KCS-served rail park to be built in southern Illinois

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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Kansas City Southern Rail Network’s Tim Carr, a senior sales executive with KCS, addresses the filled room of attendees at TriCounty FS in Jerseyville on Friday, March 2, 2018 as the Jerseyville Economic Development Council formally announces the Mid-American International Gateway business park project.
City of Jerseyville, Ill.

A collaboration between Stonemont Financial Group and the Jerseyville Economic Development Council in Jerseyville, Ill., unveiled plans to build a 1,400-acre, rail-served industrial park.

 

The Mid-American International Gateway will be served by Kansas City Southern, which stakeholders said played a key role in forging the ongoing collaboration.

Stonemont estimates the $500-million logistics park, which will be located east of the existing KCS rail line that passes through rural Jerseyville, could begin as early as this year, with deliveries possibly rolling through about 12 months later.

“Stonemont sees transformational potential in this project and that is why we are committed to investing the appropriate amount of capital to help bring it to life,” said Zack Markwell, chief executive officer of Stonemont. “While the project is still in its due diligence phase, Stonemont believes the park can address critical logistics needs for a wide variety of rail users in the U.S. and Mexico, as well U.S.-based parts and components manufacturers that ship products down to Mexico for assembly.”

Stakeholders held an event to announce the project on March 2, where Jerseyville Mayor William Russell and others expressed optimism about the project’s potential to spur economic growth.

“We anticipate the project will support new, long-term jobs that could help keep young people working here in in our community until they retire,” Mayor Russell stated. “We will serve 11 states out of this site, essentially anywhere within reach with one-day trucking. The possibilities for business and job growth are significant.”

Mayor Russell chairs the Jerseyville Economic Development Council and has been the project’s lead advocate since his pre-mayoral days as one of the city’s commissioners. The Mid-American International Gateway project has been the subject of much local and regional discussion for the past three-plus years.

With eventual plans for the city of Jerseyville to annex the development site, Mayor Russell noted that the project will have immediate access to the benefits that come with being a part of the newly-formed enterprise zone that encompasses Jersey, Greene and northern Madison counties, as well as being in a free trade zone thanks to America’s Central Port district, and finally the soon-to-be-created fourth Jerseyville TIF district. These benefits are expected to draw in more large companies and jobs.

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