A real estate company is in the process of buying the former Russell Stover factory in Montrose with aims of using it as a food processing and cold-storage facility.
Since 1973, the Russell Stover Chocolates manufacturer has been a cornerstone of the Montrose community.
The facility served as one of the county’s largest employers over the past 45 years. As of early 2020, it was the third-largest employer in the region after the Montrose County School District and Montrose Memorial Hospital.
Later this month, on April 26, Russell Stover is slated to officially close the factory, one year after the Kansas City-based company announced it would. However, neither the building nor a portion of its roughly 400 employees will be dormant for long.
Benezet Realty Partners, LLC, is under contract to take over the 278,400-square foot facility for $4.5 million, a cheaper price than the $15 million appraised value of the building and the 213 acres upon which it’s situated. Benezet will repurpose the facility into a fruit, vegetable, and protein processing, packaging, and cold-storage factory, with only minimal alterations required.
The transfer was originally slated for late February, but was delayed.
“Russell Stover was delayed in getting their paperwork to the city of Montrose to allow them to rezone it out of ‘P’ for ‘Public’, a city-held title, into the appropriate zoning for both the store and the plant,” said Montrose Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) Executive Director Sandy Head. “As soon as the closing happens, those things can always be moved around. Everything’s on track; it’s just that the track got slow. It was just a matter of them understanding that there’s certain steps the city has to go through time-wise on rezoning something.”
Russell Stover offered its Montrose employees the opportunity to transfer to the company’s other plants in Texas and Kansas. However, under Benezet, the facility will become the home of multiple companies of different production strategies, and some former Russell Stover workers will remain in Montrose to join them.
Head said that MEDC has been accepting names and contact information from Russell Stover employees to provide to the companies that ultimately utilize space inside the building.
Benezet’s stated motivation for the purchase is “rethinking this nation’s food supply chain with a new farm-to-table platform that provides direct distribution opportunities for small-scale, sustainable farmers and ranchers to local markets,” especially in the wake of a year of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and economic hardship.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” Head said. “The buyer has been interested since last August, doing due diligence and talking to people to see who all would be interested in filling a portion of the building. The picture is much bigger than just food production. The building is very specialized, so it’s not something that would be attractive to any and every kind of manufacturing. The fact that the employees who were there are trained in food handling, that’s another attractive piece of the building.
“The plans, when they all come to fruition, will be a benefit to the regional agriculture and ranching community.”
Russell Stover sold the factory for nearly a third of its appraised value because it desired a speedy liquidation of the asset. Once the Montrose City Council approves the facility’s rezoning, the transfer of ownership will become simple, as the property’s closure will be the only step remaining.
“We’ve been crossing a number of hurdles and I think we’re in a good place right now,” Head said. “It’s been a journey, but it’s been exciting and it’s been a great company to work with, as well as the new owner. We’re looking forward to it.”
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Buyer slated to take over Russell Stover factory in Montrose - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
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