Economic development efforts progressing in Lee County

DIXON – The Lee County Industrial Development Association is pursuing opportunities for key development sites in Dixon and south of Rochelle, from retail shops to major industrial projects.

The organization has been creating an inventory of properties and evaluating available utilities as well as promoting properties that are primed for development in the Lee County Industrial Park, the Dixon Gateway Project and the Dual Rail Megasite, LCIDA Executive Director Tom Demmer said during a recent presentation to the Lee County Board.

“We’re continuing to pursue the commercial development side, retail development as well as a number of really promising and large scale multimillion dollar industrial investments across the area.”

—  Tom Demmer, executive director of the Lee County Industrial Development Association

The industrial park next to Interstate 88 has four parcels for development that could benefit from the Industrial Park tax-increment financing district that the city created last year in addition to the Fargo Creek TIF, he said. They also could qualify from incentives from the Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone, and the sites have road access and most utilities built out.

The properties total about 230 acres.

“It really is a place where there’s potential for significant development,” Demmer said.

Officials also have been working to land a large-sale industrial development at the Dual Rail Megasite south of Rochelle, which includes about 1,000 acres of land and access to rail and utility expansions that have been in the works for years.

The area has sewer, water, electrical and road access along with being near the Rochelle intermodal and industrial park at Interstates 39 and 88.

Demmer said they’re working with Intersect Illinois on potential projects, which go by codenames, looking for a large development site.

He also mentioned Senate Bill 1127, legislation passed last month that would keep the land within a 4-mile radius of the intersection of I-39 and I-88 from being developed into wind or solar energy sites.

It makes that development area exempt from House Bill 4412, a law that created a statewide siting standard for renewable projects that overruled local zoning authority and would have potentially threatened the project area.

[ Legislation passes to benefit interstate 39/88 development ]

“We were concerned that a project might go there and take advantage of the electrical infrastructure but make no use at all of the rail, the water, the sewer, the natural gas, the road access; all of these things that make it a compelling industrial site would have been a bridge to nowhere if wind or a solar installation went in there,” Demmer said.

Work is progressing with filling the Gateway Project, a commercial development bringing gas stations, restaurants, a hotel and the new Dixon Family YMCA child care center to the I-88 corridor.

The 27-acre site along South Galena Avenue across from Walmart between Keul and Bloody Gulch roads is being developed by Xsite Real Estate of Burr Ridge and Walsh Partners of Elmhurst. It broke ground a year ago with the plan to construct a dozen buildings and is expected to create more than 600 jobs and $1 million a year in new tax revenue.

The city’s cost for infrastructure is $5.2 million, of which $3 million will come from grants.

[ Dixon council approves $2.2 million TIF loan for Gateway Project infrastructure ]

“We’re continuing to pursue the commercial development side, retail development as well as a number of really promising and large scale multimillion dollar industrial investments across the area,” Demmer said.