Date: Sep 08, 2012 Author: Jennifer DeWitt Source: Quad City Times (
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Twelve years after the Savanna Army Depot Activity ended its near-century life as a weapons depot, the rural stretch of property is an economic development opportunity waiting to explode.
The site, long operated by the U.S. Army, was closed in 2000 after a base realignment and closure process five years earlier. Today, nearly 3,000 acres in northwest Carroll County and southwest Jo Daviess County make up the Savanna Depot Business, Industry and Technology Park.
Although the depot spans 13,000 acres, only 3,000 have been transferred to the Jo-Carroll Local Redevelopment Authority, according to Mara Roche, its executive director. The authority has only received one-third of the acreage to promote for development because the rest is tied up in what is becoming a lengthy cleanup process, she said.
Most of what can be redeveloped "has been sold off to companies that are to be developing the properties," Roche said.
"People see all this ground. The problem is if they could only utilize the rest of that land," she said, adding that the authority can make money only by selling or leasing property. "Of the 3,000 acres, we have most of it under lease/purchase agreements so they can utilize the buildings, but not the land."
Used for years as a proving and testing facility for weapons developed at the Rock Island Arsenal, the property has contamination and other environmental issues and is home to some endangered species, she said. The situation is further complicated by deeds with restrictions and buried unexploded ordnances, which will make some of the site off limits forever.
Even so, Roche said about a dozen businesses have moved onto the depot and are filling up some of the vacant buildings that once housed the depot's operations, its officers and soldiers, and other munitions functions.
"It's already hard enough in this economy to bring in business and keep business. Then to throw all this red tape on top," she said.
"If you could use it as you see it, it would be easy," Roche said.
However, many businesses and developers have seen through the difficulties to advance their own companies. The tenants include:
- Area 51 LLC, a grain bin operation.
- bryer Productions, a photography business.
- Commander's House at the Savanna Army Depot — owned by A&B Holdings, plans are to make the house a destination for corporate and family retreats.
- Depot Electric Supply.
- Fluidic MicroControls, which is doing research and development on micro turbines.
- Illinois Information Management, which is leasing its space for office use.
- Illinois International Trade Center, operated by the Jo-Carroll Foreign Trade Zone.
- Jeanblanc International Inc, which specializes in advanced environmental technologies for the oil industry.
- Midwest 3PL (Third Party Logistics), a full-service warehousing operation.
- Rescar, a railcar repair company.
- Riverport Railroad LLC, which services, repairs and stores railcars as well as coupling long lines of rail cars for the BNSF.
- Savanna Stables, which owns former barracks and a barn that SolRWind plans to lease or buy.
- Speer Recycling, a metal recycler.
Roche said the companies that have landed at the depot are "some sharp tenants who are doing some amazing things."
She said the red tape and the projects that are promised but never materialize make marketing the depot a difficult task. "I still see it as a promising piece of property and one of the largest tracks of industrial property in both Jo Daviess and Carroll county," she said.
For more information, visit lrasavannail.us.
