A company from France specializing in “sweet brown” extracts and flavors is looking at opening a facility in Aurora.
PROVA, a woman- and family-owned business that is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, is asking the Aurora City Council to allow food-related uses on a 30-acre stretch of land in the city’s northwest corner, just north of Interstate 88. The two-story, 65,000-square-foot industrial building already on-site was previously used by Trinity Broadcasting Network, which has since moved out.
The proposal is set to be considered by City Council next Tuesday. It is likely to pass, as it was placed on the meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically reserved for non-controversial or routine items that are all approved with a single vote and without much discussion.
Specifically, PROVA’s request is to add a “food, textiles and related products” conditional use to the land at 2850, 2871 and 2880 Vision Court. The company is looking to close on the properties in the near term, according to Russ Whitaker, a lawyer representing PROVA at recent city meetings.
Although the company sells in the North American market, and has an office building in Massachusetts, all of its manufacturing facilities are currently located in Europe and Asia, Whitaker said at a meeting of the Aurora City Council’s Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on April 29.
PROVA is looking to grow its business in North America, he said, and so it is looking to create a hub in Aurora.
The first phase at the site, which would use the existing building, would be part office space and part lab space, according to Whitaker. He said that there will be some small-scale food manufacturing during this phase, but mainly for things like research and development or test batches.
Customers would be able to come in and actually work with PROVA’s technicians, he said.
As the North American business grows, the company will likely need more warehousing space, so that is planned for phase two, Whitaker said. However, city staff said that a separate request would need to be made of the Aurora City Council for a warehouse to be put on the property.
Once PROVA knows it has a steady business in North America, then it can move to phase three, which is to expand production, according to Whitaker. Ultimately the goal, he said, is to be “producing in Aurora the flavor that we would be selling and shipping throughout North America.”
Final plans for the second and third phases would need to be approved by the city before they could be built, city staff said at the committee meeting in late April.
Whitaker stressed that the PROVA campus is significantly separated from any current and planned residential development, at least as far as the setbacks included in the city’s recently-approved data center regulations.
Specifically, the nearest residential development in Aurora is about 3,900 feet away, according to Whitaker. The nearest in Sugar Grove is over 2,000 feet away, he said, and a potential development in North Aurora is over 1,500 feet away.
There are also provisions in the proposal that say PROVA would work with the city if mitigations were needed because of odor. Another food manufacturing center in the city, belonging to Factor, has sparked complaints from neighbors about smells and other issues, which the city and company are working to address.
William Simon, the CEO of PROVA’s North American business, told the committee in late April that his company works with local communities, including by being careful with nature and natural resources. Sustainability is a core value of the company, he said.
In fact, part of the reason the company wants to build this hub in Aurora is for sustainable reasons, according to Whitaker. At a meeting of the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, he said that the company currently has to ship all of its product from overseas, which accounts for a large part of the company’s environmental footprint.
PROVA strives to make its products from primarily natural ingredients, with its flavors being 98% or more natural, so it does what it can to take care of nature, Simon said at the earlier committee meeting. That emphasis on natural ingredients is one way the company differentiates itself, he said.
Plus, the company is very specialized on the “sweet brown notes,” instead of being a generalist that makes all sorts of flavors, according to Simon. He said those “sweet brown notes” include vanilla, cocoa, coffee and caramel.
PROVA serves the market segment Simon called “the sweet” — bakery, nutrition, pastries, ice cream and dairy.
“It’s a niche market inside a niche market,” he said.
Not only is PROVA one of the few extraction companies worldwide, Simon said, but it is also one of the world’s top suppliers of vanilla and cocoa.
The Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee, at its meeting on April 29, unanimously voted to recommend the approval of PROVA’s proposal.
“Welcome,” Ald. Mike Saville, 6th Ward, said to PROVA’s representatives just before the vote. “We’re glad to have you.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
