Dan Reitz, executive director, Washington County Council on Economic Development: When WCCED, the developer of Starpointe Business Park, held its annual meeting in late October, the centerpiece of the event was a presentation on the site development for a 507,000-square-foot truck distribution center – the largest single building construction project in Washington County in nearly 50 years – at Starpointe’s Hanover Township site. The project for Indianapolis-based Scannell Corp. will be leased to a third-party operator who, according to information at a Washington County commissioners meeting, would be providing a service connected to the Shell cracker plant.

“The future is indeed very bright for Starpointe and Washington County,” said WCCED President Richard White, noting Starpointe “may be the best positioned park in Washington County” to take advantage of Shell’s plant, just a 20-minute drive from the business park.

Reitz said last week after a slow period in 2016, he’s seeing heightened interest in the 1,200-acre park, including a recent look by a company he said is interested in building “a very large” facility in the region that would take some of the plastic pellets produced by Shell’s plant.

“We’re very optimistic,” Reitz said. “The sales lot is full of people who are looking” at the park as a potential place to build facilities, some of which would be connected to Shell’s operations.