State Loan and Investment Board Approves Six BRC Projects, Including $20 Million for Project Jupiter

Cheyenne, Wyo – The Wyoming Business Council (WBC) presented six Business Ready Community (BRC) grant and loan requests to the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) at their meeting on Feb. 2. The SLIB approved all of these projects as listed below, including a $20 million grant to the City of Laramie for Project Jupiter.

 

 

Confirmed today as Plenty Unlimited, Inc., this project has its origins in Laramie, Wyo. Chief Science Officer Dr. Nate Storey co-founded the original company, Bright Agrotech, as a University of Wyoming graduate student in 2010 and established an innovation center in Laramie. This eventually led Storey and a group of entrepreneurs to found the startup Plenty in 2014, which later bought Bright Agrotech.

 

Today’s historic economic development investment by the State of Wyoming supports the development of the world’s largest and most advanced vertical farming research center in Laramie. The project also will support the retention and creation of nearly 200 high-paying jobs in the community.

 

“We couldn’t be more excited about this tremendous opportunity to retain and leverage a business that literally sowed its roots in our state,” said Josh Dorrell, Wyoming Business Council CEO. “We are proud to support the City of Laramie and Plenty in this monumental project to bring and retain high-quality jobs to our state. Plenty’s expansion project will support Wyoming’s economic growth while establishing us worldwide as the center for the vertical farming industry.”