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Spartan Seeks City Review of Sales-Tax Rebate for $20M Expansion, Plans 50 Hires
Summary
Spartan told the council it has approval for a roughly $20 million expansion in Brandon and the council directed staff to review the company’s sales-tax-rebate application and draft an agreement.
Chad Kiniggy, general manager of Spartan’s Brandon facility, told the Brandon City Council that the company has approval to proceed with roughly a $20 million expansion at its site and asked the city to review a sales-tax-rebate application connected to that project.
“We got the agree approval to do a $20,000,000 expansion,” Kiniggy said, describing plans that include a $2 million laser purchased this year and a new paint booth complex. He said the new building would be about 360 by 130 feet and that the company expects to expand its plant area from about 88,000 square feet to roughly 150,000 square feet.
Kiniggy said Spartan plans to hire about 50 additional employees and that the current facility employs 213 people, with about 185 on-site; 147 employees work in production roles.
Why it matters: The expansion would increase local industrial capacity and could bring new jobs. Councilmembers asked staff to assess which purchases would be eligible for a sales-tax rebate and to prepare a draft agreement for council consideration.
Council action and next steps: City staff and the city attorney were directed to “go through the application they submitted to the state, see what's sales tax eligible from our perspective, and then draft up a sales tax agreement with them.” Councilmembers suggested returning the item to the council agenda at the next regular meeting on Aug. 4 for further consideration.
Details: Kiniggy said the expansion would include “about 250 feet of a paint booth facility, which will have 4 paint booths, 5 paint booths, and 6 sanding booths,” intended to improve environmental capture of paint chemicals. The company said it expects some portion of new hires to come from Brandon and the Sioux Falls area; Kiniggy estimated 10–20% of new hires could be Brandon residents.
Ending: Staff indicated the city has used equipment-only limits on prior sales-tax-rebate awards and that a similar approach may apply; the council asked staff to return recommendations and a draft agreement at a future meeting.
