Thoms Proestler is a food distributor for Midwest clients within a 200 mile radius of the Quad-Cities. Founded in the late 1800’s, the company buys food and other goods wholesale and distributes them to restaurants, stores, hospitals, nursing homes, colleges, etc. The company is one of the 50th largest food distributors in the nation, has 360 employees and planned to add 75 new jobs. Sales in 1993 were $143 million.
The project encompassed the construction of a 209,000 sqft warehouse and office facility in Rock Island. The warehouse includes 33,300 sq. ft. of freezer space, 21,900 sq. ft. of cooler space and 75,900 sq. ft. of dry storage. The fifty foot tall building also has high-tech, semi-automatic stacking cranes to provide a faster, more efficient system for filling orders. QCREDA issued $16.225 million in Series 1992 Taxable Industrial Development Revenue Bonds.
The City of Rock Island contributed approximately $3 million to buy the 58 acre site, infrastructure improvements and tax abatement. The Rock Island Bank provided a $1.6 million low interest loan and the Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric Company contributed $100,000 in economic development funds.