By NATE ROBSON
SIOUX CITY | An electrical supply company is planning a $2.6 million expansion that officials hope will bring economic life back to Sioux City’s shuttered stockyards.
Council Bluffs-based Echo Electrical Supply announced Friday it will build a new warehouse and distribution center on the grounds of the former Floyd Valley Packing Plant in the Yards I-29 Business Park. The new facility will be between 35,000 and 45,000 square feet and create 13 jobs.
The company has outgrown its current building at Seventh and Jackson streets.
The new facility will be at 1200 Cunningham Drive.
Sioux City Vice President of Operations Gary Wanderscheid in a statement said the company is in the early design stages and hopes to have the facility open by October 2014.
Echo Electrical Supply is a wholesale electrical distributor and warehousing company serving the Midwest.
The City Council will be asked Monday to approve selling 4.8 acres of land in the business park to Echo Electrical Supply for $1. If approved, a 30-day notice would be posted to allow other entities to submit their bid.
City staff also is working with the company to get a state tax credit for job creation. That agreement will be brought to the council on Nov. 4.
Economic Development Director Marty Dougherty said the company has agreed to a minimum property assessment of $2.6 million. The property is predicted to generate $109,000 a year in property tax revenue.
A proposed rebate agreement would give back $45,000 for five years. Full taxes would be paid after that.
That agreement is expected to come to the council for approval by the end of the year.
The company had considered building in other states, including South Dakota, Dougherty said.
“It’s good to get this property back on the tax rolls ever since the city tore down the old packing plant years ago,” Dougherty said. “This is a continuation of our efforts to redevelop the yards.”
The Floyd Valley packing plant on Cunningham Drive closed in 1985.
The city has spent 15 years drawing economic development to the business park after several packing plants closed. The biggest business to move in was Home Depot, in 2006.
Reposted with permission from Sioux City Journal.
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