By Laura Leckrone
A wave of business development and private investment is making its way across Southwestern Illinois and the hopes of the St. Louis region are awash in continued economic development. With nearly 5,000 acres of prime business sites and a world-class intermodal transportation system in place, and continually improving, Southwestern Illinois is a prime location for doing business and a hot spot for development.
To further development, Illinois Governor George Ryan is implementing the Illinois FIRST and the new Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) legislation which the RCGA was instrumental in getting passed. Illinois FIRST is a landmark $12 billion infrastructure program designed to allocate funding for improvements to schools, roads and transit systems throughout the state. Through the program, Southwestern Illinois will receive $1 billion over the next five years for road and bridge improvements to the area’s already superior transportation system. The program also will provide $60 million to fund the extension of MetroLink from Southwestern Illinois College to MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill.
The EDGE program is a new business location and expansion incentive program that will provide tax credits for businesses that create new jobs and make capital investments in Illinois. The program is designed to benefit all areas of Illinois that are in direct competition with other states for jobs and development.
“The EDGE program helps to level the playing field between Illinois and allows us to compete more effectively when developing plans for business prospects interested in building or relocating in Southwestern Illinois,” says Jim Pennekamp, executive director of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois. “Add to that, the $1 billion dollars in transportation improvements through Illinois FIRST and you have the perfect formula for turning Southwestern Illinois into the distribution center of the Midwest.”
RCGA’s active advocacy of the EDGE program parallels successful advocacy of the BUILD Missouri incentive program, which has enabled St. Louis to beat out Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, and others for successful economic development ventures involving thousands of new jobs for the region over the past three years.
Southwestern Illinois is fast becoming a major hub for consumer product distribution. Currently 40 percent of Dial Corporation’s and 20 percent of Hershey’s national consumer product distribution originates from the St. Louis region in Southwestern Illinois. Dial maintains nearly 1 million-square-feet of state-of-the-art distribution space in Gateway Commerce Center near Edwardsville, Ill.
Madison, Illinois-based Lanter Company, a provider of contract and public warehousing, chose to anchor its business in Southwestern Illinois because of its prime location and easy accessibility to numerous Interstate highways. “Southwestern Illinois has proven to be an excellent and convenient place to do business,” says Al Winkeler, chief financial officer for the Lanter Company. “As a total logistics company, we strategically view Southwestern Illinois as a premier distribution location for companies whose products are distributed on a regional or national basis.”
Construction recently was completed on a 406,500-square-foot bulk distribution building located in the 2,700-acre Gateway Commerce Center near the I-255/I-270 interchange. The $12.9 million project is a joint partnership between Lanter Company, Ralph Korte of The Korte Company and TriStar Business Communities. Earlier this year, construction was completed on a $12 million, 350,410-square-foot expansion to an existing Lanter Company storage warehouse in Northgate Industrial Park in Granite City, Ill. Lanter also is finishing a $3.2 million, 58,000-square-foot service center real estate development in Collinsville, Ill. near I-255, which is a combination of office and warehouse space available for multiple tenants.
Triple Crown Services also has chosen to relocate its intermodal transfer facility from St. Louis to Gateway Commerce Center. The $7 million facility, which is being undertaken by Norfolk & Southern Railroad, will act as a rail-to-road and road-to-rail transferring facility for Triple Crown trailers. The operation allows Triple Crown Services’ RoadRailer trailer units to move products by rail and highway without leaving the trailer, which helps take traffic off the highways, reduces airborne pollutants and lessens the demand on the region’s highway infrastructure. Construction was just completed last month.
Sauget Business Park, in Sauget, Ill., experienced a boom in business over the last couple years, due in part, to its easy accessibility to I-255, which connects Southwestern Illinois to the I-270 circumferential loop that encircles the St. Louis region. In addition to several manufacturing and distribution companies that have located in the 700-acre park, Volvo just completed construction on a new 35,000-square-foot Volvo Truck Dealership and servicing center in Sauget.
In addition to a growth in the distribution business, other projects underway in Southwestern Illinois include the $85 million Fountains at Fairview hotel and convention center being developed by Southwestern Illinois Hotels and phase two of the Lincoln Place Shopping Center being developed by Koman Properties in Fairview Heights, Ill.
In East St. Louis alone, private investment developments totaling almost $75 million and public investments of almost $365 million are underway. Private sector projects include the $15 million Casino Queen Hotel, the $7 million Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center and the $9.5 million State Street Shopping Center, also being developed by Koman Properties. Construction is expected to begin next summer on a $25 million, 200-unit Parson’s Place residential development in the Emerson Park neighborhood being developed by McCormack Baron & Associates, Inc.
New public investments include the $339 million MetroLink extension through East St. Louis to Southwestern Illinois College and a proposed $11.8 million new Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville – East St. Louis Center Building.
Business developments on the Illinois side of the river are booming. “What we’ve seen in recent years is that development in the metropolitan area will turn to Illinois because of the abundant and viable land, and due to the quality of the infrastructure that has been developed over the last few years,” says Alan Ortbals, executive director of the Southwestern Illinois Development Authority. “We’re beginning to see that more and more Missouri developers and companies are looking past the river that separates us and are turning their sites to Illinois.”
The eastern portion of the St. Louis region is fast emerging as a regionwide asset as St. Louis competes with other metro areas.
Laura K. Leckrone is a senior account executive for Grandone Hauser, Inc. and a consultant for the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois.
