Nippon Sharyo buildings sold for $18 million

ROCHELLE – The Nippon Sharyo industrial campus at Rochelle’s ProLogis industrial park has been sold for $18 million, but the buyer has yet to surface.

Rochelle Economic Development Director Jason Anderson said he doesn’t know who has bought the two buildings on 57 acres, but that he has been told a meeting will be set up sometime in January. The LLC, 1600 Ritchie Court – the address of the property – was set up for the deal. That LLC is not registered in Illinois.

“The sale process has been going on for 6 months and it finally closed, but all I’ve been told is that the buyer is a larger manufacturer,” Anderson said.

Nippon Sharyo, a Japanese railcar maker, had used the facility since opening there in 2012. The company announced it was closing the plant in 2018, after incurring huge losses after it was unable to complete a high-tech, bi-level railcar project. The plant was highly specialized for making about 120 of the railcars annually for North American transportation agencies.

The company had gradually reduced its workforce in Rochelle before making the decision to close.

The two buildings combined have more than 800,000 square feet of industrial and office space. The property is located in the Lee-Ogle County Enterprise Zone. No one has reached out to him about business incentives, Anderson said. The enterprise zone allows up to 20% breaks on some capital investments.

Both of the buildings face I-88 and the industrial park is near the I-39 and I-88 interchange.