Spreckles Sugar Company
The Spreckles Sugar Plant once stood on Riggs Road near McQueen Road in Chandler. It was built on 650 acres in 1967 at a cost of $20 million.
The Spreckles Sugar Company processed sugar beets into sugar. After a nationwide search, the company decided that Chandler was the best place to build a new processing plant. Local farmers saw the potential to make a lot of money in the sugar beet industry. Spreckles signed contracts with the local growers in which the company guaranteed to buy the entire local crop. Farmers were paid based on the amount of sugar their beets produced and the market value of the sugar when it was sold.
At its height, the Spreckles Sugar Plant produced one million pounds of sugar every day. Unfortunately, the plant was never able to make a profit, and it closed in 1984. It stood empty for 15 years, until it was demolished in 1999 to make way for new homes and golf courses.