Thanks to years of success built off its famous corned beef, EW Grobbel Sons, Inc. has reached capacity at its existing location and is now expanding with a major redevelopment project that will strengthen the region’s agricultural ecosystem, increase the tax base for the city, and create 300 new jobs. This project marks the first of many more anticipated food production businesses that will locate to Greater Eastern Market, an expanded area of Eastern Market identified in the Eastern Market Framework Plan. It’s a clear, positive sign that we are successfully retaining and growing the food industry in Detroit.
Through a partnership with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, and the Michigan Department of Transportation, Detroit secured the Grobbel project over competitive locations in Ohio, Nebraska and Georgia, all of which offered the company existing, turnkey facilities. Detroit’s winning proposal will reactivate an existing, underutilized property through leveraging the Eastern Market Framework Plan — a concerted effort by the City and DEGC to prepare land for the development of food-based production, processing and manufacturing.
DEGC’s goal is to provide the food sector with development tools needed to support continuous growth. In the case of a long-standing business like EW Grobbel Sons, Inc., which is essential to Eastern Market’s food production district, we were able to work with the Michigan Strategic Fund and the City of Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to secure $3,276,724 for brownfield remediation and a proposed 12-year Industrial Facilities Exemption Tax Abatement valued at $5.6 million.
As a result of this support, Grobbel will invest $33 million in two phases to construct a new facility totaling 140,000 square feet. The new facility, located east of Dequindre and just north of Mack Avenue, will include cold storage, shipping and receiving bays, and office areas. The development will also result in 94,308 square feet of public infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks, curbs and a green stormwater management system.
With the expansion of the property, Grobbel will also expand its product lines, shipping Detroit-made meat snacks, sliced meats, shelf-stable pickled produce and healthy vegan snack bites to grocery and retail outlets across the country.
Detroit’s continued recovery from the pandemic centers, in part, on our ability to create jobs and new investment. We are thrilled to see Grobbel’s success translate into the creation of hundreds of new jobs at entry and supervisory levels. These kinds of development efforts often lead to greater supply chain expansion. EW Grobbel Sons, Inc. has already requested vendors to locate near the new cold storage facility, which will result in additional job opportunities for Detroiters.
Both public and private partnerships and collaborations will make Detroit successful today and for many years to come. As a fourth-generation family business, we are proud to enable the future generations of EW Grobbel Sons, Inc. and its staff to continue to call Detroit home.