WILLMAR — The City of Willmar is one step closer to a $1.16 million deal for a company to purchase 145 acres in the Willmar Industrial Park to develop a rail transportation hub connected to the Willmar Wye railroad bypass on the west side of the city.

The Willmar Planning Commission on Wednesday approved a purchase agreement for Midwest and Bluegrass Rail , a Kansas City company that intends to develop what Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission Executive Director Aaron Backman is now calling the “ Willmar Rail Park .”

 “Willmar, going to the next level as an industrial hub,” Willmar Planning and Development Director Justice Walker said at the Planning Commission meeting. “In conjunction with the Willmar Wye project, it’s always been the ambition to add businesses that need a rail spur here, and this is finally the purchase that’s going to put this through.”

Read the full article written by the West Central Tribune and published on Ag Week here