Vermeer Corporation and Mortenson celebrated the ceremonial turning over of the keys to the Plant 7 facility.

CEO and President of Vermeer Jason Andringa says Plant 7 was formally announced back in July of 2019 at the one-year anniversary of the July 2018 tornado. Construction is now nearing completion on this facility, and the moving process will continue through early 2021. Nearly 500,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space expands beyond the original manufacturing footprint that took up just less than 400,000 square feet of this area.

Andringa addressed contractors and Vermeer team members who were closely involved in the project at a mask-mandated and socially-distanced celebration.

“I want to extend a sincere thank you from the Vermeer family and leadership to every contractor and Vermeer team member involved in this project,” stated Vermeer President and CEO Jason Andringa. “If you were standing here in November 2018, you would see nothing but rubble from Plants 5 and 6. We were down, but not out. And just two years later, here we are in this expansive, state-of-the-art facility. Today, we are incredibly close to our goal of coming back stronger than ever. This team never fails to accomplish the work in front of them, even with aggressive timelines and goals like we had for Plant 7. I couldn’t be more proud of their work.”

At the celebration, Mortenson handed over a symbolic key to the facility fabricated from aluminum.

“It’s been an extreme honor to work alongside Vermeer and to reach this exciting milestone,” said Robert Riness, project executive at Mortenson. “Not only did Vermeer, Mortenson and all project partners come together to help Vermeer on their journey to come back stronger than ever, but we had a lot of fun along the way.”

Click here to hear more from Andringa from Monday’s Let’s Talk Pella.