City of Newton
NEWTON, Kan. — At Tuesday night’s meeting, the City Commission approved a real estate option contract with K&O Railroad’s parent company, WATCO, for the sale of about 23 acres of property in the Kansas Logistics Park.
The contract grants WATCO the option to purchase the property for $15,000 per acre. The cost of the option is $15,000, which will be applied toward the purchase price if WATCO decides to exercise the option.
K&O General Manager Loren Bradford said the company had been working with the City and Harvey County Economic Development for many years on the Kansas Logistics Park, but the railroad is constrained in serving the park because of a lack of track and switching space in Newton.
“In order to service the park with the anticipated potential growth that we see for the area, we’re trying to be proactive, get out ahead of that and secure some land that we might be able to build a yard in that would then participate and support any economic development opportunities in the park,” Bradford said.
WATCO expects to be able to build a yard with capacity for 120-200 rail cars on the property, with the ability to serve current and future development in the park. The property is located between SE Ninth and SE 12th streets, west of Hillside and just north of the anticipated future site of GAF Materials’ new manufacturing facility.
WATCO has until Sept. 30 to exercise its option on the property.
Commissioners noted that GAF Materials is scheduled to close on its real estate purchase of 230 acres in the Logistics Park later this week. In February, the City Commission approved a development agreement with GAF with a commitment to issue $350 million in Industrial Revenue Bonds for its new facility.
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