CREST HILL – An Iowa-based cold storage facility is continuing its expansion in Illinois by building a warehouse connection in Crest Hill.
Cloverleaf Cold Storage’s nearly 220,000-square-foot warehouse will be dedicated for use with one of its clients, Rich Foods. It will be built on the 16 acres of land on the southeast corner of Division Street and Advantage Drive, Mayor Ray Soliman said.
An enclosed conveyor belt will be built over Advantage Drive to connect the warehouse with Rich Foods’ existing manufacturing and Midwest distribution facility at 21511 Division St.
“It’s basically a one-stop shop,” Soliman said. “The storage facility will hold up to 20,000 pizzas from Rich Foods. A few trucks would distribute to all of the suppliers.”
The warehouse is expected to break ground soon and open next spring, creating about 50 jobs, Soliman said.
The 16 acres also gives Cloverleaf the option to expand in the future an additional 110,000 square feet, adding 25 to 30 more jobs.
“With the creation of the jobs it’s going to be a tremendous asset to the city of Crest Hill,” Soliman said.
The warehouse is the first addition to the Crest Hill Industrial Park since the Old Dominion and Dayton freight line companies moved there about 18 months ago, Soliman said.
Cloverleaf built its first facility in Illinois last year, when it opened a 235,000-square-foot warehouse in Monmouth, adding 155 local full-time jobs, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
The family-owned business received an estimated $6 million assistance package, and the city of Monmouth and Warren County gave it $3.4 million in incentives, most of it as a 10-year abatement on property taxes, according to the news release.
Soliman and John Greuling from the Will County Center for Economic Development, which helped the city bring Cloverleaf, said the company didn’t receive any financial incentives for the 220,000-square-foot warehouse.
“It’s kind of a special project,” Greuling said about the conveyor belt overpass. “Once the state figures out what they’re going to do with the budget, this project could receive state assistance.”
