May 19—Efforts are ramping up to attract additional business near the outskirts of town.
The city of St. Joseph is using $3 million from its 2024 Capital Improvements Program tax to install additional infrastructure, like storm drainage, water lines, sidewalks and lighting at Eastowne Business Park.
Brad Lau, vice president of economic development for the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, said the project helps attract business to the 350-acre area at Pickett and Riverside roads.
“They want to be shovel-ready when they’re ready to build,” he said. “And that’s what having the business park, the public-private partnership, is all about.”
The infrastructure installation is expected to begin after July 1, 2027, after a 90-acre expansion is completed. As News-Press NOW previously reported, the city received a $2.5 million grant to expand Eastowne Business Park east of Riverside Road in May 2023.
Lau said the manufacturer Schuetz is an example of why it’s important to have a business park ready for a company to build on. In 2014, they purchased a 50,000-square-foot shell building in Eastowne, and they were expected to create 30 new jobs.
“To date, they have probably about 160,000 square feet in two buildings, and they’re at 115 employees, too,” he said. “So that’s the perfect example of what having a business park does for a community.”
Lau said expanding the business park allows St. Joseph to grow its economy and support existing businesses, such as Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, which has a distribution center in Eastowne Business Park.
“If we hadn’t had the ability to build that facility, to have land that was ready to go for them because they didn’t have adequate space on their campus on Gene Field, we could have potentially lost that project to Kansas City,” he said.
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