Seda North America is planning a $24.5 million expansion of its packaging operation in the Racine County community of Mount Pleasant.

Seda is proposing a 125,902-square-foot addition to its 323,610-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing facility at 12501 Globe Drive in the Park 94 business park, according to a village report.

The addition, to be built south of the Seda facility, would accommodate increased demand, the report said. The Plan Commission will review the proposal at its Wednesday meeting.

The addition would amount to a $24.5 million investment, with the village offering a $250,000 grant to Seda "to ensure that the expansion occurred here in Mount Pleasant as opposed to alternative secondary facility locations on the East Coast," the report said.

That grant would be paid through property taxes generated by the Seda project.

The proposed grant is to be reviewed by the Community Development Authority and Village Board at a joint Aug. 24 meeting.

If village officials approve the project, construction is expected to start in September, with completion in the second quarter of 2016, said Logan Martin, village community development director.

Seda International Packaging Group SpA, based in Naples, Italy, in 2010 announced it was establishing its first North American operation in Mount Pleasant. Seda, one of the world's largest manufacturers of packaging for food makers, said the addition would eventually create 189 jobs. The facility now has 126 jobs, with the remaining jobs to be created by 2021, Dawson said.

The state in 2010 said it would provide up to $4.2 million in tax credits and a $1.5 million forgivable loan, depending on the number of jobs created by Seda.

The 84-acre Park 94 is about one-half mile east of Interstate 94, south of Highway 20 at International Drive.

Meanwhile, MLG Development is developing a nearby business park on 132 acres just east of the I-94 frontage road, south of Highway 20. Minneapolis-based Opus Development Corp. is developing that park's first building, totaling 155,000 square feet, on a speculative basis.

The village plans to spend up to $19.5 million to help develop that business park and other projects, which would generate an estimated $154 million in new developments, according to a village report.

Property taxes from those buildings would pay back those funds over an estimated 17 years under a tax incremental financing district plan approved last week by the Village Board.

 

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