A rural May City man is putting the "business" back in Business Corner.

Nick Shaffer recently erected a new building near the intersection of county roads A34 and M18 northeast of May City. The facility will eventually house 300 Acres, LLC, Shaffer's growing seed dealership and farm goods business.

Shaffer previously operated the business from his acreage, but space started getting tight in recent years thanks to a growing customer base.

"I started looking for land, but I didn't want to be located in any towns," Shaffer said. "No offense to towns, but I'm a seed business. It's way easier to have it outside of town than inside town with all the trucks going in and out."

Shaffer thought he found the perfect spot after a brief search, but negotiations with the landowner deteriorated following his death. Shaffer then settled on the 8.6-acre plot directly west of Business Corner.

Overgrown trees and foundations from a pair of burnt-out hog confinements were the only amenities that greeted Shaffer upon his purchase in March of 2018. Though a lot of work was needed, the property came with a silver lining.

"I got the traffic maps from the county and saw that this is the busiest corner in the county outside of towns and highways," he said. "It didn't really surprise me, but it was interesting to see."

Shaffer quickly got to work removing trees and prepping the ground. Getting everything ready took time, and the dirt had to settle over winter before he could even think about pouring the foundation for his new shed.

Shaffer said it took a strong imagination to picture his business there someday.

"All you saw were trees and a driveway, and you could easily miss the driveway if you didn't know it was there," he said. "You could barely drive a pickup through without hitting branches, let alone everything else. I don't know how many hundreds and hundreds of times I've driven past this property and never even gave it a thought."

After completing finishing touches on the ground, the concrete for the 60x100-foot building's foundation was poured shortly after the Fourth of July. From there, everything went up in no time.

"It's unreal," Shaffer said. "The building package arrived on a Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, and by the following Thursday by 9 o'clock they were done."

Shaffer, a dealer of Stine brand seed, said he'll be able to comfortably store 10,000-12,000 bags of product inside the new building. That's a significant increase from the building on his acreage, which was able to squeeze in around 7,000 bags.

300 Acres also sells a variety of products including LED lights, lubricants, graphite, and tillage consumables like disc blades. Shaffer also sells vinyl decals, many of which adorn his own vehicles.

Shaffer was pleased with how far the business has grown and diversified over the past decade. He has always loved agriculture and enjoyed working with his grandpa on his farm growing up, but opportunities to obtain his own land were sparse later on in life.

"Ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I always wanted to be a farmer," he said. "Unfortunately in today's age, there's really no easy way in. I figured this would be the closest thing I could get to being a farmer, just dealing with farmers all the time and selling them seed."

Technically, Shaffer is a farmer now. The property also features a five-acre test plot where he grows a variety of Stine products.

NICK PEDELY/SENTINEL-NEWS

The new 60x100-foot building will allow Shaffer to expand his growing business even more, and the acreage on which it sits is capable accommodating future growth if need be.

"I'm also my smallest customer," he said with a laugh.

Shaffer hopes to have an open house later this fall. He still needs to finish the building's interior, which also features an office and display room in addition to the cold storage area for seed.

Work may remain, but he was thrilled about the new location and looked forward to the future.

"It's all been exciting as hell, but also really scary at the same time," Shaffer said.