Savanna tech re-development, promise of 2,000 jobs, "dead in the water"

After more than two years of trying to get off the ground, a high-security technology storage business that promised to bring 2,000 jobs is considered “dead in the water” by the agency that markets the former Savanna Army Depot.

Louis Giokas, president/CEO of Savanna Depot of Savanna Depot Technologies Corp., or SDTC, has been served a notice of default on his lease purchase agreement at the former depot, where he has invested $6.5 million.

The company leases six buildings and 374 former ammunition storage bunkers, which were intended as a “server farm” to house sensitive information for national and international businesses, from the Jo-Carroll Local Redevelopment Authority, or LRA. It leases another 31 bunkers from Riverport Railroad.

The company initially promised 2,000 jobs by August 2006, but lowered its job creation estimates to 500 by the end of its five-year lease purchase agreement. By the end of this year, it was supposed to have 100 full-time employees.

At the authority’s monthly meeting Wednesday night, Giokas was ignored when other tenants were called upon one-by-one for their reports. Eventually he raised his hand and asked about the changed locks on the buildings he leases.

“They’re trying to kick us out,” Giokas, a former IBM employee from Naperville, said before the meeting. “Maybe they have decided they have kicked us out.”

Giokas asked the board to consider working with investment banker William Lynes, chairman of TAPO Ventures LLC, whose business card describes him as a “new economy merchant bank” in Chicago. TAPO has organized investors to purchase SDTC’s assets and take his business out of debt, Giokas said.

“At this point, there’s a question if the LRA is willing to work with this new entity,” Giokas said.

The authority’s board chairman, John “Jack” Rapp, who once deemed the project a homerun with the bases loaded, was not optimistic.

“To be frank with you,” Rapp said, “we’ve had others who have expressed interest, since we consider your pursuit dead in the water.”