Large industrial company eyeing Vandalia location

A large but still undisclosed industrial company is evaluating Vandalia’s Northwoods Business Park as a new site for its business.

A move by the company to Vandalia would require the reactivation of a now unused CSX railroad spur into the park and the construction of a second spur inside the park.

The Vandalia City Council is holding a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in the council chambers at the Vandalia Municipal Building to discuss the potential impact of reactivating the spur.

The city said the proposal is “very preliminary and no development plans have been submitted at this point.”

Vandalia city spokesman Rich Hopkins said the company is still unknown to city officials, but a new facility would likely have to be constructed.

Railroad company CSX owns the only available acreage in the business park. The CSX parcel is 320 acres in size.

“We are excited that someone is looking at our business park,” Hopkins said. “We would like to minimize the impact of that rail for people in the area.”

He added: “I know that it is supposed to be a fairly large user and it hinges on the ability to provide rail service. From what I have been told, it would be a large facility and rail is a big part of whether they would come here.”

Companies that are now in the business park include ASPM, or All Service Plastic Molding, with 400 employees, a FedEx Ground facility, and Inteva, an engineering company once part of Delphi.

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