UPDATE: Fair Oaks celebrating upcoming construction of Davenport facility 

Fair Oaks Foods and Quad Cities leaders celebrated the kickoff Thursday, Sept. 1, of construction on the new $134 million, 150,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art fully-cooked bacon production facility in Davenport. Company leaders and the local partners who worked to bring Fair Oaks to the community hosted a groundbreaking at the site of the new facility at 2951 Enterprise Way. The event, which was held on the edge of the construction area where fresh dirt and heavy equipment were evident, was clearly ceremonial.  Partners in the project instead used it as an opportunity to celebrate a project that Fair Oaks hopes will continue to move quickly. The deal itself was first announced at a June 14 news conference that included representatives of Fair Oaks Foods, City of Davenport, the Greater Davenport Redevelopment Corporation (GDRC) and the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. Eleven weeks later, many of those same people were on hand to talk about the project, which will create at least 247 new full-time jobs at its start and is on track to open in early 2024. In addition, during the construction phase of the project between 400 and 450 tradespeople will be working on the site, according to Mike Pierce, president and CEO of the Austin Co. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company - which also assisted Fair Oaks Foods with site location evaluation for the project - is a 144-year-old company with a long history of building innovative production facilities for the the food and beverage industry.

Also on Thursday, Fair Oaks company leaders, starting with its President and CEO Michael L. Thompson, once again thanked Davenport and the Quad Cities community for welcoming them to the region. The family-owned processing company is the 11th largest black-owned business in the United States, and is headquartered in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Founded in 1985, it produces and supplies a variety of protein products to food service, national grocery stores and quick-serve restaurants globally.  “As a company, Fair Oaks Foods takes our values seriously,” Mr. Thompson said. “Integrity, honesty, diversity and community are all important to us. After looking at over 100 sites, it might have been 125, across the U.S. we believe the Quad Cities is one of the best locations we could have chosen – a solid community with a diverse workforce and family values, to support our companies’ values and growth.” The Quad Cities’ highly skilled workforce is another reason that these jobs are coming to the state-of-the-art, largely hands-free production facility at Davenport, according to Joseph Freda, COO of Fair Oaks Foods. “This will be a highly automated bacon facility,” he added. In addition, he said, Fair Oaks wants to work closely with local vendors and he asked them to reach out to the company. The website lists the phone numbers as (262) 947-0320 or toll-free at 1-800-528-8615. Eventually, there will be a job trailer on the site so that vendors interested in doing business with Fair Oaks can connect with someone in person. The new facility also represents a major product line expansion for a company that has already grown by nearly 500% in the last 30 years. The Davenport facility will produce fully cooked bacon. Currently, according to Mr. Freda, the company currently produces patties, meatballs and crumbled meat. Efforts to win the Fair Oaks plant began in June 2021 when the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) issued a request for proposals, parties to the Fair Oaks deal told the QCBJ back in June. The Austin Company, which served as site selector familiar with the region, connected with Mike Oberhaus, the Quad Cities Chamber’s former interim CEO and chief strategy officer.  To help make the Fair Oaks deal work, Davenport agreed to provide a 60% tax increment financing (TIF) rebate to the company for 15 years, minus $1.1 million for the upfront cost of a pretreatment facility. The Iowa Economic Development Association also approved tax credits for Fair Oaks through its High Quality Jobs Program. In exchange for the incentives, the development is expected to have an annual economic impact of $182 million – making it the largest single business attraction project in the region’s history. Mr. Freda applauded those efforts as well as the work of the Quad Cities Chamber and the Greater Davenport Redevelopment Center for creating the shovel-ready site. “That played into this big time,” Mr. Freda said. He also thanked Russell – whom Mr. Freda called the project’s “hometown hero” – for its work on the production facility. In addition, he singled out MidAmerican Energy’s efforts to power the site, which the company said could be the biggest largest energy user in the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center. As a result of all its Quad Cities' partners’ efforts, Mr. Freda said, “We’re cruising.”  Mayor Mike Matson, who kicked off the ceremonies, called Thursday “another great day in Davenport and the Quad Cities.” As he pointed to developments like the Amazon Fulfillment Center, Sterlite and 7G Distributing, the mayor recalled the days many years ago when there was “nothing in this area.” Tami Petsche, the chamber's vice president of business & economic growth, celebrated the "strong message" sent to project developers by the Fair Oaks deal and Thursday's groundbreaking. The latter, she pointed out, also came just two days before National Bacon Day on Saturday, Sept. 3.  That message, she said, is that the Quad Cities has the skilled workforce they need to do the job and it's a great place to do business.