A second large warehouse project to receive city approval in the past three months underscores Springfield’s growing footprint in the logistics and distribution industry, local economic development officials say.
“It’s a nice diversification of our employment base,” Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, told Illinois Times. “We have good sites available and willing property owners with land to sell.”
Springfield City Council members on Oct. 15 voted unanimously to allow Project Capitol, as its currently known, to move forward. The 71,000-square-foot distribution center will be built on an almost 30-acre site currently used to grow corn and soybeans at the southeast corner of North Dirksen Parkway and Bissell Road.
It’s unknown who will be the end user of the planned $20 million warehouse on the city’s northeast side. The site is under contract to be purchased from current owner Glen Garrison, a longtime commercial real estate broker and developer. It is north of Buffalo Wild Wings at 2808 North Dirksen Parkway, west of a FedEx warehouse at 2951 Granger Drive and less than a mile west of Interstate 55.
Kyle Schott, vice president of real estate development for Project Capitol’s developer, Westmont-based Ryan Companies, wouldn’t reveal the end user – at least not now – or describe the types of goods that would be shipped in and out of the warehouse, which will be 32 feet tall.
But Schott said about 100 full-time jobs would be created at the location, which is expected to open in late 2025 as a “last-mile delivery facility.”
Last-mile delivery refers to the final step in shipping in which a package or product moves from a transportation hub to its final destination – a customer’s home or a business.
The 100 new jobs are encouraging news to McCrady, who said it’s been at least 10 years since that many jobs have been created at a Springfield site.
City Council approval of the project came three months after the council voted 6-3 for zoning variances that will allow for development of a proposed 226,800-square-foot warehouse project that Illinois Times has confirmed will be used as a Frito-Lay distribution center.
That project, costing between $30 million and $51 million to build based on industry estimates, is expected to employ 150 to 200 permanent full-time workers. The site, on about 30 acres that have been zoned industrial for decades, is along Palm Road and next to Interstate 55.
The Palm Road project, which abuts a cluster of homes, was opposed by neighbors who fear the truck traffic will bring unwelcome noise, dust, traffic congestion and potential danger to school buses transporting Ball-Chatham School District students. Construction could begin in spring 2025.
In contrast, the Bissell Road project has only one home nearby, and there has been no opposition to the project, according to Molly Berns, executive director of the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission.
Berns said the City Council’s Oct. 15 vote was required because the project was considered a “large-scale development” under the city’s land subdivision rules, and because the developer’s proposal for three entrance/exit points along Bissell Road required a variance.
The City Council voted 10-0 on June 18 to change the site’s zoning from B-1 Highway Business Service District to I-1 Light Industrial District, which was needed for warehouse construction, while allowing some B-1 uses to remain.
The proposed zoning change received support from the planning commission’s staff. The Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission voted 8-0 on May 15 to recommend that the City Council approve the change.
With its central location along an interstate highway, Springfield is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing logistics and distribution industry, McCrady said.
Companies that move people and goods from one location to another learned during the COVID-19 pandemic how supply chains can be disrupted and how smaller and decentralized warehousing sites can reduce that risk, he said.
It’s possible to reach one-third of the population of the United States from Springfield on a day-long truck ride at legal speed limits, McCrady said. Measured in that way, he said Springfield has a better one-day reach than Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, and Nashville, Tennessee.
In addition to the well-paying truck-driving jobs for people who transport goods to and from warehouses over short and long distances, jobs inside those warehouses generally pay living wages, include health insurance and other benefits, and often don’t require a college degree, McCrady said.
For years, Springfield has depended on state government and the medical and insurance industry for economic stability, Berns said. Logistics and distribution jobs offer an option to diversify the employment base, she said.
Springfield is “centrally located, and it has a lot of abilities for a company to come in and use Springfield as a main distribution center. And so that's what Springfield brings to the table,” Berns said.
“We also have fairly good infrastructure in terms of streets,” she said. “We have great infrastructure in terms of water availability, in terms of sanitary sewer services. So we're really poised in the market. We also have a great employment base, as well. Springfield has a lot to offer these developers, and quite frankly, I'm pretty excited about how we all of a sudden are starting to get some of these projects to look more seriously at Springfield.”
Berns said the Growth Alliance has done a “great job” marketing the Springfield area as a regional distribution hub.
The two new warehousing projects likely will spark interest from other potential employers looking for distribution sites, McCrady said.
The central Illinois native joined the Growth Alliance in 2020 and is a former Sangamon County administrator. He said he and his staff attend conferences to pitch the benefits of locating in Sangamon County.
“We’re really selling the strengths of our community,” he said.
