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The Smart Decision:
Choose Iowa

Increasing numbers of companies are studying their options, then making the smart choice: Iowa.

"We have a pretty robust growth going in the state right now," Henningsen reports. "We're on a pretty good roll."

Wisconsin-based Generac Power Systems, for instance, is putting a new $13 million manufacturing plant in Maquoketa, in eastern Iowa. The facility could employ about 500 people, about a third of whom will be engineers or engineering-related workers. "We were in competition with other Midwestern states," Henningsen says, "and it was a very hotly contested project. I think our work force, and the company's discussions with area employers like John Deere and Maytag, which have very productive operations, just won the day."

Iowa-based Pella Corp recently scouted the Midwest for a new 300-employee manufacturing facility before choosing Sioux Center, in northwestern Iowa. "Work force was a key factor in that decision," Henningsen relates.

In Des Moines, Allied Insurance (a member of Nationwide Insurance and one of Iowa's largest employers) plans to build a new home office in the downtown Gateway West development. "We have been a part of Des Moines since 1929, and it is wonderful to know we will continue our growth here," says Allied Insurance President Douglas Andersen.

Phase I of the project will include some 1,650 employees who will occupy the 500,000-sq.-ft. (46,451-sq.-m.) facility following its anticipated completion in 2003. The facility will house 400 new employees, plus those scattered around the metro area due to the lack of space in the current downtown facility.

Minnesota-based Sunny Fresh Foods plans to open a $10 million egg-processing facility in Mason City this fall. "Initially, the facility would create 40 new jobs at an average wage of more than $10 per hour, plus benefits," says Dan Culhane, executive director of the Mason City Economic Development Corp. But the company, a Cargill subsidiary and a major supplier to McDonald's restaurants, foresees employment rising to 100 within three to five years.

In other food-industry moves, USA Toshoku is building a 54,400-sq.-ft. (5,053-sq.-m.) soybean powder facility in Oskaloosa. The plant will employ about 285.  SS