218 acres and a plan
City, development group aim to draw industry to former steel mill's land
BY ANDREW WALTERS
SVS REPORTER
awalters@svnmail.com
STERLING - Dave Barajas Jr. doesn't see what everyone else sees on 218 mostly abandoned acres of the former Northwestern Steel and Wire property.
Bounded by the Union Pacific rail line on the north, state Route 2 to the west and the Rock River on the east, the property immediately north of U.S. Route 30 is a mixture of corn blowing in the wind and a 27-acre, 30-foot pile of steel mill slag.
When Barajas sees the area surrounding the 540,000-square-foot, former 14-inch rod mill building, he sees a burgeoning opportunity for Sterling.
"Our goal is to have the largest number of well-paying jobs in this tract of land as possible," said Barajas, executive director of the Greater Sterling Development Corp.
As a private, not-for-profit organization, established to increase economic activity in the Sterling area, the development corporation purchased the property out of bankruptcy last October. The land had been owned but largely unused by Northwestern Steel and Wire.
Recently the development corporation completed an initial plan for developing an industrial park, which includes parceling the 218 acres off into 11 plots, roughly 15 acres apiece.
Barajas now hopes to gather state and federal money to assist in removing the slag pile, which spans three of the plots.
The next step is to build a small network of roads through the site with two entrances on state Route 2.
"It gives developers an idea of how the industrial park will work," Barajas said.
Building the roads and dealing with the slag pile are the biggest hurdles to making the area "shovel ready" for development. A shovel-ready property is one where a company can begin to develop its factory immediately, without waiting for the area to be cleaned up or for infrastructure to be built.
The land is already zoned for heavy manufacturing and has access to electricity, as well as city sewer and water hookups through lines extended to the Wal-Mart Distribution Center two years ago.
"A brownfield doesn't do any good if it is just sitting there. You have to do something besides sitting idle," said Andy Rowe, district economic development director for U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island.
Rowe is working with the Greater Sterling Development Corp. to find state and federal money to help pay for the road construction and other improvements to develop the land. He believes the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity could be potential sources of cash.
"We are helping (the development corporation) get an environmental assessment on that slag pile, so we can see what can be done with that. We are in the role of facilitator for finding federal programs available for these types of brownfield projects." Rowe said.
Bringing new development to this portion of the brownfield is a high priority for the city as it is for the Greater Sterling Development Corp., said Jay Wieland, Sterling city manager.
"That is a big component of the overall plan. It is something that we see as vital to moving forward and redeveloping the whole property," Wieland said.
Constructing the necessary roadways through the site will be one of the biggest expanses. Wieland estimates it will cost between $200,000 and $300,000. In addition to state and federal grants, he thinks private site developers looking to locate there may also help pick up the cost for the roads.
Dealing with the slag pile is an altogether different story.
"I couldn't even begin to give an estimate on that. We don't know what we can reuse as fill and what will have to be moved away," Wieland said.
Reach Andrew Walters at (815) 625-3600, (815) 284-2222 or (800) 798-4085, ext. 522.
