Pritzker announces $40 million grant program to promote
development-ready ‘megasites’
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[February 07, 2023]
By NIKA SCHOONOVER
Capitol News Illinois
nschoonover@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced the creation of a
$40 million grant program to incentivize the creation of large
development-ready areas known as “megasites” across the state.
Megasites are large swaths of land, developed to attract businesses such
as manufacturing plants, warehouses and distribution centers. Pritzker
said developing these sites will help make Illinois more competitive,
especially as sectors including clean energy and manufacturing are
rapidly expanding in the U.S.
The Megasites Development Program announced Monday uses Rebuild Illinois
capital funds aimed at providing the necessary infrastructure
improvements to develop these megasites. Other eligible costs include
various land acquisition, clean-up and development expenses.
“Illinois is home to some of the largest such sites in the country, all
ripe for fresh development,” Pritzker said at a Chicago news conference.
“The new megasites investment program grants will help communities
innovate their own business attraction efforts and will spur economic
development in communities across our great state.”
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png)
The program is open to private entities, nonprofits and local
governments, and the application portal is open through April 6. Those
receiving the grant must match each dollar granted by the state with
other private or local funding.
Grant allotments would range from $250,000 up to $5 million, depending
on the acreage of the site. Eligible sites must have at least 200
contiguous acres and applicants must own or have an agreement in place
to acquire the property when they apply.
Kristin Richards, acting director of the Department of Commerce and
Economic Opportunity, said the investment-ready sites may lure
manufacturing and distribution hubs, or large scale one-stop shops that
produce multi-part products within one location.
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![](../images/020723PIX/news_y22.jpg)
Gov. JB Pritzker is pictured at a news
conference in Chicago Monday at which he announced a new state grant
program aimed at making large areas of land ready for broad
commercial development. (Credit: Illinois.gov)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Feb/07/images/ads/current/heartland_lda_020123.png)
“I like to think of megasites as turn-key houses: move-in ready, with
zero hassle, which is exactly what fast-growing businesses are looking
for,” Richards said.
Intersect Illinois, an independent, not-for-profit economic development
organization that often partners with state organizations including DCEO,
announced their Vetted Sites Initiative alongside Pritzker at the Monday
morning news conference.
The Vetted Sites Initiative, intended to aid businesses seeking out
readily equipped property sites, would help businesses interested in
moving to Illinois.
“The idea here is to identify large sites that can be brought up to
speed quickly so that we can promote them across the country and even
around the world,” Dan Seals, president of Intersect Illinois, said.
To help companies look for these “turn-key” locations in Illinois,
Intersect Illinois has created a property finder that has more than 150
investment-ready sites in Illinois and a standalone guide with megasites
over 1,000 acres.
Pritzker added that programs such as the Megasite Development Program
are necessary to helping economic development as COVID-19 has eased up
in recent years.
“As we’ve come out, I’ve been very aggressive. That’s not just in the
last few months, that’s really over the last year and a half, two years,
to make sure that we’ve got programs that are incentives for businesses,
like Megasites,” Pritzker said. “Let’s prepare for them what they need.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400
newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It
is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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