...continued Dupo, Clayco come out on top in fight for land, annexation and access

- vice president of Clayco Realty Group, Clayco's real estate division - was doing a site search for a Clayco client and was looking at the south end of Interstate 255. At about that same time, according to Hutfless, Robert Clark, president of Clayco, had heard a rumor that Grewe was working on developing a retail project in the Columbia area.
   Clark asked Hutfless to meet with Grewe and see if there was any way that Clayco could play a part in industrial development in his project.
   "We didn't really know anything about his (Grewe's) project at that time," Hutfless said. "One of the brokers I was talking to on a piece of land, Wayne Barber, actually was the broker who was putting Grewe's project together and he set up a meeting and I went down and met with Terry Grewe. It was not a very productive meeting. It was like 'Thanks and no thanks.' I didn't learn much more about the project or even what they were doing, except that they had a bunch of land. That was the end of it."
   In doing his site search, Hutfless ended up meeting Ron Dell, president of the village of Dupo.
   Dell and Hutfless met for lunch. "He wanted to know the direction that Dupo was taking and how we were looking at going," said Dell. "I told him that Dupo is an industrial community. We've got the railroad and we have several light industrial plants already here. And I said that's kind of what we're looking for. I said naturally any community wants a little bit of retail, some stores, restaurants, hotels and a few things of that sort, but our earmark is for light industrial. That's been our heritage and that's what we want. We want to try to bring those kinds of jobs in. He said, 'That's what we do' and he asked me to take him around. I showed him the bottom ground out by the river. He said they were very interested and that he would get back with me," Dell added.
   Hutfless said he was told that Columbia was going to get an interchange at Fish Lake Road and so he began to work with Dell on a project that would include the unincorporated area stretching from Dupo all the way down to where the Fish Lake interchange was going to be. He was interested in annexing the property to Dupo because the village had an Enterprise Zone and it was pro-development.
   "Still, we were thinking about how we could work with Grewe to do such a development," Hutfless said. Dell invited the mayor of Columbia and some of the Columbia and Dupo aldermen to a meeting at Dupo Village Hall to try to work things out.
   In preparation for that meeting, Hutfless wanted to determine the timing on the interchange. He got a big surprise.
   "I called Congressman Jerry Costello's office and found out that the proposed Fish Lake interchange was not on his list of priorities," Hutfless said. "Grewe and the mayor always thought they were getting an interchange, and the reality was they weren't even on a list. It wasn't going to happen."
   According to Hutfless, an interchange on I-64 in Fairview Heights was Costello's highest priority out of about five or six other locations. "The project that Grewe was proposing at that time was not sufficient in size and scope to warrant an interchange," Hutfless said. "Grewe was mainly looking at a retail play and that's what his drawings were. The only drawings that were shown to Clayco were for a retail development on the south side of 255. It wasn't really big enough for Costello to consider spending $20 million for an interchange."
   Clayco laid out a large development plan that was mostly light industrial and warehouse/distribution on a couple thousand acres that would generate 20,000 to 30,000 jobs over 10- or 20-year period.
   "Costello loved the idea," said Hutfless. "Those were the kind of jobs that the state was looking for - good-paying, permanent jobs with health benefits - a little bit different than what you get in retail."
   When the meeting at Dupo Village Hall took place, Clayco laid out its plan. "We said, 'Guys (Columbia and Grewe), you're not getting the interchange at Fish Lake,'" Hutfless said. "I told Lester Schneider (then Mayor of Columbia) that his proposed plan, no matter how good they thought it was, was not on the list and wasn't going to get noticed. However, if they would work with us, we felt, we could produce this nice industrial development - with all the jobs that all the people wanted in the area for people to work and live - and that we had a chance at getting the Fish Lake interchange."

   Hutfless said there was some discussion regarding facility planning areas and that Columbia wanted to provide the water to the north side and Dupo wanted to annex down to I-255. Clayco wanted to be able to envelope the area with the enterprise zone, offer tax abatement and the foreign trade zone and provide all the incentives that Gateway Commerce Center had.
   "We at least had to match the competition and provide the same incentives in order to be successful," said Hutfless.
   "At that meeting, Ron Dell was giving in to everything," he added. "He wanted to see it get done and some of the Columbia aldermen said they liked the idea and thought it would work."
   The next day, Columbia city attorney Tom Adams assembled a list of items for an intergovernmental agreement. "There were things on it that we just couldn't live with," said Hutfless. "So we started negotiating, sending faxes back and forth. We couldn't get together on this intergovernmental agreement. We said 'Let's keep working on it.' We had several meetings in Columbia with the mayor and we just couldn't come to an agreement."
   Costello urged the parties to try to work things out. Dell said they even used State Rep. Dan Reitz, a Democrat from Steeleville, as a mediator to try to put together an intergovernmental agreement. It just didn't work out, according to Dell.
   "When things didn't work out, we started looking at the pros and cons of an interchange at Davis Street Ferry Road," said Dell.
   When it became clear there would be no cooperative project with Grewe, Clayco looked for a local partner to add strength to its team and went to Richard Sauget Sr.
   "We decided he knew the area, knew the people and he would be a good ally," Hutfless said. "He has an industrial park right up the street and he got an interchange up there several years ago. We thought he would be a good guy to have on our team."
   Columbia made a last effort in December of 2004 to bridge the gap by calling on Dupo to submit the dispute to an independent mediator. Dupo declined.
   "We had a third-party mediator early on, Rep. Dan Reitz, and I don't think you could get a better mediator," Dell said. "I don't think it will do any good."
   With the two sides dug in, about a year and a half ago Clayco started planning the Davis Street Ferry Road interchange and negotiating real estate contracts.
   Costello ultimately chose the Davis Street Ferry Road site over the Fish Lake Road site because of the potential for job creation, its access to other modes of transportation (rail and barge) and less disruption of archeological sites and residential areas.
   "We have long-term options on the property," Hutfless said. "We have over 1,000 acres and we're in the middle of negotiating for another 500 acres right now. We have plenty of property to get going. Our phase one and two is approximately 2,000 acres but that's over a long period of time."
   Hutfless said the intention from the beginning was to model the park after Gateway Commerce Center and to create a regional park that would compete against Memphis, Indianapolis and Chicago. It's estimated that Discovery Business Park could host more than 22 million square feet of development at a cost of more than $1 billion and create more than 20,000 jobs.
   With Sauget as a partner, Hutfless sees a symbiotic relationship with Sauget Industrial Park in Sauget.
   "Sauget Industrial Park is not geared for the really big buildings like Gateway Commerce Center," Hutfless said. "It would eat up their ground real quick. They look for smaller users. We (Discovery Business Park) would like to model after Gateway."
   Hutfless says Discovery will also include a retail component.
   "If you have an interchange, you want to do some retail," said Hutfless. "We'll be in competition with Grewe. We don't have to have it for the success of the park, but we'll have some very good marketable ground in front of our park that we hope some major retailers will take advantage of. We think it would be good for a big box center."
   When Dell looks into the future, he says he sees Discovery being much like Earth City.
   Dell said he was invited to talk to a school assembly recently. He said at times in the past, there just wasn't enough opportunity in the area - and kids had to go to other places to find jobs. "One of the things I told them," he said, "was 'With this kind of a project, we'll have those opportunities so you kids don't have to leave. When you get done with college or a trade school, there will be companies to come back to.' Maybe we can keep our kids here and they won't have to go elsewhere looking for jobs," he said.
 

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