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Is an Allen Township man behind a Dakotas land grab?
By GARY T. PAKULSKI
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
FINDLAY -Why are people in a small town in South Dakota scouring the Internet and poring over Hancock County electronic property records looking for information about Richard E. White?
Because many people in Elk Point, S.D., believe that the retired Marathon Oil Corp. executive is involved in a massive land hunt that could turn out to be part of one of the largest economic development projects in South Dakota history.
It has been nicknamed "the gorilla."
People who know, including the state's governor, aren't talking. Many have been required to sign confidentiality agreements.
And Mr. White didn't return messages left at his home in Allen Township near Van Buren, Ohio.
But Elk Point residents trying to find information about the secret project, whose value is estimated at up to $8 billion, found him after launching an Internet search into a man named R.E. White who signed purchase options on land in the largely rural area along the Missouri River.
Developers are said to be assembling 5,000 acres in two separate sections near Elk Point, which is just north of Sioux City, Iowa. The facility, rumored to be an auto plant or oil refinery, could eventually employ 2,000, local people have heard. . . . (read more)
Go State!
Is an Allen Township man behind a Dakotas land grab?
By GARY T. PAKULSKI
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
FINDLAY -Why are people in a small town in South Dakota scouring the Internet and poring over Hancock County electronic property records looking for information about Richard E. White?
Because many people in Elk Point, S.D., believe that the retired Marathon Oil Corp. executive is involved in a massive land hunt that could turn out to be part of one of the largest economic development projects in South Dakota history.
It has been nicknamed "the gorilla."
People who know, including the state's governor, aren't talking. Many have been required to sign confidentiality agreements.
And Mr. White didn't return messages left at his home in Allen Township near Van Buren, Ohio.
But Elk Point residents trying to find information about the secret project, whose value is estimated at up to $8 billion, found him after launching an Internet search into a man named R.E. White who signed purchase options on land in the largely rural area along the Missouri River.
Developers are said to be assembling 5,000 acres in two separate sections near Elk Point, which is just north of Sioux City, Iowa. The facility, rumored to be an auto plant or oil refinery, could eventually employ 2,000, local people have heard. . . . (read more)
Go State!
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