Cover
Down By the Riverside
If Anybody's
Keeping Score
Financial Services
Skills Reassuring
Iowa's Little Italy
Request Information
IOWA SPOTLIGHT
Corporate Caucus
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s Wells Fargo going to grow by leaps and bounds in Des Moines? And will the new US$653-million Iowa Values Fund be a big part of the story?
Those were the questions on everybody's minds this fall, as the San Francisco-based company weighed its options and various governments entities kept adding new lures. This despite a nearly $64-million budget shortfall that countered the state's previously high rankings for fiscal soundness, but did nothing to detract from Iowa's distinct advantages in the financial services sector. Shortfall or not, the biggest Iowa lure is the state's crossroads identity -in both literal transport terms and in terms of international culture and commerce. Iowa's new program for brownfield redevelopment doesn't have to reach far for a metaphor - the state's deep, rich soil and equally fertile skilled labor pool may be the ideal place to plant an operation.
"Iowa is not competitive - it does not attract the best and brightest," says plastics industry consultant Sam McCord of the Cedar Rapids-based McCord Consulting Group. "They may be trained here, but they exit so fast."
As evidence, McCord cites a mold and tooling business in Missouri started up by Eastern European owners. Six of the tool builders recruited to the firm were from Cedar Rapids.
"Cedar Rapids is a nice town, Iowa is a nice state, but if you want to advance your career, you have to go to the major metro areas."
Given the state's economic woes, state officials hope that's not the case. The sudden budget deficit, largely the result of lower-than-expected corporate and sales tax payments, comes on the heels of newly passed legislation placing a projected $653 million at the disposal of economic development. The Iowa Values Fund is aimed squarely at developing the twin goals of education infrastructure and corporate location. A total of $220.5 million will be devoted to support expansion, attraction and start-up efforts, as well as cluster growth in life sciences, information solutions and advanced manufacturing.
Trans Ova Genetics is seeing immediate aid from the Fund, which has pledged $9 million toward the company's planned $12.4-million, 192-job expansion in Sioux Center, in the far northwest corner of the state. That is just one phase of an overall $36.2-million investment that would add 315 jobs. The land has already been donated by Sioux Center, and the homegrown company has outlined an eight-phase expansion plan for its biotech processes and products, based on the cloning of cattle.
Trans Ova's plan is one of many plans in the ag/biotech arena. Genencor in Cedar Rapids and Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville are two others. Then there are the big boys: Pioneer Hi-Bred, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, the latter two of which are in the midst of Iowa growth.
ADM's $107-million equipment upgrade at plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton, creating 20 jobs, recently received a waiver from a 50-job minimum in order to qualify for tax benefits. Officials cited the amount of the investment, and its potential for cluster-building. The ADM plant in Clinton employs 571 people, and Cedar Rapids operations employ 282. The Clinton facility has grown in part as the result of ethanol capacity increases in the wake of the company's purchase of the industrial ethanol business of Dow Chemical in 2002. The Decatur, Ill.-based company also has Iowa grain processing plants in Des Moines and Keokuk.
Those were the questions on everybody's minds this fall, as the San Francisco-based company weighed its options and various governments entities kept adding new lures. This despite a nearly $64-million budget shortfall that countered the state's previously high rankings for fiscal soundness, but did nothing to detract from Iowa's distinct advantages in the financial services sector. Shortfall or not, the biggest Iowa lure is the state's crossroads identity -in both literal transport terms and in terms of international culture and commerce. Iowa's new program for brownfield redevelopment doesn't have to reach far for a metaphor - the state's deep, rich soil and equally fertile skilled labor pool may be the ideal place to plant an operation.
Value for Dollars
That's not everybody's view, however."Iowa is not competitive - it does not attract the best and brightest," says plastics industry consultant Sam McCord of the Cedar Rapids-based McCord Consulting Group. "They may be trained here, but they exit so fast."
As evidence, McCord cites a mold and tooling business in Missouri started up by Eastern European owners. Six of the tool builders recruited to the firm were from Cedar Rapids.
"Cedar Rapids is a nice town, Iowa is a nice state, but if you want to advance your career, you have to go to the major metro areas."
Given the state's economic woes, state officials hope that's not the case. The sudden budget deficit, largely the result of lower-than-expected corporate and sales tax payments, comes on the heels of newly passed legislation placing a projected $653 million at the disposal of economic development. The Iowa Values Fund is aimed squarely at developing the twin goals of education infrastructure and corporate location. A total of $220.5 million will be devoted to support expansion, attraction and start-up efforts, as well as cluster growth in life sciences, information solutions and advanced manufacturing.
Trans Ova Genetics is seeing immediate aid from the Fund, which has pledged $9 million toward the company's planned $12.4-million, 192-job expansion in Sioux Center, in the far northwest corner of the state. That is just one phase of an overall $36.2-million investment that would add 315 jobs. The land has already been donated by Sioux Center, and the homegrown company has outlined an eight-phase expansion plan for its biotech processes and products, based on the cloning of cattle.
Trans Ova's plan is one of many plans in the ag/biotech arena. Genencor in Cedar Rapids and Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville are two others. Then there are the big boys: Pioneer Hi-Bred, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, the latter two of which are in the midst of Iowa growth.
ADM's $107-million equipment upgrade at plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton, creating 20 jobs, recently received a waiver from a 50-job minimum in order to qualify for tax benefits. Officials cited the amount of the investment, and its potential for cluster-building. The ADM plant in Clinton employs 571 people, and Cedar Rapids operations employ 282. The Clinton facility has grown in part as the result of ethanol capacity increases in the wake of the company's purchase of the industrial ethanol business of Dow Chemical in 2002. The Decatur, Ill.-based company also has Iowa grain processing plants in Des Moines and Keokuk.