10. LEASES

Granite Falls Energy

GFE has lease agreements with leasing companies for 218 rail cars for the transportation of GFE’s ethanol with various maturity dates through December 2026. The rail car lease payments are due monthly in the aggregate amount of approximately $181,000.

GFE has lease agreements with leasing companies for 115 hopper cars to assist with the transport of the distillers’ grains by rail with various maturity dates through November 2025. The rail car lease payments are due monthly in the amount of approximately $76,000.

Rent expense for GFE’s leases was approximately $3,163,000, $2,985,000 and $2,204,000 for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively.

Heron Lake BioEnergy

HLBE has lease agreements with leasing companies for 148 rail cars for the transportation of HLBE’s ethanol with various maturity dates through January 2027. The rail car lease payments are due monthly in the aggregate amount of approximately $127,000.

HLBE has lease agreement with leasing companies for 110 hopper cars to assist with the transport of the distillers’ grains by rail with various maturity dates through May 2027. During the fiscal year ended October 31, 2017, HLBE renewed a lease agreement for 50 hopper cars for an additional ten years with monthly lease payments of of approximately $25,000. The rail car lease payments are due monthly in the amount of approximately $64,000.

Rent expense for HLBE’s leases was approximately $2,170,000, $2,571,000 and $1,969,000 for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively.

At October 31, 2017, the Company had the following minimum future lease for payments, which at inception had a non-cancelable term of more than one year:


November 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018	$	4,916,616
November 1, 2018 to October 31, 2019		4,532,800
November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020		4,395,550
November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021		4,393,800
November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022		4,315,800
Thereafter		13,341,850
Total minimum lease commitments	$	35,896,416