Menard Inc. buys 30 acres of land west of its Sterling warehouse

STERLING – Menard Inc. recently paid $557,500 for 31 acres of land designated farmland and commercial space just west of its distribution warehouse at 3800 E. Lincolnway.

“This land purchase gives us some expansion options for the future, although no final decisions have been made at this time,” Menard corporate spokesman Jeff Abbott said in an email.

It was bought from the Mary R. and Larry G. McCormick Trust. The McComicks also own McCormick’s Nursery and Garden Center at 3602 E. Lincolnway and the McCormick Event Center, 205 E. Third St. in Rock Falls.

The 145,000-square-foot building at 3800 was the Menards retail store until February 2011, when the company completed construction of the 240,000-square-foot superstore just east, at 4220 30th St., off East Lincolnway.

Construction was completed nearly four years after the announcement in October 2007 that Menards would anchor what was then the new Sterling Commons Shopping Center.

In September 2012, then-Whiteside County Enterprise Zone Administrator Betty Steinert told municipal leaders that the company had a two-phase plan for the original building:

Phase 1 called for remodeling the space and building a 3,120-square-foot addition; specialty furniture or other items would be shipped from the converted warehouse and distribution center.

That was to cost $625,000 and create 10 new jobs, Steinert said.

Although the addition was not built, the building was used as a warehouse and distribution center for a time. When asked in January 2021 if the building was closed or if anyone still worked there, Menard’s would say only “We’re still using the building.”

Phase 2 called for building a $4.75 million, 147,000-square-foot addition, and creating 40 new jobs, but that, too, did not come to fruition.

The information was offered as part of a pitch to expand the enterprise zone to include the site, which zone partners Sterling, Rock Falls and the county agreed to do.