SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A long-delayed South Dakota beef-processing plant given new life when Korean investors took over in 2009 is without an announced opening date more than six years after it was first proposed.
Land for the $109 million Northern Beef Packers in Aberdeen was secured in 2006. But financial issues, lawsuits, local opposition, delinquent property taxes, flooding, an economic downturn and millions of dollars in liens have repeatedly pushed back the plant's opening date.
Northern Beef Packers' spokeswoman Laure Swanson says construction of the 420,000-square-foot facility is "pretty much done" and plenty of progress has been made.
But she says she can't give an opening date.
The plant initially will process about 200 cattle a day, eventually ramping up to 1,500 head per day from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.