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Croell Redi-Mix building $500K plant
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · July 20, 2017
Croell Redi-Mix started this spring preparing to build a plant that may cost upwards of $500,000 in the industrial park after last year’s land swap with the City of West Branch.
Manager Tim Harold said the cement company, with more than 130 locations in six states, employs its own crew that not only pours foundations and walls but constructs plants, meaning that most of the work gets done in-house.
“It’s coming along OK,” Harold said.
The industrial park land was given to Croell after the city purchased 12 acres at 145 Fawcett Drive from Rummells Farms for $225,000. Eight acres, just west of Acciona Windpower, went to Croell, while four acres remain with the city for future use.
Croell gave the city its four-acre parcel at 325 East Green Street that stretches north to south between Main Street and College Street. The city estimated Croell’s current property at about $125,000.
Harold said that the company had planned to replace the downtown plant, which it purchased in 1989, and former City Administrator Matt Muckler had expressed interest in Croell’s land. That led to the land-swap deal with Croell doubling its acreage.
“We knew we had to replace that plant in West Branch at some point,” Harold said. “It’s worn out, old.”
He estimates building at the industrial park will cost more than $500,000 because the company is starting over on the new site.
“It’s going to cost us more to move out there,” he said. “(But) I guess we would like to be out there, also.”
However, the new plant will be “nicer, newer” and enclosed, and “production will be higher than what we had before.”
Howard said he also sees the benefit to the city.
“It’s going to be better for the city without us in (downtown), instead of us running through town” to fill trucks.
He said Croell trucks will still travel through the city to fill orders north of town.
“They won’t have us loading and leaving town every day right there in the middle (of town),” he said. “And that’s a plus for the city.”
Planning and Zoning approved Croell’s site plan, the dirt work is complete and the foundation is under way. Howard thinks the plant could be operational as early as this fall, but at least by spring 2018.
The West Branch plant covers an area that reaches east to Durant, north to Mechanicsville, south to Lone Tree and west to Iowa City. Howard said agriculture jobs “are a bit part of our business in that area,” meaning that about half of their concrete goes toward private projects while the other half goes toward government jobs.
Croell’s construction crew recently finished a plant in Sheffield and Cheyenne, Wyo., he said.
The city plans to pitch the four-acres downtown property as residential, possibly in hopes of putting up apartments in the downtown. The site is adjacent to the Hoover Nature Trail and the new Wapsi Creek Park.
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