A large warehouse facility is under construction at 1210 Norwood Avenue on the far northwest side of Urbana.
Staff photo
Phoenix Ag, Ltd. is in the process of building the first phase of a large warehouse on the northwest edge of Urbana.
Dublin Building Systems is the general contractor for the project, which is described as a “speculative industrial building.”
According to information from the City of Urbana, the project site is part of acreage that has been controlled by Phoenix Ag Ltd. and/or Damewood Enterprises Limited since at least 2008.
Historically, much of this acreage was owned by Fox River Paper Company and/or Howard Paper Company. As a result, the majority of this acreage had historically been zoned by Urbana Township as M-1 (Manufacturing).
Based on the historical use of the property, the City of Urbana obtained grant funding from Ohio EPA to assist with Phase 1 and Phase 2 assessment work at the site with that assessment effort being completed in early 2022. That environmental assessment work determined that the site was favorable for future development.
On Dec. 9, 2021, an Expedited Type 2 petition for the annexation of 256.386 acres into the City of Urbana was filed with the Champaign County Commissioners by Attorney Matthew T. Watson of Thompson, Dunlap, & Heydinger, LTD, Attorneys at Law, acting as agent for the property owner, Phoenix Ag Ltd.
On May 17, 2022, Urbana City Council passed Ordinance 4571-22 to formally accept the annexation of the territory owned by Phoenix Ag LTD. and consisting of approximately 256.386 acres as petitioned. The effective date of the annexation of this territory was June 21, 2022.
A traffic impact study was completed by a third party engineer on behalf of the project developer. This traffic impact study was reviewed by the Urbana City Engineer and by the Ohio Department of Transportation, District 7.
The City of Urbana has issued two zoning permits for the warehouse project.
On July 20, 2022, the first zoning permit for phase 1 of the warehouse (670,000 square feet) was issued. The current construction project is for the initial 670,000 square foot warehouse.
A second phase (addition) of 288,000 square feet has been proposed and issued a zoning permit. Construction on that phase has not yet commenced.
Information on a tenant for the facility has not been publicly announced.
