Aquaponics Facility

A.    Facility
(1)    Location and Property
This aquaponics facility is located in the City of Silver Bay Eco-Business Park. The facility is situated on 0.97 deeded acres. The plat description of the location is the Silver Bay Business Park 29 & 32-56-7, lot 1, block 4. This facility is located in close proximity to U.S. Highway 61, approximately 56 miles northeast of Duluth on the shores of Lake Superior. Access to the Business Park is by U.S. Highway 61, a two-lane highway running between Duluth, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The Silver Bay Eco-Business Park is one of very few parcels situated along Hwy. 61 that is properly zoned for development and served by municipal water and sewer services.
 

(2)    Building
The aquaponics system is housed in an approximately 9,000 ft2 building that was constructed to commercial standards .  Approximately 3,256 ft2 of the facility is an insulated and heated building which houses the fish tanks and filtration equipment (2,000 ft2), seedling growth (60 ft2), processing room (240 ft2), cold storage (60 ft2), lab/office space (240 ft2), bathroom (80 ft2), and utility area (120 ft2). Nine (9) fish tanks each holding approximately 1,800 gallons of water each for a total of 16,200 gallons are available for fish production. In addition, three (3) 900 gallon tanks can be used for larval fish, quarantine or more grow capacity. Four (4) conjoined greenhouses occupy approximately 5,280 ft2 of the complex.

The plants are grown in ten (10) large troughs in the greenhouse, each with ~210 ft2 of surface area, for a total of 2100 ft2 of growing area. 

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(3)    Equipment

10 - Custom Grow Beds  (total of 2106 Sq Ft)
1 - Hydrotech Drum Filter  (792 gpm)
1 - SS 7”x32” Bag Filter
3 - Chem-Tainer 390 Gallon Rectangular Tanks
4 - 1000 Liter IBC's
12 - Super Veg LED Lights

12 - 8' T12 6500K Lights
10 - Wire Shelf Units 76” High 44 LF
2 - ABB Variable Frequency Drives For HVAC
1 - 4000 Liter Bio Filter 
2 - Flex Fuel 60kw Pellet Boilers
1 - Generac Generator
1 - Goulds Booster Pump
1 - Slant/Fin GG-300-EC Natural Gas Boiler
1 - Natural Gas Tankless Water Heater (8.4 GPM)
7 - Pentair Belt Feeders
1 - In-Line 400W UV Filter
1 - Meridian Storage Bin
9 - Fish Tanks (2000 Gal)
3 - Fish Tanks (900 Gal)
1 - 300 Gallon Round Tank
1 - Micro-Grow Vent Stat controller
1 - 16 Zone Honeywell Hydronic Heat Control 
5 - Hydronic Greenhouse Heaters
1 - Stainless Steel Table W/Triple Sink 192"
2 - Stainless Steel Benches 96”
5 - Fixed Wire Shelf Units 48”
2 - Stainless Steel Tables 96"
1 - 2600 GPD Reverse Osmosis Unit
1 - 1500 Gallon NSF Tank
1 - Shell And Tube Heat Exchange 3" Shell 2" Tube
2 - 3-Phase 3-HP Circulating Pumps
2 - Vector Inverter - Variable Frequency Drives
1 - Laboratory With Cabinets, 96”SS Table, Shelves
1 - Emergency Shower & Eyewash
1 - Commercial Double Door Refrigerator

1 - Commercial Dishwasher
    Complete Inventory – Ready to Grow and Package

 

(4)    Taxes
The parcel ID is 22-7404-04010 and is currently classified as AG NON_HSTD. The property tax payable in 2021 is $5,196.

 

B.    Products
Endless Summer Farms LLC grows, processes and distributes fresh produce year to local supermarkets  restaurants, food trucks as well as walk-in sales. Products produced at this facility included chopped and shredded lettuce, head lettuce, spring mix, spinach, basil. 

 

The previous operators of this facility raised tilapia but I have not currently raise fish. My plan was to raise saugeye - a hybrid between the walleye and the sauger - a hardy and fast growing fish. Fingerling fish can be stocked at a density of approximately 0.4 pounds per cubic feet of tank volume.  Nine 2000-gallon tanks have a working volume of approximately 16,000 gallons of water. 866 pounds of fingerlings can be stocked in the ten fish tanks. Fish can be grown to a density of 60kg/m3 or approximately 0.5 pounds per gallon of water. Consequently, the existing nine (9) tanks can support approximately 11,000 pounds of fish grown to a final weight of 1.1 pounds each.  A 1.1-pound fish will yield approximately two 4-ounce fillets. A estimate of fish production is approximately 7400 pounds of dressed fish per cycle of 15 months. 

