Parr Instrument Company will double in size with a new manufacturing center and a remodel of its existing Moline facility. CREDIT LEGAT ARCHITECTS
Legacy manufacturer Parr Instrument – a quiet company with a global reach – is celebrating its 125th anniversary by investing $22.5 million in a redevelopment project that will more than double the size of its existing 211 53rd St., Moline, building. City leaders also hope the company’s ambitious expansion and redesigned campus will be a […]
Legacy manufacturer Parr Instrument – a quiet company with a global reach – is celebrating its 125th anniversary by investing $22.5 million in a redevelopment project that will more than double the size of its existing 211 53rd St., Moline, building.City leaders also hope the company’s ambitious expansion and redesigned campus will be a springboard for more investment in Moline’s Illinois 92 corridor and the neglected east-end neighborhood south of the Mississippi River.An official groundbreaking for the first phase of the two-phase Parr project is expected in April after the Moline City Council Ok’d its economic development agreement with Parr Instrument Company at its March 12 meeting.That pact will help ensure the privately owned business – which makes laboratory research equipment including calorimeters, pressure vessels and chemical reactors – will continue to thrive in the community it has called home for more than a century.“We’ve been in Moline a long time,” Parr Instrument President & CEO Jim Nelson told the QCBJ. “A lot of people don’t know who we are or what we do because we’re a quiet company. Maybe we sell an occasional piece of equipment in the Quad Cities, but it’s very rare, so people wouldn’t necessarily know that we were here.”He added, however, “Just about every college and university in the world probably has some sort of Parr device or instrument in it.”In most years, between 50% and 60% of Parr’s business is exported to other countries, and its products are in high demand. Last year, Parr posted a record $38 million in sales from equipment made and sold by skilled and often highly educated employees who receive industry leading pay and benefits, Mr. Nelson said.To feed that demand, Parr is investing $18 million to build a new manufacturing center, and remodel its existing outdated building as well as adding $4.5 million in new equipment.Regional development leaders are pleased by Parr’s decision to reinvest in the QC.“Parr Instrument is a prime example of a legacy manufacturer in the Quad Cities, and we thank them for their 125-year commitment to our community,” said Chris Caves, vice president of business and economic growth for the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. (Read more about Parr’s history on page 19.)“Parr continues to innovate and grow, adapting to the needs of their expanding worldwide customers, all created through the efforts of their skilled workforce here in the Quad Cities,” she said. “It’s a compliment to Moline, their neighborhood, suppliers, customers and employees that Parr continues to invest and grow in the QC.”The long path to making the project happen was not always a smooth one, however.“During my tenure here, we’ve had water in this building twice from big rain events,” said Mr. Nelson. “We’ve been trying to work with the city for 15 years to get something done – so it was going to be pretty difficult for us to invest money in this location without some sort of remedy.”As a result, he said, “We looked into Iowa and thought seriously about it.”Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas said he was aware of Mr. Nelson’s concerns and shared them. “Jim, I think, was at the end of his rope after probably five, 10 years of trying to reckon with the river flooding and stormwater flooding from heavy rains and 100-year storm events, 50-year storm events.”It didn’t help when Moline’s first attempt to win a federal grant to address the problem failed. “It took a lot to convince Jim Nelson not to pick up the business and leave,” Mr. Vitas said.The city knew it needed to do something to ensure that Parr remained part of Moline’s history. “One-hundred-twenty-five years could have been gone, and having seen Riverstone Group leave Moline and seeing Shive Hattery move out as well, I said we can’t have another major employer leave our community,” Mr. Vitas added.
So staff went back to the drawing board and worked with IMEG Corp. engineers to find a solution to neighborhood flooding. Moline also created a new Eastgate Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) to incentivize the development. The district includes 77.7 acres and 131 parcels of residential, commercial, and light industrial properties along I-92. Staff also worked with Parr to obtain the right-of-way it needed and helped the company deal with electrical challenges.
“We needed a piece of property that was development ready and by vacating the alley and working with us on flood control and the power situation it made this site more feasible,” Mr. Nelson said.
Jim Nelson, president and CEO of Parr Instrument, prepares to give riders on the October 2023 “Makers on the Move” statewide bus tour an inside look at the Moline company’s operations. CREDIT ILLINOIS MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATIONGetting the building site ready still wasn’t simple. Parr had to buy several neighboring properties to make room for the expansion. “When something is not for sale, it’s hard to buy,” Mr. Nelson said. Once purchased, the company had to demolish a handful of old structures including the large brick Moline Body Co. building that in earlier days was a foundry.Today the land is ready for the modern and transformative city-block-long Moline campus being planned by Legat Architects. Parr’s building contractor is Davenport-based Russell.Moline’s city administrator is looking forward to the project’s completion and he hopes the inviting and reconfigured Parr campus will spark more projects in the Eastgate area. “To me probably the most important thing was not to lose another business, not to lose as significant a business as this one, and to let this business become the domino by which redevelopment happens on the east end of town,” Mr. Vitas told the QCBJ.Parr’s plans feature a new 54,565-square-foot building connected by two corridors with the 46,000-square-foot existing building. Phase two calls for renovating 26,000 square feet of its existing brick building which will house the company’s administrative offices and some manufacturing operations.Plans show a landscaped greenspace-rich campus and modern signage and they call for moving the face of the company to a busy Illinois Route 92 to draw visitors into an attractive new campus and give the neighborhood a much-needed facelift.Parr’s low visibility in its current location has contributed to its low profile in the community. “Before, you couldn’t see us unless you came down 53rd Street,” Mr. Nelson said of the existing entrance quietly tucked into the middle of that dead-end block.“This has been a nice facility,” he added. “But in the end, I think it’s important to our image. If we’re going to be world leaders in what we do – which we are – I think this will make us look the part.”Once completed, Mr. Nelson said the new complex will feature a greenspace for workers and dealers to enjoy in the center of the two buildings that will be interconnected by a pair of corridors. Why is Parr expanding now? “You’ve seen our footprint,” he said of the long, narrow, low-ceilinged building Parr currently calls home. “The last time the building was remodeled was in 1990 and we were one-third of the sales we are today, so it’s time.”Some products Parr produces today also are just too big to fit old spaces. For example, the company added large volume reactors of up to 200 liters. Before that, the biggest were 20 liters. “So the size of equipment, the size of the project we’re assembling are getting larger and we don’t have room to assemble them.” Parr Instrument Company will double in size with a new manufacturing center and a remodel of its existing Moline facility. CREDIT LEGAT ARCHITECTS
Parr expansion timeline
April 2024: Groundbreaking of new 54,000-square-foot expansion.March 2025: Manufacturing facility move-in, launch existing building remodel.Fall 2025: Occupy remodeled existing facility.
PARR INSTRUMENT by the numbers
$38 million – Record sales recorded last year.$18 million – Construction cost of the expansion.$4.5 million – Investment in new equipment.54,000 square feet – Size of Parr’s new manufacturing space.44,000 square feet – Existing Parr building.26,000 square feet - Existing building space to be remodeled.
