New Life For Old VX Property
The supersite is billed as "7
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAn industrial supersite where deadly chemical weapons were once manufactured is making strides in its transformation. Vermillion Rise Mega Park near Clinton, which is owned and managed by the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority, includes more than 7,000 acres. Executives say discussions continue with a Fortune 200 company and with CSX Corp. (Nasdaq: CSX) over the possibility of receiving a Select Site designation. Last month, work began on a $3.3 million shell building and the authority is considering another facility like it.
NeCDRA President Jack Fenoglio says the development potential is "whatever your imagination can come up with." Park officials say the property is well-suited for the agribusiness sector, but also heavy industry fields like plastics, chemicals and metals. Fenoglio says, in addition to the industrial redevelopment space, Vermillion Rise has land set aside as a nature preserve and has massive water resources that could potentially be contracted out for use by smaller communities in the surrounding Wabash Valley area. It features its own sewage treatment facility, water and gas lines and electrical systems including a new Duke Energy substation.
Multiple companies, including Scott Pet Products, Newport Pallet and General Machine & Saw, are already located on the property and employ are 100 workers.
Fenoglio says the 7,155-acre site faces some challenges in attracting development, including a perception that the heavily-rural area lacks the work force needed to fill a large number of openings. "If there are jobs for those people, they will come," he says, pointing out the depot employed some 10,000 at its peak.
Another possible improvement in the park is an approximately $5 million road that could connect State Road 71 and State Road 63, running west to east through the width of Vermillion Rise.
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NeCDRA President Jack Fenoglio says the development potential is “whatever your imagination can come up with.”