SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – A project several years in the making has finally broken ground in Sioux Falls with a promise of creating some 600 jobs.
The construction site of the new Asian-style food production plant from CJ Schwan’s is located in Foundation Park near the Amazon Fulfillment Center. The 142-acre site will soon be home to a 700 thousand-square-foot food production facility tasked with making egg rolls and steamed dumplings.
“I’m ready to call us the egg roll capitol of the world, can we say that yet,” Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said.
This project was announced in 2021. Since then, the state government has given a record amount of money to the company to build this facility — two loans totaling $25 million.
“The sheer magnitude of this investment — really excited. This will be the largest, I believe it’s going to be the largest frozen Asian facility,” Minsok Pak, CEO of CJ Foods, said. “So what this is going to allow us to do is, if you think about it, in the near future we’re going to have products rolling off here that will serve consumers from Sacramento all the way to Syracuse, right, with products made in Sioux Falls. That is truly, truly a blessing.”
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken says projects like this are what the city dreamed of when creating Foundation Park.
“We are here because of the vision of a bunch of community leaders who said, ‘we need a big development park and we’re going to call it Foundation Park. We’re going to build it and hope they come,'” TenHaken said. “And this was a barren place for quite a few years and now we’re almost out of land and we’re talking about Foundation Park 2.”
“We’re thrilled to be able to call Sioux Falls part of our home now and look forward to contributing to the continued economic success, economic development of this state,” Pak said.
The project is expected to be done and open in 2027. In the meantime, the company has said it’s opening an office in downtown Sioux Falls for 50 additional jobs during the construction phase.
The familiar Schwan’s Home Delivery service, also known as Yelloh, is not a part of the Schwan’s and CJ Foods company leading this project.
