City works to help 80 Acres Farm succeed, stay in Hamilton
Added on 16 January 2024
City Council will consider amending the Utility Economic Development Agreement (EDA) with 80 Acres for the second time in as many years. Christine Carr, Hamilton's acting director of Business Services, said amending the utility EDA will incentivize the company's future growth within the city.
Details of the amendment are still being worked out, said Carr, and the company plans to make a presentation at the Jan. 24 council meeting. City Manager Joshua Smith's staff is still drafting the agreement, but "we are taking the agreement they received last year and giving them the same 2023 terms for 2024. In exchange, they agreed to add one year to the end of their agreement."
The city and 80 Acres entered into the utility EDA in October 2018, an accord designed to encourage job growth and increased electric consumption in the city. They amended the contract last January mostly because of an unplanned facility.
Though the amendment's details won't be known until next week, the impact will "incentivize future growth," Carr said.
Smith said on Wednesday there had been a lot of disruptions and challenges in the vertical farming industry in the past 12 to 24 months. Well-known vertical farms in the industry filed for bankruptcy, including AeroFarms and AppHarvest. Though it's not a good sign to see big vertical farms go out of business and there are challenges, Forbes reported last year there are opportunities for the industry.
And 80 Acres has grown.
In September, 80 Acres opened its largest and most advanced farm, a 200,000-square-foot facility that was a $95 million investment, in Florence, Ky. With their produce in stores, like area Kroger stores, Dorothy Lane in Dayton and Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, they launched last year new grab-and-go salad kits.
Photo by Petr Magera on Unsplash
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