The City of Effingham received a $3 million grant from the Regional Site Readiness Program through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for water, sewer and road extensions to a 154-acre plot of land near J & R Collision Centers on the South Side of town.
“Through this funding … grantees will undertake due diligence and development projects to better prepared sites to attract future investment and new job opportunities in the industrial sector across Illinois’ Economic Development Regions,” according to a press release.
This is the first time the DCEO has awarded funding through the program, said Effingham Economic Development Director Todd Hull.
“This is a pretty innovative program that they came up with,” said Hull.
The project will extend Airport Road to the west about 1,500 feet. Having the water, sewer and road extensions complete will incentivize industrial developers to hopefully relocate to Effingham.
“When you’re looking for an industrial developer, one of the main obstacles is infrastructure,” said Effingham Public Works Director Jeremy Heuerman.
The first step of the process was grant writing, which the city had help with from Milano and Grunloh, according to Heuerman.
“They’re excellent at grant writing, and we couldn’t have done this work without them,” said Heuerman.
Now the grant agreement will be delivered to the city for approval. It will take about six months. The next step is designing everything and getting the correct permits, which will take about a year. After that, construction begins around the end of 2026, which will take about nine months. The project should be complete by the end of 2027, said Heuerman.
Officials say there are some leads as to who might purchase the property, but would not disclose them.
“It’s just a huge opportunity for Effingham because it really expands our infrastructure into some very prime, developable ground, and it’s exciting to see what could develop out of this,” said Heuerman.