Less industrial, more green in new industrial parks

By Dave DeWitte, The Gazette

The face of industrial parks will change with a new generation of Corridor industrial sites headed for the market over the next year.

Industrial parks once varied from other kinds of business parks mainly in scale. Industries needed bigger water lines, bigger sewer lines and bigger lots than their smaller commercial neighbors. They often required bigger access roads to handle bigger trucks.

Otherwise, industrial parks were little more than loop drives surrounded by large, dull buildings.

But new industrial parks hitting the Corridor market pledge to be both more human-oriented and more natural, with amenities such as walking and biking trails, ponds, energy-efficiency features and redundant fiber-optic telecommunications.

Making industrial parks more people-friendly is probably the most important general trend in the business today, according to Frank Spano, a veteran site consultant with Cleveland-based Austin Consulting.

“Your people are your business' most important asset,” Spano said. “You want to keep people.”

Spano said finding the extra funds to provide amenities such as day care centers and fitness facilities is prohibitive for many industrial parks and their resident businesses. But there are other ways to make people feel more comfortable in the parks.

“It doesn't cost much to build a recreational trail with fitness stations,” he noted.

Trails will be prominent features in the Marion Enterprise Center nearing completion off Highway 151 at the east edge of Marion and at the new Wind Energy Supply Chain Campus under development on the east edge of Iowa City. Both will have trails not only in the park but will be linked eventually to the trail networks of their host communities.

The trails in the Marion Enterprise Center also will circle deep-water ponds, according to George Lake, who's overseeing the project for Marion Economic Development Corp. He said those ponds may even be stocked with fish, assuming MEDCO's legal advisers decide it's not too risky.

The green movement also is showing up in industrial park design. Spano said more industrial parks are offering green features, from more sustainable landscaping to stops for transit buses.

Marion Enterprise Center will feature bioswales, a contoured landscape feature designed to remove pollution and silt from surface runoff water. It also will feature native prairie grass plantings and other natural plantings that protect the soil from erosion and don't require much care.

LED lighting will be used in the Marion Enterprise Center's streetlight to reduce its energy profile and carbon footprint.

Every industrial park developer wants to build a better mousetrap. One way to do that, Spano said, is to offer certified shovel-ready sites.

Certified shovel-ready sites have been audited by a third party to determine if they have met the prerequisites to be built on immediately. Such sites are highly valued, Spano said, because businesses seeking to expand want to be able to do so within a predictable timetable.

“The expectation is that the site can be built on tomorrow,” said Spano, whose company audits the state's new shovel-ready certification program.

The Tipton Business Park became the first in the state to receive the Shovel Ready Iowa Certification through a new Iowa Department of Economic Development program in April. Three lots in the University of Iowa Research Park in Coralville have been certified shovel-ready since then.

Tipton Economic Development's Scott Sanborn added the 14-acre section of the 75-acre business park is guaranteed to be free on unexpected surprises for business owners who move in.

The predictable hurdles to opening an industry - such as zoning, water hookups, sewer hookups and road access - have been overcome.

So have the unexpected hurdles, such as ensuring the site is free of archaeological significance or environmental contamination.

“All a company has to do is come in and build walls and go to work,” Sanborn said. “It bodes well for Tipton, a town of 3,271 people, to have that.”

The Marion Enterprise Center, Iowa City Wind Energy Supply Chain Campus and the developing Marion Industrial Center East are all planning to use the Shovel Ready Iowa Certification program.

Spano said it's impossible to describe an industrial park that's perfect for every industry because every industry's needs are different. In Europe, he says, many businesses insist that the industrial park have a high quality “canteen,” or shared cafeteria.

Many amenities that would be highly desirable are hard to provide because they are too expensive, such as a day care center, an on-site fire station or an on-site branch of a local college to provide specialized training.

Industrial parks often gear their amenities to the kinds of businesses they are trying to attract. Iowa City's Wind Energy Supply Chain Campus and the Marion Industrial Center East, for example, both hope to attract wind industry suppliers.

Iowa City Economic Development Coordinator Wendy Ford said the agency is developing the park along the Iowa Interstate Railroad so that wind suppliers can have the advantages of rail for shipping large components and materials. The city will build a rail spur and sidings with the help of state grants.

Marion Economic Development Corp. doesn't have a railroad near its center, but it will offer a redundant fiber-optic data loop and fiber connections to a nearby Involta data center.

Going after an industry niche such as food processing or wind energy can be an effective strategy for an industrial park if its developers are patient, Spano explained. The Iowa City Wind Energy Supply Chain Campus recently landed its first tenant, Nadicom (North American Ductile Iron Foundry) of Fulton, Mo.

Marion Industrial Center East will be a “general industrial park” without any specialization.

Peter Riley of Cedar Rapids, whose family is developing the park, said it will use restrictive covenants to insure that properties are well-maintained and attractive, within reason.

“It's hard to beautify an asphalt plant or a Redi-Mix (cement) plant,” Riley said.

Site consultants such as Austin advise businesses on the best places to expand based on a dizzying array of variables and models.

Ultimately, Spano said, the decision often boils down to a comparison of the costs of locating and operating in different locations. Logistical factors such as transportation costs often narrow the decision considerably, ruling out many communities that want the deal.

“That's the area that has a chance to recruit the business,” Spano said.

Communities that don't meet the geographic qualifications could have the nicest industrial park in the world, he added, but it still wouldn't help them.

But the basic site needs of expanding businesses remain unchanged, Spano said. Businesses need to be assured of an available work force with the necessary skills.

They also must be able to meet the logistical requirements to get their raw materials and to get their products to market.