Serta Simmons Bedding has canceled plans to build a $27 million bed-manufacturing plant in Lakeville, company and state officials confirmed Monday.
The Atlanta-based bed maker announced in 2015 that it intended to build the factory and staff it with 200 hires. Those plans were delayed last year, and the state officially canceled its participation in the plans last spring, state officials said.
Monday, Serta Simmons spokeswoman Gabrielle Braswell confirmed in an e-mail that "At this time, we have no plans to open a factory in Lakeville."
Minnesota had pledged two grants worth $2.1 million toward the project but rescinded them in March 2016 after the company failed to meet building deadlines, said Shane Delaney, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
"There are timing requirements tied to both of those grant awards. And when the company delayed the project and didn't make any progress to meet the timing requirements set out, we rescinded both of the awards in March 2016," he said. "The company is always welcome to reapply, but they can't revive these specific grants."
The factory was to have 240,000 square feet and would have created scores of construction and service jobs during the construction phase, in addition to permanent factory jobs.
It was the promise of those jobs in 2015 that led the state to agree to give Serta Simmons a $1.1 million Job Creation Fund grant/rebate, provided it first built the factory and fill all 200 jobs. That grant required that Serta begin at least some aspect of the construction within six months of the award announcement.
When that didn't happen, state officials flagged the project as a possible dead deal, Delaney said.
