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Website : www.florail.us
Contact :
Dan Sulsberger
Economic Development Director
Flora Industrial Commission
131 E 2nd St, PO Box 249
Flora, IL 62839
TEL : 618-662-7111
FAX : 618-662-7204
e-mail
Mayor :
Charles Crowder TEL 618-662-8313
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Biographic Profile
e-mail
Chamber of Commerce :
- Ruth Park,
Executive Director (618) 662-5646
www.florachamber.com
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Geographic
area served The city of Flora is
in southeastern Illinois in Clay County on U.S. Routes 45 and 50 roughly 100
miles east of St. Louis, Missouri and 50 miles west of Vincennes Indiana. It
is located between interstate highways I-64 and I-70 and close to I-57 in an
uncongested rural Midwest community. Some of the companies in this
area serve manufacturers in southern Indiana, such as Toyota in Princeton
and others around the Evansville area.
See also :
Google Local map |
| Highlights of recent
developments of interest to investors
Flora
Industrial Center - 60,000 sq ft industrial space available from
Agracel, Inc.
- Half of this 120,000 sq ft warehouse is being
leased by Hella Electronics Inc.
- This available space can make it easy to set up
operations quickly in Flora
- It is on a 16.8 acre site, with 20 foot eaves and
4 available docks (of 9)
Recent retail
developments in the area include construction of a new Super Wal-Mart
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Suggestions of other
information sources about the area
Standardized
community profile data is
available on the City of Flora website
Commercial and industrial property listings for available
sites and buildings in Flora can be found through the LocationOne listings
for the
Southeastern Alliance of Illinois
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Competitive advantages of
the area for potential investors
- Within 30 minutes of three interstates for north-south
or east-west logistics.
- 125 acres available in the Flora Industrial Park on
favorable terms
- 2 other sites are available specifically to accommodate
a co-generation facility, near a 345 KV transmission line and a major
natural gas pipeline.
- A 9125 electric generation facility in the industrial
park provides "stand alone" emergency support
- There is a TIF district (tax increment financing) and Enterprise Zone
- CDAP (Community
Development Assistance Program) -
CDAP is a federally funded
grant program providing grants to local governments to assist in financing
economic development, public facilities and housing rehabilitation
projects. It is targeted to support low to middle income areas in
small communities (<50,000) outside of urban areas.
- The municipal utilities can provide cost savings, and
planned investment in such infrastructure will expand the capacity
Scope of
investment support services offered
The City of Flora stands ready to assist new and existing
businesses on several fronts. First and foremost, we offer an
experienced pro-business "City Hall". The offices of the Mayor and
Council, the Building & Zoning Official, the Director of Public Works, and
the Director of Economic Development are all clustered under one
administrative umbrella. It is a one-stop location which services the
needs of all area businesses.
The City is a member of the South Central Illinois
Regional Planning and Zoning Commission. The Commission offers
assistance with the development of business plans and applications which
might be required to obtain grants and or low-interest loans.
The "regional" atmosphere under which the commission
operates enables it to stay "in tune" with all new state and federal
business assistance activities. The commission maintains strong ties
to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States
Department of Commerce (Economic Development Administration - EDA), and
other state and federal business loan consortiums.
City officials work closely with the Illinois Small
Business Development Center (SBDC), which is funded through the area
community college system. The SBDC offers an array of business-related
services, including direct contact with SCORE chapters (Service Corps of
Retired Executives) and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity (DCEO). These agencies provide business counseling,
business planning, loan structuring, marketing basics and workshops.
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Major employers in the area
These are reported to all be non-union manufacturing and
service operations. North American Lighting and Hella have operated in
Foreign-Trade Zone subzone 146A in Flora since 1994 in cooperation with the
Bi-State
Authority (Lawrence County)
- North American Lighting - automotive lighting
such as headlamps and fog lamps and
related systems for Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and others, headquartered in Flora since 1983,
with 1200 employees. Benchmarked as world standard for best in class
quality products. Subsidiary of
Koito Manufacturing
Co. Ltd. of Japan
- Hella North America -
Hella Electronics
Corp -
automotive supplier to Mercedes, Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors, in
Flora since 1979, with 400+ employees. Production of flasher
units, relays, body electronics, air conditioner control units,
accelerator pedal sensors, level switches, vacuum and evacuation pumps
- Minwax Co. - wood finishing products, with 100+
employees, since 1989. This is the only site in the country to
manufacture Minwax wood stains, topcoats, and waxes of both the oil and
water-base variety. It is one of the leading consumer product brands
of Sherwin-Williams. This plant
was a winner in 2004 of the Illinois Governor's Pollution Prevention Award
for Continuous Improvement, and previously in 2002 in the Major Industry
category for this environmental award. A "virtual
tour" of the Minwax plant in Flora is available on their website from
a January 2004 PBS segment of "This Old House" honoring the 100th
anniversary of Minwax.
- McDaniel Transit - trucking services - expanded
their warehouse by 56,000 sq ft in 1999, creating 30 more jobs, with the
help of a CDAP grant
- Southwire Company -
aluminum wire cable mill (a basic
plant description
is on their website) manufacturing bare overhead cables for transmission
from power plants to transformers, and other bare conductors to be further
processed. This leading wire manufacturer has operated the Flora
plant since 1975.
- Silgan
Plastics - employs 100, since 1978 - rigid plastic packaging, one of
20 US plants serving major markets such as cosmetics & toiletries, health
& pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, household and industrial products,
and automotive and marine products
- Bel-Tronics
Corp. - electronics manufacturer, through hole and surface mount
printed circuit board assembly and custom magnetic coil manufacturing,
since 1965, employs 45. Announced relocation of some production to
this plant in 2005 from their headquarters in Addison IL, possibly closing
the plant there (not HQ).
- GSI Group -
grain systems - agricultural equipment, since 2002, employs 100
- Speciality Polymer Services - since 2000,
plastics recycling company, based in India, recycles scrap materials from
manufacturing operations for specialty plastics processing in Asia such as
for the manufacturing of cell phone components
- Columbus Container, Inc. -
corrugated cardboard packaging, 65,000 sq ft warehouse, 20 employees since
1989
- Kern Manufacturing - women's garments
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| Other organizations
supporting direct investment in the area
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity - DCEO
www.illinoisbiz.biz
http://www.illinoisbiz.biz/dceo/
www.commerce.il.us
Illinois Small
Business Development Center (SBDC)
www.ieccsbdc.com
Utilities
Municipal - contact the city officials as above for
details
Railroads
CSX has a rail spur into the Flora Industrial Park.
See the
Industrial Development and
site search sections of the CSX website at www.csx.com
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