TERRE HAUTE —
A master plan that will review costs of extending existing power, water and road systems and create a time frame for that work is under way for the Vigo County Industrial Park II as part of a $20,000 grant from Duke Energy.
Mike Heaton, economic development regional manager, on Tuesday presented the grant to Steve Witt, president of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.
Terre Haute, Heaton said, “is strategically very important for our company within our service territory and with the Vigo County Industrial Park’s access to Interstate 70, rail, and plenty of electricity and gas and positioned in the center of the United States, we wanted to support the efforts of west-central Indiana, Vigo County and Terre Haute specifically, so that the Vigo County Industrial Park II can be more marketable.”
Duke Energy’s Indiana Community Growth Partnership Grant program is aimed at generating new jobs and capital investment in Indiana. Since 2008, Duke Energy has awarded 27 grants, totaling more than $328,000.
Witt said Duke Energy has been a partner in the development of the industrial parks through business leads, aerial photographs and information on their power availability. The study, Witt said, will document existing capabilities of electricity, natural gas, water and sewer, as well as creation of logical routes for extending those utilities and roads into about 900 acres of the former Pfizer property, now called the Vigo County Industrial Park II.
That park is adjacent to the existing and first industrial park, which contains 1,500 acres.
The study will allow Witt to show prospective companies what is available “and what our plans are for the future. It shows that we are ready for development. Secondly, it will help our local elected official plan for the future in terms in what they may need to budget for,” Witt said.
“Compared to when we started with the Industrial Park, we are so much farther ahead [for Industrial Park II] because we do have existing heavy duty infrastructure pretty much all around the perimeter of the property,” Witt said.
The current industrial offers has a combination of private utilities of Duke Energy, Vectren and Indiana American-Water Co., plus the city of Terre Haute’s Sanitary Sewer District and government-built roadways, Witt said. Those can be extended into the new industrial park.
Duke Energy has two 138-kilovolt sources from two different transmission substations that can be combined for a dual feed, “which is very important for companies that can’t be down under any circumstances or any reason, so that is another important selling point,” Witt said.
“We believe that Duke Energy has a little over 100 megawatts of available power that can be provided to new companies going into that former Pfizer property,” Witt said.
Witt said the first park was developed around a new road network, including Industrial Drive, which is a 10-inch reinforced concrete road built to interstate standards with a maximum capacity of 80,000 pounds.
“We certainly will need to think about how we want to access the interior parks [of Industrial Park II] through roads,” Witt said.
Danisco Sweeteners is next to Industrial Park II. That company could play a role in the development of property, Witt said, “through the possibility of selling steam. They have some excess steam capacity and that is a relatively rare commodity,” Witt said.
The company had previously sold steam to Pfizer, which began to pull out from the county in 2008 after its failed production of the inhaled insulin Exubera.
Witt said rail is perhaps the most valuable asset in the new industrial park. The existing park also has fiber optics from Verizon that can be extended, plus the two properties rest between two major interstate natural gas transmission lines, about three miles from Texas Gas to the east and Midwest Gas Transmission to the west, Witt said.
In addition, the Terre Haute Sanitary District can provide about 6 million gallons of capacity from its existing sewer lines. “Right now there is probably less than 1 million going into the system, so we have great additional sanitary sewer capacity,” Witt said.
Vigo County, Witt said, had many developments in 2008, such as Boral Brick, Certainteed and Alorica, as well as Kellogg purchasing IndyBake. However, 2009 and 2010 brought very few new development leads. “We are not back to that 2008 level, but we have been getting leads in the past two months,” Witt said, adding that he hopes that offers a sign of economic improvement.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
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Grant to help market ex-Pfizer property
Duke Energy gives $20,000 toward plan for land now known as Vigo County Industrial Park II
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