Development news

Firm hired to help boost economy

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- New Madrid County has a lot to offer. And with a new county economic developer now on the job, businesses will soon know it.

On Oct. 29, the New Madrid County Mayors Association contracted with Strategic Resource Management LLC, a southeast Missouri consulting firm, to assist in local and regional economic development efforts.

Julian Steiner, managing partner for the firm, will lead the firm's efforts.

As a resident of Bell City for the past 30 years who has worked in the consulting industry, Steiner said he is familiar with what this area has to offer for businesses and knows many of the local officials and other important contacts.

"One of my primary focuses will be the St. Jude Industrial Park and to see if we can populate that. New Madrid County has an amazing infrastructure -- especially the transportation infrastructure," he said. "I think the Mayors Association really wants to leverage that infrastructure, whether it's the St. Jude Industrial Park or other areas within the county."

Steiner said his firm will not be seeking any specific types of businesses. "Whatever we feel is a good fit for the county, we would certainly look at," he said. "Our main goal is create and retain jobs for the citizens of the county."

The biggest challenge for economic development in the county will be overcoming the misperception of New Madrid County as a poor Bootheel county, he said.

East Main Street, interchange dedicated in pair of ceremonies

He's been out of public office since May, but former Jackson mayor Paul Sander's name was among the most-mentioned at two transportation dedications recently.

Jackson Mayor Barbara Lohr said she kept her remarks and thanks brief to give Sander, her predecessor, the stage at the East Main Street ceremony.

"This was his day," she said, the culmination of hundreds of hours of meetings over 14 years. Immediately after the East Main ceremony, city officials traveled on the newly dedicated road to attend a ribbon cutting for the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue interchange at Interstate 55.

Sander started the drive to extend East Main Street to I-55 as soon as he became mayor in 1993 after being an alderman for seven years.

"At times during the whole process, I wasn't sure it would happen at all," he said. "I didn't understand how much it would cost, really. I'm thankful the other partners emerged."

Those other partners included MoDOT, the city and county of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri State University, U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and former senator Jim Talent.

What started as a $1.2 million project to extend East Main Street to I-55 drew an additional $10 million, which paid for the $8 million interchange and will pay $1.2 million to the cities of Jackson and Cape Girardeau to build streets paralleling I-55. City engineers are already working on initial planning for Jackson's Orchard Road and Cape Girardeau's Lewis and Clark Parkway.

Dumey Contracting Inc., which won the $8 million contract to build the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue interchange at exit 102, was praised for rapid work. The original contract provided two years for the work; Dumey will finish months ahead of the June 2008 deadline, despite a series of weather-related delays. MoDOT engineer Mark Shelton praised the company for "focus, intensity and desire" in beating the deadline.

Fronabarger Concreters Inc. of Oak Ridge, Mo., and Kluesner Construction Inc. of Kelso, Mo., were hired to extend East Main Street, a $1.2 million project that included foundational work, clearing land, excavating rock, constructing a box culvert and installing storm-water controls, water and sewer lines, in addition to concrete paving of the four-lane boulevard roadway and sidewalks.

NORDYNE adds 150 jobs

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- NORDYNE's announcement of 150 more jobs was an early Christmas gift for the Poplar Bluff area.

"We years have landed a new customer and we will add 150 jobs in 2008," said Greg Simpson, who was recently promoted from plant manager in Poplar Bluff to senior director of North American operations.

The company will start adding the new jobs in January, and will continue adding for about four months.

Simpson said he expects NORDYNE's employment level to increase from a peak of 930 in 2007 to a peak of 1,080 in 2008.

NORDYNE produced 425,000 heating and cooling units in 2007 for leading manufacturers throughout the United States. The expected increase could push the production volume to more than a half million units next year.

"We are adding a new furnace line in 2008. The company is making another significant investment in the operation with the new furnace," Simpson said.

A new line for indoor coils in air conditioning systems is also being added.

NORDYNE has been designing and manufacturing heating and cooling products for more than 80 years. It is a subsidiary of privately held Nortek Inc. of Providence, R.I.

Plaza Tire gets winning bid on former Dana Corp. building

Plaza Tire Service Inc. submitted the winning bid to purchase the industrial building that formerly housed the Dana Corp. production facility in Cape Girardeau, company vice president Scott Rhodes said.

