TEMPLE, TX — Temple, Texas, a city filled with around 66,000 people just a decade ago.
“Whether it's downtown, whether it's the industrial environment, whether it's education,” Adrian Cannady, the president and CEO of the Temple Economic Development Corporation began. “There's a lot of great reasons to still love a Temple.”
Today, Temple is called home by nearly 10,000 more folks.
“With the growth that's happening around us, with improvements that we're making in our community, we truly want to be seen as the place to be in the state of Texas,” Cannady said.
The town itself isn’t the only thing growing either.
Upon approval from the Bell County Commissioners Court, a new sustainable greenhouse lettuce producer is moving in, too.
“We're really excited,” said Colin McMahon, the director of business development of Revol Greens. “We’re excited to get started in the Temple community, and most importantly, we're excited to start delivering our high-quality leafy greens to the local market.”
Revol Greens, the Minnesota-based company, who also grows greens in California, decided about a year ago to tackle its third state, but the company didn’t know where.
That’s when Central Texas entered the picture.
“The location helps us to live our dreams throughout the south and Texas and the south three days faster than shipping them from the west coast,” McMahon explained. “Temple is particularly attractive because within a two and a half-hour drive, we're able to reach 80% of the Texas population.”
This isn’t your average greenhouse, either.
The growing facility and the workers are predicted to produce more than 17 million pounds of lettuce of many types, but someone has to do all of the work.
“We will be adding over 150 competitive wage jobs and benefits over the next three, four years,” McMahon said. “And [we] are excited to work within the local community to do so.”
The project is a $110 million investment to start and will be completed in four separate phases.
Phase one is slated to begin this year and the hope is to have it operating in 2022.
Each phase looks to add an additional 20 acres to what was built before.
“The market is continuing to be strong in the state of Texas for future economic growth and future economic projects, and I think Temple is going to be at the center,” Cannady said.
