Midwest Manufacturing to add distribution center for Menards stores; To create 32 jobs in five years

  A shipping transfer facility at Midwest Manufacturing north of Shell Rock is the latest development agreement to pass muster with local government and the corporate attorneys.
  The Butler County Board of Supervisors approved the agreement on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
  Menard Inc., which is already doing business as Midwest Manufacturing north of Shell Rock, making products such as concrete block and pavers, agreed to build a 61,000 square-foot  $3.8 million cross-dock distribution site to employ 32 full-time equivalent staff over the five-year agreement.
  In return, over the five years Butler County will rebate to the company the lesser of, either five consecutive annual payments of 50 percent of the increment created on the developer's property tax by the construction of minimum improvements ("the formula"), or $100,000.
  Per the agreement, the companies still pay the 100 percent of their taxes, but the county rebates 50 percent of it, said Dan Clark, deputy real estate clerk with the Butler County Auditor's Office.
  "With the development agreement, every year they will have to certify that new jobs are created," said Jeff Kolb, who directs Butler County Development. "Part of the rebate is to hold them accountable for creating the jobs they said they would in the development agreement."
  "To me it's a win-win," Kolb said.
  The company is looking ahead.
  Construction of the facility will start by end of year, Menards Real Estate Representative Scott Nuttelman said. He expected completion to occur next construction season.
  The type of site will be a cross-dock distribution system, which Nuttelman explained. It will look like a long building lined with semi dock doors. "Cross-dock" means there will be no storage. The product comes from an inbound trailer and moves to an outbound trailer.
  So if a customer buys a washing machine from Menards, the machine goes from a load from the vendor (20 washing machines, for instance) into mixed-product loads for each retailer (two washing machines and so much brick, and so forth).
  "This project has laid the groundwork and we now have a great working relationship with Menards at the corporate level: They know we want them here," Kolb said. "They're growing nationally. As they look for additional projects in the future, Menards likes to look at locations where they have existing facilities first, and we have now created an environment to possibly leverage future projects."
  The incremental increase in property taxes that the county receives from the formula on the increase in value can be used for everything from rebates and incentives for companies, to infrastructure and roadway improvements in the urban renewal area. This growth is used in turn to leverage additional projects and new jobs, Kolb said.
  The original urban renewal was for the Butler Logistics Park, which is now home to Zinpro Corp., AMCOL Metalcasting, and the Flint Hills Resources ethanol plant.
  Amendment one brought a pipeline to the industrial park (infrastructure). Amendment two expanded to include the area south to Unverferth Manufacturing.
  The current amendment, three, which was adopted Oct. 6, contains six parcels in the urban renewal area. It ties the Unverferth area to the road going to the Sinclair elevator site. 
  "Jeff … is willing to put the hours in to make all these agreements work, and Butler County's really benefitting from it," Clark said.
  With the state cutting commercial property taxes by 10 percent, the state's commitment to backfill local governments is helping, Clark said.
  Story originally appeared in the Oct. 15 Butler County Tribune-Journal and Clarksville Star. (Where to buy: http://butlercountytribune.com/content/newsstand-locations)