Members of the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission were updated on the Marshall County Economic Development Commission during their meeting Tuesday evening.
Jerry Chavez, President and CEO of MCEDC showed members a graph detailing the capital investment in Marshall County over the last four years. In 2015 capital investment was $5 million due to the business expansion of WestRock. There were no new jobs.
In 2016 the capital investment was over $35 million because of four the business expansions. Homestead Dairy had a $14 million expansion project while DAC Enterprises put $83,000 in for a business expansion. $3.6 million was invested by Viking Paper and $18 million with the Pretzels, Inc. expansion. This year 71 jobs were created too.
In 2017 the capital investment was nearly $1 million. There were two business expansions $400,000 for Farm Innovators and American Containers with an investment of $547,000. There were 6 new jobs created.
Chavez told the Redevelopment Commission 2018 there were 6 business expansions including $60 million for Winona Building Products, $9 million for Pretzels, Inc. and $500,000 for Weir Enterprises. In all the total capital investments were over $77 million and more than 220 new jobs created.
Chavez also noted that the average hourly wage is increasing. Right now it’s sitting somewhere between $24.00 and $26.00 an hour compared to $14.00 to $15.00 an hour in 2015.
