Tribune staff writer

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.- On the southern side of St. Joseph, it can look desolate. A driver can think they’ve come upon an abandoned town for blocks at a time, with empty store fronts and dilapidated brick buildings.

However, Rick Hoffman said that quality of life issues were important in making the decision to put his company, Premium Pork, LLC’s headquarters in St. Joseph.

What seems more relevant is the city’s workforce/population and the location.

Incentives-wise, Albert Lea was strides ahead.

The northern Missouri city put a package together for the company that included a 20-year, $7 million loan to the company for building waste water treatment facilities, $5.6 million in tax increment financing to redevelop land for the company, and $2.7 million grant for infrastructure and a $500,000 grant for workforce training, from the State of Missouri. These elements total $8.2 million in incentives and $7 million in loans.

For Albert Lea, the offer had

$11 million in incentives, more than $1 million from the state of Minnesota, and a guarantee of a tax free, JOBZ (Job Opportunity Building Zone) if the company were to locate there, according to City Manager Paul Sparks.

&uot;We had, by far, financially, the best package on the table,&uot; Sparks said. &uot;The problem is that most government incentives don’t turn out to be the deciding factors in these decisions.&uot;

Hoffman said company officials considered a variety of issues when choosing St. Joseph: wastewater facilities, proximity to Kansas City International Airport, schools, health care, and quality of life.

One primary reason St. Joseph was selected over Albert Lea was its location between primary hog producers in Missouri, northeastern Kansas, western Iowa and southern Minnesota, and customers in the southeastern and southwestern United States, Hoffman said. By locating in Minnesota, the company would have shipped raw materials north before sending finished products south.

When asked why Albert Lea was looked at if the location was poor, Hoffman replied that early in the process, the company wasn’t sure which factors would stand out in either city.

The Missouri city also had the advantage in workforce. The city has lost many major manufacturers during the past five years, according to St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President, Pat Lilly. He said that in 2001, two of the largest employers in town were ruined in a flood, neither rebuilt. This year already, they have lost two more major companies.

&uot;This will be a major employment opportunity improvement for us,&uot; he said.

Hoffman said location decision was especially important for Premium Pork because the company is just starting out.

&uot;Like a new baby, we want to make sure that first step is a good one and what we step in is a good community,&uot; Hoffman said.

Mayor David Jones said that keeping the city attitude about the plant positive was important in making that step easier.

&uot;The city of St. Joseph was positive about it,&uot; he said. &uot;When the community said yes, it made a huge difference.&uot;

In Albert Lea, city officials took the same basic approach. Though Jean Eaton didn’t put her job on the plant, as Jones readily admits he did, she did have a clear opinion on the plant: Albert Lea needs it.

Sparks said that getting the public involved in the discussion was especially important.

&uot;With a packinghouse, you don’t know how the public will react,&uot; Sparks said.

Reactions from the public in St. Joseph tended to be positive, yet still concerns about the future of the city and the plant’s workforce were present.

To try to avoid community problems, the St. Joseph city council attached some strings to a memorandum of understanding on Thursday afternoon. At a special meeting,

wearing rubber pig snouts and eating bacon, the council passed the resolution.

It demanded: a $10.50 per hour starting wage, with medical insurance, disability insurance, vacation and sick leave; A commitment to hire a minimum of 1,000 employees after two years; A commitment of $100,000 per year for four years to their school district’s English as a second language (ESL) program; A three-year commitment to give an annual $25,000 in training compensation to the police department; and, finally, a commitment of $50,000 annually to the local United Way.

A few years ago, Rick Hoffman, the CEO of Premium Pork, LLC, was in charge of another company, Seaboard Foods. When he brought a proposal for the same sized and type of factory to St. Joseph, they turned him down.

Jones said that hard economic times for the city, which has had a century-long, tumultuous relationship with the pork industry, have put them in a position to bring a large processing facility into town again. Though controversial, he took a chance to bring pork back to St. Joseph.

Jones got his wish, and likely saved his political career with the win.

&uot;I was excited about this five months ago,&uot; he said. &uot;My enthusiasm has just been getting stronger since then.&uot;

&uot;I couldn’t be happier.&uot;

The Associated Press contributed to this report