Vertical farming startup signs lease on MSU’s grain silos

More than 60 years after construction, the former MFA silos in downtown Springfield may return to a role of sustenance for the local population. The difference this time is the grain storage towers, owned by Missouri State University, will be growing food rather than storing it in a startup’s bid to begin vertical farming.

On Feb. 17, the MSU Board of Governors approved a lease agreement with Vertical Innovations LLC for the silos at 310 E. Phelps St. and 524 Boonville Ave., plus adjacent land at 430 Boonville Ave. Urban agriculture is in the works on a large scale.

“The facilities were designed for the vertical storage and movement of wheat,” said Vertical Innovations co-owner David Geisler. “We’re really just replacing the grain with water.”

For Geisler and business partner Jim Kerns, the idea traces back to a 1915 book by Gilbert Bailey titled “Vertical Farming.” In modern practice, it involves growing plants in indoor vertical rack systems where environmental conditions, such as lighting, irrigation and fertilizers, can be controlled.

“The importance of elevation is not so much having space to grow as it is for air to move,” Kerns said, noting the convective process that causes heated moist air to rise as an advantage of the design. “We aren’t doing anything different inside of these facilities they weren’t already designed for.”

The company is equally owned between Kerns and Geisler – both former Morelock-Ross Builders Inc. employees – and a silent partner. The five-year lease, effective March 1, on the combined 24,650 square feet will cost Vertical Innovations $41,950 per year. It carries four renewal options.

Housing lettuce and mushrooms – each producing the carbon dioxide or oxygen for the other to thrive – the fully realized project would account for 200 acres of hydroponic growing space on less than 12,000 square feet. Kerns, a construction superintendent who left Morelock-Ross Builders last year, estimated on that scale the farm could produce 2.2 million pounds of lettuce each year.

The investment to reach that level: $12 million.

Full of ideas
Vertical farming isn’t the first concept pitched for the silos.

“There have been a lot of ideas but nothing took shape,” said Allen Kunkel, MSU’s associate vice president for economic development. “There was talk about using it for recreational purposes like a climbing facility or public art on the silos for downtown, but nothing serious in terms of approaching a lease agreement.”

When the city bought the vacant silos in 2003 – they were built in 1955 and operated until 2000 as part of the MFA Inc. grain mill – officials opened the door to private developers. They had visions of restaurants, hotels, lofts or observation towers.

Now the site of the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, the aging cluster of silos is juxtaposed with the modern, technology-centric building. MSU got ahold of the property in 2005 and JVIC opened in 2007.

Kunkel, who’s also director of JVIC, said Vertical Innovations approached the school’s governors about purchasing the silos less than a year ago. Not wanting to give up control of properties in the heart of the broader IDEA Commons, school officials opted for a lease.

Geisler and Kerns are gearing their project to sell food wholesale to schools, hospitals and grocery store suppliers. Internships and curriculum for MSU’s William H. Darr School of Agriculture also are in their sights with the aim of training a new agricultural workforce.

“That’s what we really need to do: support local farmers so they can produce and we become backup,” Kerns said. “That way what we overproduce can be put on the rail lines near these facilities and still get to Kansas City or wherever only hours old.”

The partners have enlisted farmer Paul Tinlin to conduct a field test on a 22-foot rack system at his Morning Glory Farm in northwest Springfield. In addition to a year-round growing season, Tinlin said the vertical concept offers another advantage.

“We’re fighting a problem on the conventional farm of losing topsoil to wind and tilling,” said Tinlin, who now owns a 15 percent share in Vertical Innovations. “We don’t have that problem in the silos.”

Tending the garden
Before Vertical Innovations can begin planting, there’s plenty of cleanup work and seed money needed. Geisler, who was Morelock-Ross general counsel until January, said the company seek investors, and equity ownership is on the table.

The full-scale project is estimated to cost $12 million, which includes electrical and plumbing improvements, the installation of environmental control systems and grow racks, plus construction of greenhouse enclosures for the silos. Fish-fertilized aquaponics also is on the radar.

According to the lease agreement, the 18-month final phase places the operational timeline around September 2017. If the project proves successful, the partners have identified three other Springfield silo properties where it could be expanded.

Springfield Senior Planner and Brownfields Coordinator Olivia Hough said the properties require additional environmental assessment. An early phase environmental site assessment performed in December by Terracon Consultants Inc. found no soil or groundwater contamination.

“The main concern was suspect lead-based paint, based on the construction date of the silos,” Hough said. “We also think there is some suspect asbestos-containing materials in the pipe wrap, and that would need to be abated before any renovation.”

Hough said Terracon would perform a second assessment to determine the next steps. Because the properties are listed under the Department of Natural Resources’ brownfields/voluntary cleanup program, the state agency will provide technical oversight and guidance on the findings, as well as any remediation processes.

The first cleanup jobs are removing an unusable structure at 310 E. Phelps and abandoned steel railroad tracks, followed by fill and grade work. Geisler estimated those costs, along with implementing a feasibility study in one of the silos by late fall 2016, could run between $500,000 and $1 million.

Hough said one option available to the company is to fund the cleanup through a loan from the city’s brownfields program in the form of EPA grant funding.

“(The EPA’s) goal is to see these sites cleaned up, and secondary to them is to see them developed and providing some sort of economic benefit,” Hough said, noting the loan couldn’t be applied toward construction costs. “It’s icing on the cake if they can create jobs and grow produce.”