Delaware County will lease rail spur to Tennessee firm
MUNCIE, Ind. — A long unused railroad spur in an industrial park will finally be used and will bring millions of dollars in revenue to Delaware County, officials have announced.
The rail spur in the Park One/332 industrial park, in western Delaware County near Interstate 69, was built to facilitate moving huge wind turbine parts for a plant that was announced in 2008, but it was never used after the company faltered.
The Delaware County commissioners and Brad Bookout, the county’s director of economic affairs, have for several years marketed the rail spur. The county has now found a company that will use the spur as a rail shipping point.
SRM Concrete of Smyrna, Tenn., has agreed to lease the spur from the county for seven years, with an option to purchase the spur at the end of that period.
The total revenue to the county over the seven-year period will be $3.5 million.
In addition to the lease, the company will build a $9.5 million facility on the site for inbound concrete mix that will be off-loaded into a silo. Trucks will be loaded at the location and will distribute concrete to SRM facilities throughout the Midwest.
The spur was built for Brevini Wind, a maker of wind turbine components that invested $36 million in buildings and equipment in Delaware County but never used the rail spur, which connects to a nearby rail line.
The Brevini facility was ultimately sold to Muncie Power Products, which did not need the rail spur. Delaware County later worked with Good Industries to build a base of businesses that could ship using the rail spur but that effort was stopped by the COVID pandemic and Good eventually notified the county they would not be able to fulfill the plan.
Since the spur was completed several years ago, it’s been used as an off-loading area for Norfolk & Southern equipment for track repair and maintenance.
Mike Hollingshead, Chairman of SRM, said the rail spur will be a very useful site for the company.
“SRM plans to immediately begin work at the site and anticipates up to 15 employees,” Hollingshead said in a release. “SRM is the largest concrete company in the United States. The company donates 10 percent of profits back to the community each year.”
SRM has annual revenue of more than $3.3 billion and has more than 6,300 employees. The company serves customers in 19 states.
“The county rail spur has been a difficult asset to sell and/or lease,” Bookout said in the release. “I cannot think of a better company than SRM to conduct operations at the spur. Being one of the largest concrete companies in the (nation),, their commitment to being good community partners is welcomed.”
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delaware County will lease rail spur to Tennessee firm
