It was a star-studded party with an international flare at Pratt Industries’ grand opening Thursday afternoon, and the company spared little expense in celebrating the $500 million facility.
The most notable celebrity present was Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy. She’s now the U.S. Ambassador to Australia appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Also on the stage was Kevin Rudd, former two-time prime minister of Australia now posted in Washington serving as the Australian ambassador to the U.S.
Anthony Pratt, the executive global chairman of Pratt Industries, was there to host. The 63-year-old billionaire is the 153rd richest person in the world, with a net value of $11.3 billion, according to a Forbes website. And closer to home, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Lonnie Ali, the widow of Muhammad Ali, joined the group.
It’s been more than a two-year journey since the summer 2021 announcement that Pratt Industries would build a plant here. At the time of the announcement, officials said it would be a $400-million investment.
At the groundbreaking in December 2021, Anthony Pratt announced another $100 million investment to support the construction of a 500,000 square-foot box factory.
The box factory will produce corrugated sheet and boxes, which include pizza boxes, with paper coming from the 650,000-square-foot paper mill. The total square feet of the facility is 1.15 million feet, according to the governor’s office. The local facility is expected to provide 321 jobs.
Beshear has touted in past reports that the investment is the biggest in western Kentucky in 25 years.
Speeches celebrating the opening tended toward storytelling, and the story that got told the most often was the inception of Pratt Industries coming to Henderson.
Anthony Pratt, who led off, said the company’s locating in Kentucky began in 1996 when he first met Muhammad and Lonnie Ali, spending hours with the former champ and his wife in the backyard of their home.
Fast forward dozens of years, and a phone call he placed to Ali’s wife, Lonnie, led him to Gov. Andy Beshear. A subsequent phone call from Lonnie Ali to the governor prompted a meeting in which the governor convinced Pratt to bring his next facility to Kentucky.
“That’s why we’re here,” Pratt said, before praising Beshear. “He’s the greatest governor in the United States of America.”
Pratt then announced he’d donate $1 million to Feeding America, whose CEO, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, also seated on stage, was visibly amazed at the announcement.
Beshear said Anthony Pratt saw the promise of the area by agreeing to locate here, and then double-downed with the December 2021 additional investment.
“Pratt was ahead of the curve in seeing what so many companies across the globe are now seeing,” Beshear said. “That Kentucky is a place to do business, that Kentucky will help them succeed, that Kentucky will make them more profitable and that we have the best workforce in America in each and every one of our communities.”
Beshear, in the middle of a rugged gubernatorial campaign against current Attorney General Daniel Cameron, touted his economic achievements during his speech, saying the state is in the three best years of economic development, job creation and investment that the state has ever seen.
“This is a special time in Kentucky and it’s a special time here in Henderson,” Beshear said.
Though he asserted the state’s recent run of economic success on stage, Beshear after the ceremony declined to comment about how Pratt’s opening will help in the November election or what it may mean for voters in Henderson County, saying it was a day to celebrate and to forget politics for a while.
Kennedy spoke in more international terms, comparing the U.S. with Australia. Both countries, she said, have long been leaders in mining. But now with the Henderson Pratt plant, coupled with electric battery plants being constructed in the state, Kentucky will be a national leader in sustainable industries. And Pratt is one of the companies leading the way to invest in clean energy, she said.
She said 61 years ago her father made a speech committing the U.S. to a moon landing, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.”
She compared the goal of landing on the moon to that of solving the climate crisis. Her father, she said, understood the power of the idea, and the goal would bring out the best in Americans. Similarly, the climate crisis offers a chance to bring innovation and technology to resolve these global issues.
Rudd, the former Australian prime minister and current ambassador to the U.S., said that Australia has been the U.S.’s closest continuing ally for more than 100 years, and the two countries have also become technology and economic partners, saying the flow of investment between the two nations is about $1 trillion.
“So, we actually believe in each other’s economies, and the investment flows are going both ways and the industries which represent so much of the economic future of our countries and delivering good jobs in my country and in yours,” Rudd said.
He said Anthony Pratt is the largest Australian investor in the United States, spending $14 billion and constructing six massive paper recycling plants. The Henderson location is the largest.
Ali praised Pratt’s philanthropic nature and the economic opportunity the Henderson plant represents. She said Pratt has always honored Muhammad Ali’s legacy and was one of the founding patrons of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.
“Muhammad would be elated to know that his name graces a road that leads to a place where everyday people have an opportunity to work and make a good living,” she said, referring to a street on the facility’s campus named in her husband’s honor.
The party was one befitting a billionaire. An estimated 600-plus people, including many local government officials and business leaders, attended the afternoon event.
After parking at the Preston Arts Center on the campus of nearby Henderson Community College, attendees were shuttled via bus to the Pratt campus. Many of the attendees participated in a tour of the facility in the early afternoon before the speakers took the stage a bit past 3 p.m.
Onstage as guests mingled before the speeches, the Dan Tyminski Band played bluegrass. Tyminski might best be known as the man who was the voice of the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” anthem “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” dubbed by the character George Clooney played in the film. Tyminski and band played that hit and more.
Above the band, a jumbotron stretched across the stage where both entertainer and later speakers were broadcast. Numerous hors d’oeuvre tables were arranged behind the seating, one serving barbecue, other tables offering shrimp, another was a southern biscuit station, and more with other finger foods, including KFC mini-buckets. And there were beers and cocktails to wash it all down.
“They definitely rolled out the red carpet for the community,” said state Rep. Jonathan Dixon. “It’s a great day in Henderson.”
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Connected:
Donna Spencer, genealogy and local history associate, researched a list of notable visits to Henderson in the past by well-known dignitaries and politicians. See the list below.
Dignitaries/politicians visit Henderson, Kentucky
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE William Jennings Bryan April 28, 1911
FUTURE PRESIDENT Franklin Delano Roosevelt Oct. 2, 1920 He spoke in Central Park Oct. 2, 1920, before polio and presidential terms. (I think he also visited later while running for president)
PRESIDENT Harry Truman September 30, 1948 re-election (with wife and daughter)
VICE PRESIDENT Alben W. Barkley, 1951
PRESIDENT Dwight D. Eisenhower September 23, 1952 (with wife Mamie)
GOVERNOR A.B. Happy Chandler 1959 groundbreaking for HCC and often visited his home county
FIRST LADY Lady Bird Johnson 1964 during husband Lyndon Johnson’s presidential campaign
PRESIDENT Jimmy Carter 1976 and again in July 1980 with Ky Gov John Y. Brown during re-election campaign