Ground was officially broken Monday afternoon for the new $3-million Little Egypt Golf Car facility and $1-million dollar new roadway that will open property at the corner of North Hotze and Mills Cart Road in Salem to other businesses in the future.
Owner Neal Smith says while the property was bought some time ago, the need to move forward on the project took urgency when fire destroyed their building on South Broadway. However, EPA and archeological studies drug on for four years.
Smith anticipates the new facility will lead to the doubling of sales, expansion of rental carts, and their business of finishing golf carts from the E-Z-GO Factory that are shipped throughout the Midwest.
“23,000 square feet with 10,000 square foot showroom. We will be able to park 1000 golf carts on this site.”
Smith says the project should also increase their employment from their current 17 employees to around 30 when they are fully operational. He notes the larger
facility comes at a time when golf cars are being used for many new purposes.
Smith estimates 40-percent of their sales now come from those using them for transportation on streets.
The new roadway will not only help the anticipated 300 to 400 truck deliveries a year to Little Egypt but open up the rest of the property for development.
“It’s an 80,000-pound concrete road built to DOT specs designed to handle any kind of traffic necessary. So we will have an intersection here so that should give us an opportunity to capture not just retail but some other commercial opportunities as well.”
With visibility from southbound I-57, large signage will direct traffic to the new location.
Shores Builders of Centralia is the general contractor on both the building and road projects. Smith says if all goes well they could be in their new facility by next August, but definitely by the end of next year.
Among those on hand for the groundbreaking was Salem Mayor Nic Farley.
“Project is going to be much bigger than you see today and lead to big things in the future. Can’t think of a better partner here in Salem that has invested money over the last few decades than Neal. It’s taken longer to than we wanted to get it done but we are glad that we were both able to keep trudging on and make it happen.”
An IDOT grant will pay for half the cost of the new roadway, with the city serving as a pass-through agent for the grant money.
