INDUSTRIAL PARKS

INDUSTRIAL PARKS. Sites designated for industrial expansion were suggested as early as 1892 by the president of the BOARD OF TRADE. In July of that year, the organization's president suggested the creation of a syndicate to purchase two hundred acres north of the city. This land would then be sold to manufacturers. This had been done successfully in Clinton and other cities. He believed a suburb of several thousand residents could be created in a few years. (1)

Dubuque's first industrial park was begun in 1955. Using two million dollars raised by a referendum and an estimated four million cubic yards of fill, LAKE PEOSTA was filled with dirt and sand. Packed down and leveled, the former mosquito-infested slough used by criminals and moonshiners became the home for as many as twenty-one industries and 1,308 jobs. Assessed in 1983 at over fifteen million dollars, the area accounted for $563,000 in local property taxes.

The person credited with initiating the Park was John A. Kerper, then a twenty-eight-year member of the Dubuque Dock Board. Kerper proposed the city buy a dredge to fill the swamp near the river. At a ceremony beginning the project, Kerper threw the switch that started the dredge-pumping fill from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER into Lake Peosta. Although Kerper died before completion of the Park, his contributions were remembered in the naming of Kerper Blvd., the four-lane road in the area.

Plans for the industrial use of the area date back to 1850 when proposals were made to extend Lake Peosta, the "western slough," into a canal. If the propositions had proven possible, steamboats would have been able to nearly reach downtown Dubuque. The city gradually bought land from Henry L. STOUT who realized his dream of farmland in the region was doomed because of the sandy unproductive soil. An urgency to develop the area came after WORLD WAR II when large industries nationwide expanded by constructing branch operations in small towns.

Recruitment of industries began when the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce assessed each of its members to supplement its recruitment fund. Although the decision of Harnischfeger Corporation, a manufacturer of motors and welding equipment, to reconsider its move to Dubuque dampened spirits of those concerned, by 1963 the area had sufficient industry to employ an additional two hundred workers.

By 1970, twenty-nine plants were located in the park providing jobs for 984 people. The same year, the Dubuque Industrial Bureau reported that taxes, rentals and wharfage fees from the park totaled nearly $340,000--more than three times the annual payment of the bonds sold to create the site. More than 75.5 acres had been sold leaving 30 acres for sale. (2)

The need for the west side Dubuque Industrial Center was apparent by the late 1970s when Dubuque began running out of industrial space. Twelve potential sites for a second industrial park were eventually reduced to three. The location along Radford Road offered a nearby railroad spur, isolation of residential areas, and proximity to the Northwest Arterial. In 1980 the City purchased the 191-acre location, with one hundred acres usable, for $941,000. Grading solved the problem of the hilly terrain. The purposes of the Park were to provide locations for businesses forced to relocate because of the US 61 project, new businesses, and local businesses that wanted to expand.

The five million dollar 236-acre industrial center, owned by DUBUQUE IN-FUTURO, sold its first two lots to the A.Y.MCDONALD MANUFACTURING COMPANY and FROMMELT INDUSTRIES INC. Construction of the Frommelt Industries building began in 1983.

Land acquisition continued. In May 1997 the city stood poised to purchase 151 acres of ground east of the former Dubuque County Farm. With the acquisition of this land, the city purchased 870 acres of land in the first six months of the year. The city also had fifty acres available at its industrial park between Radford Road and the Northwest Arterial, fifty acres near the DUBUQUE REGIONAL AIRPORT, and twenty-five acres along Kerper Blvd. The city's comprehensive plan called for the acquisition of seven hundred acres over the next twenty years. (3)

The City Council in April 2015 purchased 166 acres of farmland off Seippel Road for $2 million. This was the first major investment in land for industrial development since the 1990s. (4)

In July 2015 the City Council agreed to spend $2.12 million for 125 acres of land near the intersection of Middle and Radford road. The land purchased as $17,000 per acre came from the McFadden Family Partnership. (5)

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Source:

1. "Municipal Molecules," Dubuque Daily Herald, July 12, 1892, p. 4

2. "$340,000 from 'Park," Telegraph Herald, July 20, 1970, p. 3

3. McDermott, Brad. "City Buys Country for Development," Telegraph Herald, May 7, 1997, p. 1. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19970507&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

4. "Dubuque Officials to Consider $2.12 Million Purchase," Telegraph Herald, July 5, 2015, p. 11A

5. Ibid.