The Chrysler project is just the biggest highlight of what has been a banner year for the north-central rectangle that encompasses Rockford, Belvidere, Rochelle and DeKalb. Belvidere also saw an $11-million investment from automotive distributor Android Industries. But the biggest distribution center (DC) project in the state is the $100-million, 1.5-million-sq.-ft. (139,350-sq.-m.) DC for Target Corp. under construction in DeKalb, bringing with it 500 new warehouse and management jobs. It's the company's 23rd DC, and first in Illinois. That project too is getting state funds, amounting to some $9.6 million.
      The 119 acres (48 hectares) Target chose are part of the 460-acre (186-hectare) Park 88, developed by Venture One Real Estate, Claycorp and DeKalb Associaties. And while the groundbreaking took place Nov. 8, 2004, the company was moving on the project a lot sooner.
      "Although this deal was closed on September 23, this summer Target's general contractor [Walsh Construction] had a convoy of trucks removing topsoil to get a jumpstart on site infrastructure improvements before the ground freezes," said Mark B. Goode, principal of Venture One Real Estate, in a press release.
      Among the incentives for the project were cumulative tax rebates and abatements from eight taxing bodies of $3.78 million. Target also garnered $1.79 million in water main improvements from the City of DeKalb, $1.4 million from the state of Illinois for street upgrades and $2.7 million in further infrastructure improvements from Park 88.
      "The partnership we received from the City of DeKalb and the State of Illinois was extraordinary," said Mitchell L. Stover, senior vice president, distribution services for Target. "In fact, we have a scoring system used to analyze sites, and the Park 88 site was the first 100 score we have ever seen."
      The company used site selection consultant Versus Partners, LLC, for the project, which will be in the heart of the larger region's "I-39 Logistics Corridor" brand. Located 50 miles (81 km.) west of Chicago, the park also has Union Pacific rail access, and is 13 miles (21 km.) east of the new Union Pacific intermodal facility in Rochelle. The park projects a total of 7 million sq. ft. (650,300 sq. m.) for various end uses at full build-out.
      There is evidence that the moniker literally carries some weight behind its brand. A scan of the Conway Data, Inc., New Plant database between January 2004 and February 2005 finds 36 projects in the roughly 11 counties lining the corridor, from the Wisconsin state line to the Bloomington-Normal metro area, some 150 miles (241 km.) to the south. Among them is the 1-million-sq.-ft. (92,900-sq.-m.), 214-job DC for PETsMART Inc. in Ottawa, directly on I-80. The company's ninth DC in North America is being helped along by the city's North Tax Increment Finance District, which would rebate a large portion of property taxes on the parcel for another 15 years. The facility will be located on 65 acres (26 hectares), or more than 80 percent, of McShane Corp.'s Interstate Commerce Center, and is expected to be ready by June 2005.
      The move to get further out was given further concrete form with the 2004 announcement by TNT Logistics of its sixth Chicago-area warehouse. While the first five are in the relatively close-in communities of Carol Stream, Chicago Ridge, Melrose Park, Park City and Romeoville, the new facility is in Monee, nearly halfway from the city center to Kankakee.
      Of the 356 projects in all of Illinois between Jan. 2004 and February 2005, 85 of them, in whole or in part, involved DCs, led in investment value by the Target project.