South Dakota, and to American agriculture.
This new combined fresh pork and packaged meats facility will be the most modern of its kind anywhere in the world. Built from the ground up with advanced automation and cutting-edge IT systems, it will anchor Smithfield’s network as its largest combined packaged meats and fresh pork operation. It will enhance efficiency, strengthen supply chains, and help deliver high-quality, affordable protein to customers across the country.
That scale matters. Today, Smithfield’s Sioux Falls plant processes nearly 20,000 hogs per day, primarily sourced from regional independent farmers, many of which are right here in South Dakota. Nationally, the company’s 32,000 U.S. employees process more than 28 million hogs annually, purchasing roughly 130 million bushels of grain and one million tons of soybean meal each year. This investment reinforces South Dakota’s position at the center of that agricultural ecosystem.
But this announcement is about more than steel and concrete. It is about people.
Smithfield currently supports approximately 3,200 employees in Sioux Falls and contributes roughly $200 million in wages annually in our community. These are not abstract numbers. They represent mortgages paid, kids sent to college, small businesses supported, and community organizations strengthened.
As mayor, I have had the privilege of working closely with Smithfield’s leadership. When the company evaluated its future, it had options. It could have reinvested in its existing downtown facility. It could have relocated elsewhere in the United States. It could have moved operations globally. Instead, after thoughtful collaboration with city and state partners, Smithfield chose to stay. They chose Sioux Falls.
That decision speaks volumes about who we are as a community and as a state. It reflects strong partnerships with the Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, and countless local leaders who worked diligently behind the scenes to chart a path forward.
It also required vision.
As Sioux Falls has grown, our city has expanded around the existing plant. What was once an edge-of-town industrial site now sits adjacent to a thriving and expanding downtown. Recognizing that reality, Smithfield and community leaders worked together to identify Foundation Park, which was envisioned and created over a decade ago as an industrial and manufacturing hub, at the intersection of I-29 and I-90, as a location that better aligns with modern industrial needs while preserving thousands of local jobs locally and in our ag community.
This relocation will require use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF is one of the only tools we have available in the competitive environment of economic development. When used appropriately and responsibly, as the City of Sioux Falls has, it can spur a tenfold return on value, as previous TIF projects in our city have demonstrated. This TIF would be developer funded, meaning Smithfield is responsible for their upfront construction costs and would continue to pay their full property taxes. The incremental property taxes on the new plant will help pay for infrastructure for Smithfield to treat its own wastewater onsite, saving capacity at the City’s plant. This is not a tax break and is not a blank check.
Here’s how it benefits us:
- Retains a company with an estimated $3.3 billion annual economic impact to our state.
- Keeps the fourth largest employer in Sioux Falls with a $200+ million annual payroll.
- Ensures our ag economy, farmers and suppliers have a stable market now and into the future.
- A relocation that opens more than 130 acres of prime land for redevelopment
- Significant increase in future tax revenue for the new Smithfield site, once the TIF expires, and in the redeveloped downtown site.
- And the list goes on.
The relocation creates something extraordinary: more than 130 acres of prime property in the heart of our city, across from our namesake park, that will one day become an extension of downtown.
This entire opportunity would not exist without an incredible act of generosity. As part of this transition, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford has committed a $50 million gift to enable the Sioux Falls Development Foundation to assume ownership of the current Smithfield property once the new facility is complete. This gift unlocks the possibility of long-term redevelopment that will shape the future of our urban core for decades.
To be clear: the redevelopment process will take time. Constructing Smithfield’s new facility, followed by the demolition and environmental remediation of the existing plant, is a multi-year effort and will not happen overnight. Given the scale of the property, redevelopment could span decades, and we don’t expect it to begin until at least five years from now. But that is precisely what makes this moment historic. We are not talking about a short-term project. We are talking about a multi-generational transformation.
Years from now, when residents walk through new neighborhoods, parks, businesses and public spaces on what was once an industrial site, they may not remember the intricacies of this agreement. But they will live in a city that was bold enough to think long term.
This investment will outlast my time in office. It will outlast the current leadership at Smithfield. It will carry forward into the lives of our children and grandchildren.
That is what makes this moment so significant.
We are witnessing the planting of roots for another century of partnership. And because of that, the story of Sioux Falls is not just continuing. It is accelerating into a future defined by innovation, collaboration and confidence.
This historic moment sets the stage for transformation and together we will write the next great chapter of our shared success.
This past Thursday, an outstanding warrant was served on former Rapid City News Anchor Shad Olson on charges that he has violated the terms and conditions of his sentence for Domestic Abuse – Simple Assault/attempt to put another in fear of bodily harm; a charge which was reduced from his arrest in January of 2024 for felony assault in conjunction with a domestic abuse matter.
Who couldn’t use a little more money in their pocket? Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts, there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing more money in your pocket when you file your taxes this year. Thanks to Republicans’ landmark bill, hardworking South Dakotans will see smaller tax bills and bigger refunds, and small business owners, farmers, and ranchers will also have more money to invest in their workers and operations.
