The rightness of that site was first and foremost, determined by the quality of its limestone. Second, its location just 50 miles (80 km.) to the southeast of St. Louis afforded a prime riverfront spot, south of the lock and dam network, from which to ship to a regional market estimated at 40 million metric tons.
   A report released the same month as Holcim's groundbreaking by the Portland Cement association said the central region of the U.S. was expected to have the largest number of clinker capacity expansions, representing 37 percent of the 16.2 million metric tons of capacity growth by 2010 in which U.S. cement companies are currently engaged. "The Mississippi River allows plants in this area to access a broad market," stated the report. Altogether, U.S. cement plant expansions currently represent $3.6 billion in capital investment.
   Among the other site selection criteria Holcim spelled out were:
   • High quality natural resources that generate lower air emissions during the manufacturing process
   • Ability to acquire sufficient property
   • Accessibility to multiple transportation modes
   • Previously quarried land to minimize overall environmental impact
   • A nearby, skilled work force

   The plant will be a single kiln line Portland cement manufacturing facility that includes a raw material processing system, coal mill system, product processing system, and material receiving and product shipping systems.
   A study conducted by the Center for Economic and Business Research in the Donald L. Harrison School of Business at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) found that construction and operation of the plant will have an "enormous [economic] impact on the State of Missouri." Certainly that statement rings true for Ste. Genevieve County itself, situated directly between the commuter sheds of St. Louis to the north and a growing Cape Girardeau to the south.
   The county boasts a middling 5- percent unemployment rate. The new Holcim operation may help ameliorate a net out- migration of some 2,189 people as recently as 2000, according to U.S. Census figures, with most of those commuters traveling toward St. Louis. At the same time, the county experienced population growth of 11 percent between 1990 and 2000, approaching 18,000, while the percentage of individuals 25 and over with a high school diploma in that same time frame jumped from 62.8 percent to 73.8 percent. (The most dramatic regional improvement in that category came in Bollinger County, just to the south and adjacent to Cape Girardeau, which saw an 18- percent jump.)
   Around the same time as the original Holcim announcement in the late 1990s, Parc Ste. Genevieve, the county's industrial park, was just getting started, buoyed by an expanded TIF district. But so far it hasn't rolled anywhere, and is now under consideration for altered zoning that will allow mixed use and residential development.