Much ballyhooed plans to build a state-of-the-art $141 million meat processing production facility at the vacant Allstate Campus in Glenview have been put on hold, officials said.
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Last year California-based Upside Foods announced it had reached a deal to open an 187,000-square-foot processing facility on the Dermody Logistics Campus, the former headquarters of Allstate Insurance Co. on Sanders Road in Glenview.
But Upside Foods said that after careful consideration it is delaying the project and did not say when it will proceed.
“In the process of planning for Rubicon (the name the company had given to the Glenview facility) we identified a more efficient and cost-effective way to achieve a similar capacity and timeline of the initial phase of Rubicon by significantly expanding our operations at EPIC,” the company said in a statement. “This approach will allow us to scale and commercialize our next-generation platform and products, currently under regulatory review while extending our runway and resources for the critical work ahead. We still plan to move forward with building out our full-scale commercial facility in the future.”
The announcement likely comes as a disappointment to the Village and to Gov. J.B. Pritzker who had praised Upside Foods when it announced it was coming to Glenview last Fall.
As the first cultivated meat company to receive FDA approval, Upside’s new Glenview facility marks a major milestone for cultivated meat production supporting Illinois’ ecosystem and adding to the state’s dominance in the food processing industry, the governor’s office said in a statement at the time. Bolstered by one of the first EDGE for Start Ups agreements, the company will invest at least $141 million and create a minimum of 75 new jobs.
“On behalf of the State of Illinois, we are excited to welcome UPSIDE Foods to the Land of Lincoln and are committed to supporting their growth in the cultivated meat industry,” Pritzker said in the statement. “Here in Illinois, we are a hub for tech and innovation, thanks to our talented workforce and prime location in the heart of the Midwest. This new facility is a significant investment in our communities — creating new good-paying jobs while advancing our ambitious clean energy goals to create a more sustainable future. We also congratulate UPSIDE Foods on their recent milestone of being the inaugural company to commercially sell cultivated meat in the United States. Their pioneering leadership makes them a perfect fit for the region.”
“We welcome the decision by UPSIDE Foods to join the food and agricultural sector of the Chicagoland region and its pledge to create new jobs and foster innovation,” U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in the same statement. “Their decision to locate in Illinois is a testament to the cooperation of our local leaders to successfully attract new investments into our communities.”
Upside Foods had said it would open the Glenview facility in 2024 with the production of ground-cultivated chicken products, with plans to expand to other species and whole-textured formats in the future. It said millions of pounds of cultivated meat products would be produced at the new facility, with the potential to expand to over 30 million pounds, a significant step toward creating a more humane, sustainable, and resilient food system. It also said cultivated meat is an innovative solution to helping solve the climate crisis by ensuring animals aren’t harmed while using less land, water, and emissions during production.
“Dermody Properties is not in a position to comment on the operational plans of its customers, including Upside Foods,” said Neal Driscoll, Midwest Region Partner with Dermody. “We would refer you to their public statements.”
When asked for a comment a Village of Glenview spokesperson said the Village does not have any part in the leasing or tenant strategy of Dermody’s logistics campus and recommends reaching out to Dermody directly for “insights and information about the project.”
Upside Foods officials said more information on the delay could be found on the company’s blog.
“After careful evaluation, we’ve decided to significantly expand operations at our existing EPIC (Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center) facility in California before continuing with the build-out of Rubicon (the name we had given to our greenfield facility in Glenview, Illinois),” the blog says.
“We still plan to build a full-scale commercial facility as originally envisioned,” the blog says. “The incredible hard work and resources that have been invested in the process to date as well as the proof points we anticipate from EPIC will allow us to move with speed when that time comes.”
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.