Texas Leads U.S. in Food & Beverage Projects Under Construction

Of the nearly $33.7 billion worth of Food & Beverage Industry projects under construction in the U.S. that is being tracked by Industrial Info, Texas shines the brightest in regard to overall project value, accounting for nearly $3 billion in projects underway. Looking at the Lone Star State’s top projects in this industry shows the variety of food sectors present in the state, ranging from dairy products to warehousing and distribution to aquaculture.

The two largest projects in the state involve milk and cheese. Construction on Leprino Foods Company's (Denver, Colorado) new facility in Lubbock kicked off in 2022, and the first phase of the project is expected to be completed later this year. The 850,000-square-foot facility will be home to the latest state-of-the-art technology and environmentally friendly features, such as water capture and reuse throughout the facility, according to a company press release. The plant will produce mozzarella cheese and dairy ingredients from approximately 8 million pounds of milk per day.

But Leprino may not be finished after Phase I is complete. A Phase II expansion is in the early planning stages and could begin construction in early 2025. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Food & Beverage Project Database can click here for related reports.

The second dairy project is construction of a milk-processing plant in Robinson, outside of Waco. According to a company press release, Walmart Incorporated (NYSE:WMT) (Bentonville, Arkansas) has been working across its food offerings to deliver increased transparency about where products come from, and the new dairy in Robinson will use milk sourced primarily from Texas dairy farmers.

The facility will be Walmart's third milk-processing facility in the U.S. when it begins operating in 2026. Its first began operating in Indiana in 2018, and a second is slated to come online in Georgia next year. The products from the new Texas facility will serve more than 750 Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs throughout the southern U.S., including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and parts of Arkansas and Mississippi. The dairy will cover a range of milk products with various fat contents such as 1%, 2% and whole, and it will manufacture 1% chocolate milk, providing both gallon and half-gallon sizes.

Construction on the new dairy recently began, paving the way for the 800,000- to 900,000-square-foot facility to begin operations in 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Food & Beverage Project Database can learn more by viewing the project report.

In Lorena, Texas, also near Waco, BrightFarms Incorporated (Irvington, New York) is underway with construction of a grassroot hydroponic greenhouse complex. Work on the first greenhouse facility kicked off last year and will result in a 400,000-square-foot space. Work on this first phase is wrapping up, and work on a second phase will begin later this year, followed by two further phases of construction, each adding another greenhouse. In total, BrightFarms expects to produce about 35 million pounds of lettuce and leafy greens from the site, which is one of four U.S. hubs being established by the company. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Food & Beverage Project Database can click here for the related reports.

The refrigerated warehousing and distribution sector represents one of the leading components of Texas’ food and beverage activities, and the top project in this sector is not intended for a single company, but rather for multiple tenants. Cold Summit Development (Sun Valley, Idaho) broke ground on a grassroot speculative cold storage facility in Lancaster, in the Dallas metroplex, late last year. The 363,000-square-foot facility will provide cold storage and office space for up to four tenants. The facility’s location provides close proximity to an intermodal rail terminal and major interstate highways. The facility is expected to be ready for tenants in the coming months. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.

The hot Texas summers can lead to increased popsicle consumption, and Ziegenfelder Company (Wheeling, West Virginia), manufacturer of Twin Pops and Monster Pops, will help supply the region’s frozen treat needs when it completes its manufacturing plant in Lockhart, about 30 miles south of Austin, later this year. The 61,000-square-foot facility will be almost two-thirds freezer space, and the production equipment is being installed with the aim of producing about 1 million popsicles a day. Subscribers can click here to learn more about the project.

While the small Texas town of Detroit is less well-known than the Michigan city sharing its name, Prime Harvest Farms (Detroit) might bring small town more prominence with the construction of an integrated beef and salmon production facility. While production of the two protein sources may seem at odds with each other, the company intends to make them complimentary products that can be produced in conjunction with one another, helping to reduce waste. A beef-processing plant will process 50 million pounds of beef per year with the intention of harvesting every element of the animal for hides, organic fertilizer, bone fertilizer, blood meal, meat meal and pharmaceutical components. Meat offal will be utilized to make organic fish food for feeding to the aquaculture portion of the farm, which is expected to produce up to 5 million tons per year of salmon. The complex also will include a plant to process the fish and a grain terminal. Construction began this summer and is expected to last about a year in total, putting the facility on track begin introducing and growing out its fish and processing cattle next year. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the related project reports.

Subscribers to Industrial Info’s GMI Food & Beverage Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.