Meat packing facility nearing opening in Hammond
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Illinois-based Meats by Linz is preparing to open its new meat packing facility in Hammond almost exactly two years after breaking ground.
Mayor Tom McDermott told our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana the company aims to cut the ribbon on the $38 million, 120,000-square-foot facility in June.
Plans for the facility, located at the former Queen Anne Candy site, were first announced in early May 2022, and ground was broken later that month. The company plans to bring 300 existing jobs from Illinois to Hammond and create about 50 more.
“It’s a great project. It’s a total victory for Hammond,” McDermott told The Times. “It’s just off downtown. Their expenses went up because it started before the pandemic but they’re going to save on expenses long-term by coming to Indiana.”
Workers at the facility will cut meat into steaks, and the new location will have freezers backed up by generators to ensure the meat remains frozen if there is a power outage, according to the publication. It will also have the largest dry-age room in the country.
Currently headquartered in Calumet City, Illinois, Meats by Linz supplies several major steakhouses around the country, including Ditka’s Restaurant in Chicago and St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in Indianapolis.
“This is a great national company that supplies fine steakhouses,” McDermott said. “To have them in Hammond, Indiana is awesome. It stinks that it’s at Cal City’s expense but as mayor I have to be selfish for Hammond. They’re going to save a lot of money by moving over here, from everything from their water bill to their taxes. I’d be interested to find out exactly how much they’ll save.”