A longtime effort to demolish Fanestil Meats’ original production plant just south of Emporia is finally underway.
Crews started demolishing the nearly 40,000-square-foot building last week. As part of an agreement, the city acquired the property earlier this year, taking advantage of $1 million through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is covering 75 percent of the demolition costs if the building space is returned to green space.
Established in 1942, Fanestil had to stop production numerous times due to flooding from the Cottonwood River just north of the Highway 99 facility. This concludes a better than 10-year effort to both end operations in the Cottonwood floodplain and expand the business at its current address, 4700 West Highway 50. Fanestil now has its Fresh Local Market as well as a production facility and refrigerated warehouse.
