Dixon council OKs enterprise zone expansion to cover new businesses near Amboy, Byron nuclear plant upgrades

DIXON – The Dixon City Council approved three ordinances Monday in support of expanding the Lee-Ogle County Enterprise Zone’s boundaries to include three upcoming developments in rural Lee and Ogle counties.

The proposed new boundaries would include a project between Amboy and Sublette that involves building an entertainment complex along with a separate bar and restaurant, increasing the power output at the Byron nuclear plant, and adding another building to HA International’s existing manufacturing plant just outside Oregon, Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone Administrator Andy Shaw said in an interview with Shaw Local.

The enterprise zone, created through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, is designed to stimulate economic growth by offering state and local tax incentives to projects within the zone. Expanding it will ultimately go to the IDCEO for final approval, but its advisory board is first seeking approval from all local governments within the zone. The process is expected to take several months, Shaw said.

Ordinances to expand it were approved by the Lee County Board on Jan. 23, the Ogle County Board on Jan. 21 and the Rochelle City Council on Jan. 27.

The first map amendment approved by the Dixon council includes about 10.61 acres for two separate developments called Fun on 52 and Pub & Patio along Route 52 between Amboy and Sublette.

Pub & Patio, formerly Sublette Saloon at 1831 Tower Road, will be a bar and grill restaurant. Next to that existing building, developer Sanjay Desai plans to add an entertainment space featuring bowling, ax throwing and other activities, Desai said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Desai’s other project, known as Fun on 52, is planned to be a family oriented amusement complex with golf activities and go-karts. The facility will be all new construction off of Route 52 near the Mendota Hills Campground in Amboy, he said.

Pub & Patio is expected to open late 2025 while Fun on 52 will take at least a few years to complete, Desai said. He expects to hire about 15 to 20 employees between both projects.

Another amendment involves a project to increase power output at the Byron Nuclear Plant. Constellation, an energy company based in Baltimore, plans to replace six low-pressure turbines, two high-pressure turbines and update the electrical system. The new turbines will generate an additional 79 to 80 megawatts of energy, Ryan Tozer, Constellation’s manager of local government affairs, said Monday.

Tozer said the new turbines are larger, which makes them spin faster, which then generates more energy.

Constellation plans to invest more than $355 million in the project and it’s expected to be completed in 2029. Throughout construction, Constellation will be looking to hire between 500 and 600 contractional employees during four windows, Tozer said.

“It’s a major investment and a lot of workers to the regional area,” Tozer said at the Lee County Board meeting on Jan. 23.

The last amendment is for a project at HA International in rural Ogle County, west of Oregon on Devils Back Bone Road south of Pines Road. The company plans to expand its existing plant by bringing an improved production line from one of the company’s sites in Ohio, Shaw said.

That expansion would include constructing a new building to manufacture a product called feeders to be used in the metal-casting industry. It will cost about $10 million to complete, create 17 new manufacturing jobs in the short term and 56 new jobs over the course of about 10 years, Shaw said.

The zone’s expansion is beneficial to project developers, but they don’t have to wait for it to be approved to move forward with their plans, Shaw said. Still, he expects that most of them will because if not, they could miss out on the full benefits of building within the zone, which includes two major benefits related to new construction, Shaw said.

One is a sales tax exemption on all building materials related to the project, which comes out to about 8% savings at the beginning of the project. The second is property tax abatements if the assessed property value increases after construction is completed, Shaw said.

As for the local governments within the zone, its expansion “is significant because of the percentages we try to keep balanced between Lee and Ogle counties in terms of acreage,” Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said Monday.

The map amendments add about 11 acres to Lee County’s portion of the zone and roughly 200 acres - a majority of it for the Byron Nuclear Plant - to Ogle County’s portion. If the state approves the expansion, Lee County will have a total of 5,354.27 acres included in the zone and Ogle County will have 6,128.79 acres, according to the ordinances.

It’s also significant in terms of future development availability, Hughes said.

The state limits the zone’s total coverage area to 12,800 acres. This expansion would grow its total coverage area to 11,483 acres, which leaves about 1,316 acres available for future use, Shaw said.

“We feel pretty comfortable that we’re OK with future needs, but there are some other tricks we can do to create some space, too,” Shaw said.

“This is somewhat unusual that we need to amend the map,” he said. Typically, developers will build within the zone’s established boundaries, attracted by its tax benefits.