Hornady Manufacturing looking to expand and create new jobs

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – Hornady Manufacturing Inc. is partnering with the City of Grand Island to expand its west facility and create new jobs.

At the Oct. 22 City Council meeting, the City Council approved a grant application for the Municipality Infrastructure Aid Program, or LB 600, which passed in the 2024 Legislative Session.

The current scope of the project is estimated at a cost of $2,235,041.40. The city will be asking with this grant application for $1,788,033.12. There’s a 25 percent local match so the city would need to pay $447,008.28. The council agenda memo said because this is being built to serve the Hornady Manufacturing facility at CAAP, this match is being funded by the company.

The City intends on using current fiscal year 2025 grant budget authority to initiate the project. Any fiscal year 2026 and beyond costs will be directly incorporated into capital project budget planning.

The grant would give the funding to expand sanitary sewer lines to the former Cornhusker Army Ammunition Depot, so Hornady can use the building.

Community Development Director, Chad Nabity said the expansion would have a positive impact on the City of Grand Island.

”Hornady is looking at an additional 29 jobs out there with this expansion,” Nabity said. “That will have a several million dollar overall impact on Grand Island’s economy and that is detailed within that plan.”

Nabity also said the types of jobs Hornady is offering will have a long-term positive impact on Grand Island’s economy.

”They are high-paying manufacturing jobs that really do support the kind of things that Grand Island does,” Nabity said. “They are also base manufacturing, so the multiplier effect of those is extended beyond, say something like retail.”

He also said getting the expansion is the key to creating those jobs and getting the grant money from LB 600 is important in that process.

”The City of Grand Island has city sewer out to about 13th Street, that’s about two miles east of the ammunition plant,” Nabity said. “The LB 600 Grant will allow us to extend that sewer line the full two miles, so it makes it more likely that they will continue to expand out there.”

Nabity also said the City of Grand Island and Hornady will be working through the steps on getting the expansion underway in the next couple of years.

”The grant application is due November 1 and we’ll hear, hopefully by January 1, whether we’ve received the grant,” Nabity said. “If we receive the grant, then we’ll go into the design phase and look at over the next two years, actually building that sewer line.”

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