Reser’s Fine Foods, Inc. (Reser’s) will repurpose and equip a vacant food manufacturing plant into a baked foods facility to produce hot prepared foods in Topeka, Kansas.

Prior, Reser’s utilized two facilities for baking that have both reached maximum capacity which necessitates expansion. The vacant building will be transformed into a state-of-the-art facility with new energy efficient equipment.

Reser’s opened its first food manufacturing plant in Topeka in 1991 and has continually expanded the Topeka campus since then to over 1,400 employees with numerous product lines. The Project is located in an area on the fringes of revitalization and is in dire need of new quality job opportunities. The new plant wil target low-income persons in the area, especially hard hit with the recent closure of a major Topeka employer eliminating 300 jobs.

Reser’s considered various factors in selecting the location for their new bake facility, including the allocated capex budgets at a number of locations, proximity to raw materials and company management, employment base, and other factors.

The Project has additional costs associated with repurposing the old vacant building in the low-income community versus building a new plant at an alternate location. But for new market tax credits, the Sponsor would not have selected the current Project location providing vital quality jobs for the LIC due to the increased expense of the adaptive reuse of the vacant building.

Reser’s will partner with Kansas Workforce Center and GO Topeka to recruit low income persons from the community and provide opportunities for veterans. Reser’s will collaborate with local colleges and high schools to provide additional training and to educate students about the food manufacturing industry.