 

C.    Packaging and Delivery
Lettuce has been be sold in bulk packaging by the pound, by the head, or in 5 or 10-ounce clams. Packing of the produce is done on-site in the processing room of the building. Produce can be temporarily stored in a commercial refrigerator or in the cool storage room. 

 

D.    Customers
Customers of Endless Summer Farms LLC have included the supermarkets Zup’s Food of Silver Bay and Super-One of Two Harbors, the local food truck Nacho Business in Silver Bay, restaurants including Lemon Wolf Café and Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay and Bluefin in Tofte. Potential new customers could be schools, veteran and group homes, and additional grocery outlets such Whole Foods,  Aldi markets in Duluth and Superior and the supermarkets and restaurants in the Lutsen and Grand Marias areas.

 

E.    Marketing
1.    Market Analysis
Despite the low levels of nutrients and vitamins in lettuce, lettuce is considered the fourth most significant U.S. crop from a nutritional standpoint because of the large quantity consumed. The Yuma area, including the Imperial Valley across the California border, produces about 90 percent of all the leafy vegetables grown in the United States from November to March, when it’s too cold to grow produce in most of the rest of the country. On a year-round basis, California accounted for 71 percent of U.S. head lettuce production in 2013, followed by Arizona producing nearly 29 percent. Traditionally, all of this was transported across the country.
Because of their highly perishable nature, salad greens are better suited to local production. Leaf lettuce varieties are particularly well suited to local production because of their very perishable nature. Consumers surveyed also prefer locally grown food in general. A 2009 study by the Food Marketing Institute asked Americans why they buy local. Eighty-two percent responded that freshness was the driving factor, 75% responded that they preferred to support the local economy, and 58% responded that they prefer to know where their food is coming from.
People are eating more fish.  Walleye is already established as one of the “select” fish products. Fresh walleye is an attractive alternative to the normal available fresh fish. Walleye is a freshwater fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States.  The walleye is considered to be a quite palatable freshwater fish, and, consequently, is fished recreationally and commercially for food. Almost all of the walleye sold in the US is imported wild catch from Canada.
The species of fish preferred by consumers is often a local choice.  Walleye is preferred in the upper Midwest and is particularly popular with Minnesota residents; more walleye is eaten in Minnesota than in any other jurisdiction of the United States. The market price for walleye is among the highest of freshwater fish. Fillet yield for processed walleye is about 10% higher than tilapia. With regard to the marketing of walleye for food, on study stated that “the problem at this point is not market and market demand but a lack of commercially produced food-size fish”.
2.    Competition
There are more than 40 aquaponics production facilities in Minnesota (up from 3 in 2010!). An aquaponics startup named Stars Hollow plans to open a $12.3 million facility in Cambridge, MN. There is also Garden Fresh Farms in Maplewood that is growing fish and plants for local businesses such as Whole Foods. This operation produces 40,000 fish with the use of a dozen 1,500-gallon tanks and 460,000 plants a year. They also are growing 1,100 lettuce plants on vertical panels, 40 pounds of basil a day, as well as thyme, oregano, and watercress. 
There are a few notable examples of aquaponic ventures in the neighboring state of Wisconsin also. They include Future Farms, which was started by Steve Meyer, Chad Hebert and John Vrieze in Baldwin, Wisconsin. As dairy farmers, the three have slowly developed a large and profitable working raft aquaponic system fueled by methane from the farm’s animal waste. More recently, they have begun to make the transition away from aquaponics in favor of hydroponic methods. Nelson and Pade, Inc. (Superior Fresh) was founded by Rebecca Nelson and John Pade in Motello, Wisconsin. They have a working aquaponic system and design and sell aquaponic production systems and system components around the world. They also do a great deal of educational training and coordinate an online aquaponics journal. Growing Power was founded by Will Allen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Growing Power’s mission is to inspire communities to build sustainable food systems by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach, and technical assistance.  Each of these operations has an established track record and all have become major contributors to advancing aquaponics. There are no other competing aquaponic facilities in the immediate are of this Silver Bay facility.