The original project Marcus was discussing with Five Star exclusively included its chemical storage needs until Five Star’s Mason City location was destroyed by a tornado in 2022. From there, Five Star began strategic planning, considering renovations and remodels of other locations before deciding the addition of agronomy to one of its grain sites was the direction they wanted to take. The company’s Burchinal location provided a great opportunity with an adjacent greenfield site that would flow perfectly with its existing grain site. Burchinal is centrally located in the Five Star territory and near major highways. Following a thorough evaluation process, Five Star determined that selecting Burchinal would provide the best customer experience. In Marcus, Five Star found a partner to help with its site feasibility study, rezoning, a conditional use permit and its building permitting.
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Five Star Cooperative had the need to add agronomy services at their Burchinal, IA site. Marcus Construction designed and built their Dry Fertilizer Plant and Liquid Fertilizer/Seed Warehouse with an attached office.
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There is a 1,500 sq. ft. office attached to Five Star’s Seed Warehouse. The in-ground truck dock has exterior infloor heat as a safety and operational feature and there is a mechanical dock leveler for indoor receiving.
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Five Star’s Seed Warehouse has infloor heat with one drive thru lane and a truck dock that provides them the ability for early season seed treating capabilities.
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There is a heated two lane top and bottom liquid fertilizer loadout with an elevated control room. This space is designed for security and allows for interior 24/7 loadout without adding a third loadout lane.
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The liquid storage facility has an interior dike for a bulk tote rack along with (3) 10,000 gallon tanks and (9) 5,000 gallon tanks. Five Star also provides shuttle repack services.
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Five Star committed to the most recent blending technology to create speed and efficiency with two mass flow meters and direct inject capabilities for hotloads.
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On the backside of the Liquid Fertilizer/Seed Warehouse there is exterior seed tank storage, an exterior fertilizer dike with (5) 30,000 gallon tanks, a 500,000 gallon UAN tank and an exterior contained load pad.
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Marcus Construction’s in-house process plumbing design team designed an efficient and clean pipe layout.
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Five Star’s dry fertilizer headhouse offers significant natural light to the catwalk that runs the length of the building on one side of the fill conveyor and wraps around the head and tail for safe and easy maintenance.
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An overhead bin conveyor service platform provides the ability for safe in-season maintenance access while the bin is full of product.
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Five Star’s elevated control room in their Dry Fertilizer Storage building overlooks the loadout alleyway and is finished out with Marcus Construction’s standard trusscore design which offers a polished finished look while being easy to clean and maintain.
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This view of Five Star’s covered loadout includes (2) 30-ton overhead tanks that are on NTEP approved scales.
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The pit for the blending equipment can be accessed by three sets of stairs for safe access and maintenance. At the bottom of the pit, Marcus added a raised house keeping pad to keep the trunk of the bucket elevator clean.
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The loadout has clear views from the control room, stainless steel doors throughout, and keeping safety at the forefront - stair access to all parts of the building.
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Marcus Construction was the general contractor and designer of both the Dry Fertilizer Storage, the Liquid Fertilizer/ Seed Warehouse plus process plumbing, automation and electrical for Five Star’s agronomy site.
Five Star is the first facility Marcus was able to use its expanded in-house design services for the process plumbing and process flow diagram for the liquid fertilizer and chemical system along with utilizing its tenured design team for the building structures.
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As the general contractor, Marcus procured and coordinated the complete project team for a greenfield site and design built a dry fertilizer plant and a liquid fertilizer/seed warehouse with an attached office. The dry fertilizer facility is a 3,929-ton expandable facility with truck receiving. There is a covered load-out lane with two 30-ton overhead tanks. The liquid fertilizer/seed warehouse Marcus designed is a 24,620-square-foot building including seed storage with a drive-thru lane and liquid fertilizer storage with two drive-thru lanes. Marcus scopes also included process plumbing, automation, and electrical.
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CONTACT US:
MARCUS CONSTRUCTION
Darin Bushard, Owner / Business Development
320-441-2156 marcusconstruction.com
FIVE STAR COOPERATIVE
Tony Myers, Chief Operating Officer
641-394-3052 fivestarcoop.com
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Marcus Construction's portfolio includes design and construction across many industries within the agribusiness, commercial, and industrial markets. Our uniqueness is hands down our relationships – with clients, contractors, employees and our community. See all author stories here.
