In the spring of 2009, North Star Foods, once the largest employer in St. Charles, burned to the ground. The fire’s toll was 250 jobs and the temporary evacuation of 3,500 residents.

After that tragic event, the St. Charles Economic Development Authority was determined to bring jobs back to the area. The EDA worked with the owners of the meat and poultry processing plant to rebuild on a site along Interstate 90. Ultimately, North Star Foods management decided against it, citing market conditions and cost. Although that initial plan didn’t work out, the longer-term potential of the project was great; and it had the backing of the business community.

Enter Envirolastech

If you follow the development of clean technology in Minnesota, Envirolastech may be a familiar name. The Rochester startup – winner of the clean technology category in the Minnesota Cup competition in 2012 – recycles plastics, glass and other materials into building products that can substitute for lumber, wood siding and concrete blocks. The products, manufactured from 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials, are nonbiodegradable, impervious to water, stronger than concrete and do not get brittle in cold temperatures. 

Now Envirolastech Inc. will invest $3 million and create 26 jobs at its first production facility in St. Charles – bringing needed employment in the green manufacturing sector to a formerly devastated community. 

Envirolastech will invest $2 million for machinery and equipment and $1 million for building an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Chattanooga Innovation Park, the only business park right on the interstate for a 100-mile stretch. The new jobs – paying wages that average $15.47 an hour – will be created over the next two years. 

Why St. Charles? The town, located about 30 miles east of Rochester in Winona County, was chosen for the facility because the site is along Interstate 90 and near Winona State University, which has a polymer engineering program.

Complementary businesses, including Active Tool & Die, a local tool and die business, was another reason the company chose St. Charles. Active’s tool and die makers are machinists who make jigs, fixtures, dies and injection molds and do special machining, custom tooling and production machining.

Paul Schmitt, Envirolastech co-founder and technical adviser, has been working on the technology and testing the formulations for nearly two decades. Jeffery Mintz, CEO, and Geno Wente, director of logistics, are partnering with Schmitt as company principals. All three men are from Rochester.

DEED is supporting the project with a $183,766 grant from the Job Creation Fund. The funding will be awarded after the company meets its hiring and investment commitments.