B Magazine: Groundbreaking progress at Semo Industrial Park promises economic boost for Scott City

Developers of the new SEMO Industrial Park in northern Scott County say it won’t be long before ground is broken for the project’s first tenants.

“As soon as we can get someone in there, we will do it,” said Shad Burner, chief executive officer of Southeast Missouri Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SEMO REDI), who is working with various entities to promote the project.

“We’re at the point where we can have very constructive conversations with potential users,” he said.

The 380-acre site sits just east of Interstate 55 on the northern edge of Scott City and extends southward from Nash Road along the Ramsey Creek branch of the Mississippi River Diversion Channel.

According to Gregg Erb, co-owner of the industrial park property, the project’s infrastructure should be complete by August 2025.

“Construction began in early July and we’ve been blessed with dry weather,” he told B Magazine in mid-November. “Koehler Engineering and Fronabarger Concreters have been able to make good progress with the construction of the [industrial park’s] main road. Once completed, they’ll proceed with the side streets, providing access to all the lots within the park.”

Erb and his sister, Carrie Roider, purchased the site in 2016 with the intent of subdividing it for commercial use purposes. The project received a major boost in May 2023, when the Missouri Department of Economic Development awarded a $2.5 million matching grant to help underwrite access road construction as well as the installation of water, sewer, electric and gas lines within the property.

“Things are going really well,” Burner said. “The grant money, along with the money the owners have invested, have added a lot of infrastructure to the site bringing roads, water, wastewater utilities and so forth to the different tracts of land.”

When complete, the park in its current configuration will offer more than 30 shovel-ready parcels ranging in size from five to just over 20 acres.

Erb says the park’s location is one of its major selling points. It offers convenient access to I-55 and is less than three miles west of the slackwater harbor and rail terminals at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. In addition, the park site is just across the interstate from the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

“The property is situated in a major transportation hub offering easy access to regional, national and international markets,” Erb said. It has the potential, he said, to be an ideal site for a wide variety of uses such as manufacturing, logistics, transportation, warehousing, food and beverage production, construction and building material suppliers, aerospace manufacturing and e-commerce fulfillment.

To help make the site even more attractive to potential tenants, an application has recently been filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development to qualify the property as a “certified” industrial park site. “It’s one more way to help make the site more marketable,” Burner said.

Certification, he explained, will indicate the site has gone through a review process and meets various criteria in terms of site development and infrastructure necessary for a quality industrial park project. In addition, the site provides Chapter 100 tax exemption incentives through the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The development lies within the northern boundary of Scott City and both Erb and Burner credit the city’s leadership, and specifically Scott City Administrator Dustin Whitworth, for the project’s rapid development.

“When we sat down with the city and carved out our master development plan for the industrial park, it was our intent to structure a plan that would expedite the building process and eliminate potential buyers’ risk by providing a lot of the critical information upfront such as the availability of roads, utilities, environmental and cultural studies, site access and infrastructure and to expedite the city’s permitting process for qualifying projects, just to name a few,” Erb said.

“We wanted to create a buying experience where the potential customers have assurance the process will go as smoothly as possible and that the SEMO Industrial Park and the City of Scott City are the best options for their growth,” he said.

The project offers significant economic benefits for Scott City as well as the overall region by providing hundreds of jobs and additional tax revenue. “This has been a vision of mine to see this thing go for a number of years,” Whitworth said. “There’s a lot of potential for Scott City through this project and we’re excited to see what comes into the park.”

Lorimont Commercial Real Estate has partnered with Erb, SEMO REDI and the City of Scott City to market the property and work with potential site tenants. More information about the park is available by contacting Lorimont, (573) 334-5200, or SEMO REDI, (573) 334-5000. Additional details are also available through the SEMO Industrial Park website, www.semoip.com.

“Our vision is to create a vibrant resilient local economy where large and small businesses can flourish, creating job opportunities and a community that thrives through sustainable development and innovation,” Erb said.