620 East Frontier Street, Lexington, NE 68850
Orthman Manufacturing was founded by Henry Orthman in the late 1950’s as a manufacturer of conversion kits for implements and tractor brands. From his 160-acre farm on the Platte River just north of Lexington, NE, Henry Orthman’s original conversion kits allowed farmers to keep their existing implements when they purchased a new tractor. Over the subsequent 50 years, Orthman has become an industry leader in agricultural innovation, developing industry-standards such as the TripSaver, the Pivoting Disc Stabilizer, the Adjust-a-Rate Planter Drive, the Flex-Gang Cultivator and the Strip Tillage machine. Today, Orthman has agreements with John Deere, Agco, and Monosem, manufacturing agricultural machinery and implements, as well as conveyors, materials bulk-handling systems and SoilMover industrial earth-moving equipment for a variety of industries.
By 2012, Orthman’s track record of consistently delivering innovative, high-quality machinery pushed market demand beyond capacity at the Platte River facility, so Orthman began working with the City of Lexington on a new plant within City Limits. The state-of-the-art 115,000 SF manufacturing and painting facility would allow Orthman to continue its growth in the US market, and by moving into Lexington, would provide the City with 200 new jobs: 100 new and 100 existing Orthman jobs that were relocated from Platte River. The City agreed to provide $1.25MM in TIF bonds, and a $500K Development loan to help with the $13.4MM facility.
In late 2013, Orthman engaged Crescent Growth Capital (“CGC”) to help structure and execute NMTC financing to fill the funding gap. On August 22, 2014, CGC and Orthman closed on a stacked $10.4MM State NMTC and a $9MM Federal NMTC financing, provided by Enhanced Capital Partners and Rural Development Partners respectively, leveraged using a senior loan provided by Mutual of Omaha.