Power to Put Food on the Table
Whitewater Valley REMC and Hoosier Energy serve nation’s largest food redistributor
Keeping the nation fed is a big job, and when DOT Foods Inc. needed a new multi-temperature warehouse and logistics center to provide service to customers in 5 states, the company found its ideal site in Cambridge City, located in east central Indiana.
A Shovel and Power-Ready Indiana Property
DOT Foods built its $18 million, 200,000-square-foot facility in a prime Indiana development property, the 280-acre Indiana Gateway Industrial Park located along Interstate 70. This endeavor created 250 Indiana jobs.
The park was ready to meet DOT Foods’ needs quickly because of the groundwork done by the Whitewater Valley REMC, the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, local business and political leaders and Indiana economic development officials.
Meeting Electrical Needs with Whitewater Valley REMC
Whitewater Valley REMC, the local electrical utility and cooperative owner of Hoosier Energy, put in the park’s electrical infrastructure when it was under development. Indiana Gateway Industrial Park is powered by a substation less than one mile away.
For the DOT Foods project, the REMC upgraded that infrastructure with overhead 3-phase lines and ran additional lines inside the park underground, at the request of Wayne County, for safety reasons, since there’s so much truck traffic, and for aesthetic reasons.
“We designed it large enough so that additional customers could be served off that. There are also plans to put a substation in the park in 2009,” said Boyd Huff, president and CEO of Whitewater Valley REMC.
Additionally, the REMC provided a loan to Wayne County to build a deceleration lane at the park’s entrance to accommodate the heavy truck traffic. That funding is part of a revolving loan fund created by the REMC that’s available for future projects, Huff added.
A Quick and Successful Development
The initial lead for DOT Foods came to the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County. Because half the facility would be refrigerated, they knew it would need significant electrical power. Thus the first call went to Whitewater Valley REMC, and they moved quickly, said Bill Martus, interim director of the EDC at that time.
“It was one of the fastest projects I ever saw. From our initial contact with DOT Foods to groundbreaking was only 6 months,” he said.
The Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County helped form a Tax Increment Finance district for DOT Foods in Indiana Gateway Industrial Park big enough to allow for the company’s future growth, Martus added. The park has 150 additional acres available for economic development.