BALATON — The company formerly known as tru Shrimp is closing its doors in the city of Balaton. Iterro Life Sciences President and CEO Brian Knochenmus confirmed Friday that the Iterro facility in Balaton was closing, but said he had no further comment at this time.

Iterro, formerly called tru Shrimp, started out as a subsidiary of Marshall-based company Ralco. As of Friday, Iterro Life Sciences’ website said their business endeavors included tru Shrimp, as well as tru Protein, a pet nutrition supplement, and tru Chitosan, a material made from shrimp shells that has medical applications.

In 2015, tru Shrimp opened a research center in Balaton focused on developing methods of commercial indoor shrimp farming. Over the past 10 years, the company’s attempts to build a commercial shrimp production facility in the region have not come to fruition. South Dakota Public Broadcasting News reported this summer that the commissioner of the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development was investigating the status of Iterro’s plans to build a shrimp production facility in Madison, S.D.

In 2017, tru Shrimp broke ground for a 12,000 square-foot facility in Balaton, located at the site of the former Balaton public school. The facility contained a “reef” of indoor tanks for raising shrimp. Plans were announced to build a production facility in Luverne, but the location later changed to Madison, S.D. South Dakota’s GOED granted the Madison Lake Area Improvement Corporation $5.5 million for the project, SDPB News reported.

However, construction of the planned facility was delayed from 2019 to 2024. As of this summer, it had yet to be built, SDPB News reported.

Earlier this year, Iterro had proposed a $1.5 million project to produce pet treats at a building in Tracy, the Tracy Area Headlight Herald reported. In April, the Tracy EDA passed a motion to act as a legal sponsor for the project and a loan application from Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development.