The Stanley Israelite Business Park is a 450-acre business site located on the western side of the City. It was envisioned early 1960’s as a modern industrial park. Over the summer NCDC conducted interviews across the tenancy of Norwich’s Stanley Israelite Business Park in order to stay current with the businesses and to assess needs of the park overall. We assembled a final report on the status of the park which you can see it here: CLICK HERE. NCDC is proud to have played such a significant role to the contribution of the economy in Norwich over the last 50 years thorough the Business Park. Some of you may recall that the Park has been labeled “the park on the hill where only billy goats work.” Well, land is indeed hard to come by in Norwich and the Business Park may have less than ideal topography however, this is a perfect example of an absolutely fantastic success. Here’s why we should all be proud of the businesses in the Park:
- Businesses in the Park generate approximately $520,000,000 in revenues (self-reported)
- The Park uses approximately 2% of Norwich’s land area (450 / 17,920 acres), yet the Park:
- accounts for 8% of employment in Norwich (1,924 / 22,177)
- accounts for 5% of the tax revenue for Norwich ( $3,196,079 / $66,134,833)
- accounts for approximately 23% of utility revenue payments to Norwich ($1,474,000 / $6,250,494)
- provide approximately $91,000,000 in average purchasing power within the region
New Opportunity
Now, for the first time in 35 years, due to some recent actions, the Business Park has room to grow, opening up new land for development. In 2013 Dominion decided to site a $8-10 million remote emergency operations center here in Norwich. While working with the Dominion Team, NCDC staff contacted many property owners in and around the Business Park about availability of land for development. There were several prospective sites, but due to other restrictions and considerations, only two of those sites made the final list: the Easter Seals site on Stott Avenue and undeveloped land on Consumers Avenue. Dominion decided on the Stott Avenue parcel. Since then, the owner of Consumers Interstate decided to place their excess land on the market. See it here: http://pequotcommercial.com/property/2-consumer-ave/.
If that land is developed to its fullest extent, it could mean up to an additional 190 jobs, $146,000 in new utility payments to the City and new Norwich personal and real property taxes of $160,000 per year. Considering the long revenue tail that is associated with this kind of economic development activity, this opportunity could provide a significant contribution to the community. Combine this with prospective new development across the Business Park, and Norwich’s Stanley Israelite Business Park will continue to contribute more and more to the bottom line of the City of Norwich while providing a great place for an additional $51.75 million in business revenue and $9,000,000 in purchasing power in the region. That is the beginning of real success by any standard!