The Plaza Tire bid edged out an offer from Schaefer's Electrical Enclosures of Advance, Mo., which had strong support from city and economic development leaders. Bidders submitted their best price to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, N.Y. and the judge in the case deemed Plaza's bid the best offer.

The 150,000 square-foot building will become the corporate offices and distribution center for Plaza Tire's 49 stores in Missouri and Illinois.

Plaza Tire was founded in 1963 by Vernon "Pee Wee" Rhode as the Plaza Car Wash. The company moved into the used, then new, tire distribution business within a few years. Today Plaza Tire has 49 stores and is rated as the 28th largest independently owned tire retailer in the United States according to Tire Business magazine.

Schaefer's Electrical had sought up to $5 million in industrial development revenue bonds from Cape Girardeau to finance the purchase and expansion of its electrical switch box manufacturing business. The company planned to move its entire production from Advance, Mo., to Cape Girardeau and expand its workforce from about 100 to about 140 by April.

DRA authorizes grant for roads

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Delta Regional Authority granted money to six Missouri entities this year, including a Sikeston project.

Scott County was granted $236,400 to improve roads at the Sikeston Business, Education and Technology Park, 600 acres for business and industry development.

Plaza Tire expands

Plaza Tire Service has opened a store in Lake St. Louis, Mo., in St. Charles County, the sixth one in the county and the fifth new location to open this year. The Cape Girardeau-based company now has 49 stores and is the 28th largest independently owned tire retailer in the nation according to Tire Business magazine, the company said in a news release.

Big River is growing

Big River Telephone Co. of Cape Girardeau is making continued inroads into other markets, partnering with US Cable to bring digital telephone service to Hannibal, Mo. The service allows the companies to offer simultaneous television, Internet and telephone access.

New shop building

The Delta Cos., operators of Delta Asphalt Inc. at 1200 Marquette Drive, is constructing a new 7,340-square-foot shop building. Glenn Graham, a regional manager, said the company is replacing the existing shop to do a better job of "keeping the equipment moving."

Grant awarded

Jackson won a $220,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Missouri Department of Economic Development to assist the expansion plans of the American Railcar Industries ARI-Jackson Manufacturing plant.

The grant will help pay for the infrastructure improvements at the Jackson Industrial Park on Route PP. ARI-Jackson plans to add 22 jobs and invest at least $862,000 in private investment.

When the grant was first being sought in April, the total being requested was $420,000 to support the addition of up to 42 jobs.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen action on the larger grant amount was premature at the time, ARI manager Brian Blankenship said in October when the company received approval of a building permit application for the plant expansion.

Grants under the Industrial Infrastructure program are aimed at communities with fewer than 50,000 people and the funds must be used for public streets, water or sewer lines, engineering or the completion of other public facilities necessary to support the project.

The program is funded by federal tax dollars.

ARI-Jackson produces more than 5,000 different items at its 120,000 square-foot plant, which first opened in 1985.

Coffee Firm could come to Ste. Genevieve

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- A St. Louis County-based coffee company may be relocating to Ste. Genevieve.

The Ste. Genevieve Planning and Zoning Commission has considered a request for a special use permit for the operation of a coffee bean roasting operation and warehouse behind the former Brumfield Automotive building on Ste. Genevieve Drive.

According to Sharon Hasty, a realtor for Re/Max Best Choice and a member of the Cindy Callahan Re/Max team, the owners of the DiGoga World Class Coffee plant hope to move their entire operation here. Hasty has been facilitating the relocation.

"The DiGoga plant distributes coffee nationwide from its facility in St. Louis County, and now they're looking at coming here," Hasty said. "We think it would be very good for the community."

Hasty said DiGoga primarily uses Brazilian coffee beans, grown in their own fields, then imported, roasted and packaged for sale to retailers. She said their roasting process is a 100-year-old family recipe, still in use by other family members who operate a plant in Italy.

New location for SEMO Ready Mix, Inc.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- SEMO Ready Mix Inc. based in Cape Girardeau has expanded into Poplar Bluff area. SEMO Ready Mix, Inc., continually supplies concrete to job sites for permanent owners such as Procter & Gamble, City of Cape Girardeau, City of Jackson, City of Scott City, Corps of Engineers, and Missouri Department of Transportation and many more. The company provides for projects from street pavement to specialty jobs around the home or farm. Plant manager is Gary Cossey; the new location is at 4114 State Highway PP in Poplar Bluff.