Hollands Hire Ryan Companies for STAR Bonds Deal

As mentioned last week, there's a new partner in the STAR Bonds development of Marion.

Chad Holland announced today that the Ryan Companies US, Inc., will assist with site planning and other project tasks fro the STAR bond development in Marion, Illinois.

Ryan Companies US, Inc. is a nationally-recognized builder, designer, developer and real estate manager specializing in fully integrates solutions. With a mission to build lasting relationships, Ryan delivers full-service customized solutions based on industry expertise and total collaboration - pairing customer's expectations with a specialized team of constructors, architects, engineers, developers, property managers and financiers. Ryan serves customers throughout the United States with offices in the Midwest, Southwest, Great Lakes and Southeast regions and employs nearly 550 workers.

"Having a great team is a key to success. Ryan has been in the real estate industry for more than 70 years. We have the utmost confidence in Ryan and look forward to working with them on this exciting project."

In 2007, Ryan was named the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' (NIAOP) "Developer of the Year." NAIOP also honored Ryan Companies Tampa, Fla., office with the "Outstanding Developer of the Year" and "Outstanding Office Building of the Year" awards in 2010.

Ryan Companies are on the Web at www.ryancompanies.com.

It's not tourism related, but Ryan has another potential connection to Marion that might interest city officials. For the last few years they've been building Target's new distribution centers.

Prior to the recession, Target was the all but officially announced company planning the new distribution center east of Marion on Route 13. The Marion city council annexed the 149.5 acre tract into the city four years ago in December 2007.

Back in April 2007, Target announced it planned to increase its presence by 25 percent of the next five-year period. At the time it wanted to add 100 stores a year, but the recession intervened.

The company pulled the plug on its expansions plans for the stores and distribution centers, including the one in Marion.

In 2010, rather than open a hundred new stores, they opened 13 and remodeled another 341 in the first nine months of that year.

Then, this past January, they announced plans to open 21 new stores in 2011 and remodel 400 existing stores, more in line with the slower economy.

Hopefully, as the economy gears up, and so does their expansion plans, they'll be back. They've been looking at Marion for a distribution center for at least six years if not longer.