ADC plans groundbreaking at Mission Critical site

Golden shovels will break the dirt Friday at a 135-acre site on Highway 14 south of Aurora which local officials say represents a significant milestone in the growth of Aurora and greater Hamilton County.
As announced earlier this spring, an Illinois-based manufacturer of specialty ag products has selected a 20-acre parcel on Mission Critical as the site for its new production facility. Gov. Jim Pillen will join Brandt company owners and executives, along with other state and local leaders, for a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday at the project site, located on the east side of Highway 14 just south of the “Welcome to Aurora” sign.
“This is one of those projects that people will look back at and remember due to its size and importance, which is similar to previous projects like Iams and the ethanol plant developments,” said Kelsey Bergen, executive director of the Aurora Development Corporation.
Bergen and members of the ADC board have been communicating with Brandt representatives for more than a year, eventually coming to terms on a project that will actually bear the name of a newly formed company called Specialty Ag Formulations, which is a partnership with Frenchman Valley Farmer’s Cooperative based in Imperial. ADC President Jim Ediger said this project is indeed significant, not only for its partnership with Brandt, but also for the opportunities now available to other companies looking for a place to land.
“Due to the infrastructure costs to open up a commercial development like Mission Critical, it takes a prospect of a certain scale to justify the costs and overall risk, which is what we found with Specialty Ag Formulations,” Ediger explained. “This groundbreaking represents our ability to turn the greenfield site into a true shovel-ready development, which is what most prospects are seeking. I am hopeful that this will be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business development and attraction in Mission Critical.”
Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony will highlight the specific project site for the planned 100,000 sq. ft. facility, which is tentatively expected to become operational in the fall of 2024, though Ediger said groundwork has also been done to attract other companies large and small.
“We have developed a master site plan with various lot sizes to attract businesses of all sizes,” he said. “We hope that this allows local businesses to grow, but also attract new businesses to town, building the tax base and growing jobs in our community. We hope this becomes the primary location for business growth for the coming years in Hamilton County.”
Bergen said she too is excited about the potential for continued development, noting that the interest from companies looking toward Aurora has picked up considerably in the last year alone.
“Since I began working at Aurora Development Corporation in 2020, we have talked about looking for the ideal anchor tenant to open up this site, which was purchased for development more than 10 years ago,” Bergen said. “We have had a variety of quality companies who have shown interest in developing at Mission Critical over the last few years, but we have struggled to bring those projects to fruition because they weren’t large enough to make the financial side work. Specialty Ag Formulations is the right size of project to make all of the numbers work and we hope this step forward will make the next development happen even faster for a project of any size.”

Friday ceremony
The public is invited and encouraged to attend Friday’s groundbreaking, which will be moved to the Bremer Center in case of inclement weather.
“We have a variety of people traveling from across the country for this groundbreaking,” Bergen said. “Gov. Pillen will be in attendance, speaking at the event as a supporter of the agriculture community. There will also be company owners flying in from Illinois and Florida, in addition to a large number of officials from across the state who have supported the efforts for this project in a variety of ways. Equally as important are the local leaders who will be in attendance due to the important role they play in setting our community up for success to make it possible to land this type of a prospect to spur economic growth in our area.”
Ediger concurred that a project of this scope and size takes a lot of support to pull off.
“The city, Department of Economic Development and Department of Transportation have all played a role in making this happen from a development standpoint,” Ediger said. “This is a big deal for our community and we want to thank the folks at SAF for selecting Aurora to grow their company. We’re excited to have them here for the groundbreaking and officially welcome them to the Aurora community. We look forward to working side by side with them for years to come.”