Most weeks, the only sign of what happens inside the buildings along Tacoma Boulevard and Industrial Boulevard in Norwood Young America is the trucks pulling out. What they carry is one of the more interesting facts about the town. Much of what gets made here is built for customers you'll never meet: fertilizer import terminals, commercial kitchens and noise-control projects. Very little of it is sold over a counter in town.
That changes for one Thursday each fall. NYA Manufacturing Today returns on Thursday, October 22, 2026. Central Public Schools calls it the sixth annual edition, with six local manufacturers giving facility tours. The NYA Economic Development Commission and the Central Trades and Advisory Group host it, and the invitation covers the public as well as students.
How the day runs
The schedule the city shared through the NYA Area Chamber of Commerce is short and runs early:
- 8:30 a.m. Facility tours begin.
- 11:15 a.m. Lunch.
- Noon. One final tour.
To attend the luncheon, RSVP by Thursday, October 15 at 952-467-1810 or [email protected]. The announcement points to a separate flyer with the full schedule and the tour locations. The public posts don't name this year's six companies, so check the flyer before you head out. In 2025, the lunch after the tours was held at the Pavilion, according to the city's newsletter. The 2026 site hasn't been posted in the sources we found.
The event has stayed small. In its second year, 2022 by the sixth-annual count for 2026, a Sun Patriot report on hometownsource.com counted about 70 students and a dozen community members. If 2026 draws a similar crowd, a resident who signs up joins a group of roughly 80 people walking production floors that are usually closed to the public.
What the town builds, using past stops as a guide
The 2022 tour went to six stops: Sackett-Waconia, Yeager Machine, ASI, Modern Design Cabinetry, Storms Welding and Bongards' Creameries. Those were the 2022 stops, not a confirmed 2026 lineup. Taken together, they cover most of what Norwood Young America and its edge make. Most of them sell to other businesses.
Sackett-Waconia designs and builds equipment for the fertilizer industry. Its customers are production and process plants, import and export terminals, hub plants and retail blending facilities. The headquarters and manufacturing site is at 680 Tacoma Blvd. It's also the stop with the biggest local story. In October 2024 the company announced a plan to buy 14.4 adjacent acres, prepare the site, build an R&D and office phase, and later add a 115,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. By May 2025, Carver County Local News reported that NYA's city administrator described the expansion as underway and projected it could add up to 100 jobs. We haven't found a newer public update on how far along it is.
Yeager Machine, at 415 Tacoma Cir., is a precision machining shop. It offers CNC milling and turning, manual milling, surface grinding, assembly, and design and engineering support. Shops like this make parts that end up inside someone else's finished product.
Acoustical Surfaces, Inc., known as ASI, sells noise, sound and vibration control. Its lineup includes acoustical panels, soundproof doors and windows, barriers and vibration mounts. The city's business directory lists it among NYA's manufacturers.
So the three Tacoma-area names sell to fertilizer terminals, equipment makers and builders. None runs a storefront in town. The next two stops are different, because each has a public counter. Both counters are in Cologne.
Where the work does reach a counter
Modern Design Cabinetry builds custom cabinets, and its team includes cabinetmakers, finishers and installers. The company calls its Norwood Young America location a production shop. Its showrooms are elsewhere: one at 209 Paul Avenue South in Cologne and a second in Rochester. The newest product is the Select Series, introduced in a September 23 post on the company's site. It's a frameless, Euro-style line with soft-close hinges and slides and 12 door styles, which Modern Design pitches as a streamlined, budget-conscious option.
Storms Welding & Mfg. fabricates in steel, stainless steel and aluminum. It also makes dairy livestock crowd gates and repairs commercial and farm equipment. The fabrication shop is at 300 Industrial Blvd. in Norwood, and the headquarters and store are at 513 Lake Street West in Cologne. The company invites customers to drop in at the Cologne store on weekdays for welding materials and supplies.
The crowd gates hint at what ties most of these companies together. Fertilizer equipment, dairy gates and machined parts all serve farm and industrial customers. The sixth stop makes that connection clearest.
The cheese plant on County Road 51
Bongards' Creameries is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative founded in 1908, with member farmers in Minnesota and North Dakota. Its original home is in Bongards, at 13200 County Road 51, an address that shares Norwood Young America's 55368 ZIP code. The co-op produces natural cheese, process cheese and whey. Its cheese goes to foodservice operators, food manufacturers, retail delis and convenience stores. Corporate offices are in Chanhassen, and production plants are in Bongards, Perham, Minnesota, and Humboldt, Tennessee.
The Bongards plant also has the biggest current project among these companies. On August 11, 2026, the co-op announced plans to invest $135 million in expanding the process cheese facility there. The plan adds about 120,000 square feet, made up of roughly 50,000 square feet of production space and a 70,000-square-foot automated warehouse. It also raises capacity by 180 million pounds of process cheese a year. Bongards called it one of the largest capital investments in its 118-year history. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, the quarter that started this month, with commercial operations expected by early 2028.
Compare the two big projects in the area. Sackett-Waconia's planned 115,000-square-foot facility would mostly build equipment for fertilizer plants. Bongards' added 120,000 square feet will mostly make cheese for restaurants and food manufacturers. Neither project is aimed at local shoppers. Still, Bongards is the one company here where a resident can buy the actual product without a business account.
The Bongards Retail Store is at 13200 County Road 51, about 25 miles west of the Twin Cities. It carries Bongards cheese sticks, shreds, blocks, slices, flavored cheeses and curds. It also sells specialty cheeses and meats, local honey and maple syrup, and gifts. The counter serves coffee, warm rolls, made-to-order hot sandwiches and ice cream. Bonnie, a 20-foot-tall cow, stands outside. Cheese trays can be ordered year-round, and gift boxes stay in stock through the holidays, which is useful to know with November coming. Posted hours are Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The store's phone number is 952-466-3545. These are the company's posted hours, so call ahead around holidays.
Making a day of October 22
Tour day lines up with another local fixture. The NYA Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale opens the same afternoon and runs through the weekend:
- Thursday, October 22: 1 to 8 p.m.
- Friday, October 23: 1 to 5 p.m.
- Saturday, October 24: 1 to 4 p.m.
You could take the morning tours, have lunch with the hosts if you RSVP'd by the 15th, and stop by the book sale before dinner. A drive out County Road 51 for curds fits in any time the store is open.
The plants around Norwood Young America ship their output to fertilizer terminals, kitchens and job sites a long way from town. On October 22, a resident can see that work up close and still be home for dinner.
At Chestnut Realty, our appraisers and land team follow projects like the Sackett-Waconia and Bongards expansions because the changes they bring to Carver County's industrial edges matter to our clients. If you'd like to know what the area's growth means for a property you own or are considering, talk with a local Chestnut Realty expert.
