Navistar Project Promises Up to 154 Jobs in Urbana

Jun 20, 2017News

Marcia Bailey.
Champaign Economic Partnership.
Strong community cooperation paved the way for construction of a $12 million, 355,000-square-foot distribution center in Urbana for truck builder Navistar. The project, to be completed in December 2017, will retain 114 jobs and could add up to another 40 for Urbana, with a total of about $7 million in payroll.

Navistar needs the facility to support an agreement to manufacture the cutaway model of the General Motors G Van at Navistar’s nearby Springfield assembly plant. The distribution center will house up to $16 million in inventory.

Construction began earlier this spring after approval of a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) agreement that grants a 10-year, 100 percent tax exemption of real property tax to Damewood Enterprises, which owns the property where the facility is being built, in the Urbana Industrial Park.

To celebrate the economic development win, a groundbreaking ceremony was held May 18, with construction already well underway.

Developers of the project credited Urbana leaders – city and school officials and Champaign County’s economic development agency, the Champaign Economic Partnership – for easing the process and establishing the CRA.

“It’s so refreshing to work in the city of Urbana,” said Rich Irelan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Dublin Building Systems, which is building the distribution center. “We are going to promote more business in Urbana, Ohio, for sure.”

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