Bad weather has delayed the project a bit, but walls are up on a $40 million Dannon yogurt plant that should be finished by the end of the year.
"We are proceeding, although we are a little behind in what was a very aggressive schedule," said Mark Johnson, plant manager for the 160,000-square-foot campus-style facility near 9200 South and 6200 West. The facility will be the third manufacturing site in the United States for the French company.A city bulldozer and a couple of backhoes worked against a snowy Oquirrh Mountains backdrop on Tuesday, moving earth and making room for a new road to carry workers to the 60-acre site.
The plant will occupy between 30 and 35 acres at first, and officials have planned to expand or entice affiliated businesses to Utah.
Johnson and a skeleton staff have hired a few managers, but the bulk of 145 employees expected to make up the company's initial work force won't be hired until later next fall, he said.
Wayne Harper, community and economic development director for the city, said his staff will ask the City Council to change 9280 South to Dannon Way when the group meets March 19.
After Micron's stunning decision to halt work on its $2.5 billion Lehi plant, Harper and other city officials are relieved at Dannon's progress. "They've been excellent. It's been great for one of these projects to do what they say they're going to do."
Construction at the now-stymied Micron plant in Lehi has tied up much of the Utah building industry in recent months. While many builders are part of a $400 million mothballing project at the Micron facility, some who were splitting their time between the two sites now focus on Dannon, Johnson said.
"It's been a hodgepodge with a mixture of contractors," he said. "The situation with Micron returns the construction business to normalcy."
Big D Construction in Ogden will do the bulk of the work. On Tuesday, Dannon closed bids for the next phase of the construction.
New products happen so fast in the company that Johnson said he can't predict what will be new on the market when the West Jordan plant opens.