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Down By the Riverside
If Anybody's
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Skills Reassuring
Iowa's Little Italy
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IOWA SPOTLIGHT, page 3
If Anybody's Keeping Score
As Des Moines, like other Midwestern cities, seems to be losing development ground to its ring suburbs, it's always reassuring to see a corporation stand its ground instead.Such may be the case for Trans-Lux Corp., a maker of scoreboards and other electronic message products. The state ponied up $75,000 in August to recruit the project, which would add 25 jobs to the payroll of 88. The company, based in Norwalk, Conn., has sold its plant in Logan, Utah, and is seeking to sell its 53,000-sq.-ft. (4,924-sq.-m.) plant in Des Moines, in order to start all over in a new, bigger space that would consolidate all production. One sign that Des Moines would be the likely site came in August, when the company announced the sale of vacant land adjacent to its headquarters in Norwalk.
Among the company's recent clients are the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other financial trading firms, casinos, Toronto's Pearson Airport and a major Connecticut manufacturer's assembly facility in Florida.
See the SITES Iowa Department of Economic Development www.state.ia.us/ided/
Greater Des Moines Partnership
Pottawattamie County
Burlington West Burlington Area
MidAmerican Energy
Automated Concepts, Inc. |
The big fish in Des Moines, however, is Wells Fargo. The San Francisco company's financial division occupies a new $90-million downtown headquarters. The consumer credit group is still headquartered in the Bay area, but has 900 employees in Des Moines. And the mortgage division, which opened its $60-million facility just two years ago in West Des Moines, is being courted heavily for another expansion that would add 2,000 jobs. But the final move has yet to be made.
"We continue to evaluate office space, and we're looking at a number of factors, but there has been no decision made regarding any site selection for a possible consolidation or work force expansion," said Debora Blume, spokesperson for Wells Fargo Home and Consumer Finance Group, in September.
The projected $175-million investment would bring the division's Des Moines campus to 5,300 members, and move the entire work force out of the leased space it currently occupies and onto a 180-acre (73-hectare) site.
Meanwhile, the pot continues to get sweeter, to the tune of $50 million in combined incentives. Among them, the state promised $10 million from its new Values Fund. And the state Dept. of Transportation has promised to kick in $9.9 million toward West Des Moines road improvements, which local leaders would match with $16.7 million of their own.
"We are very gratified by the confidence the state has in our company and how much the state appreciates the contribution Wells Fargo's presence makes to Iowa, both now and in the future," said Pete Wissinger, President and CEO of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, in July. "Wells Fargo already has deep roots in Iowa. It is a great place for our team members to live and offers the company a high quality workforce. Knowing what state assistance will be available is a critical piece of information we need to thoughtfully assess the economics of further expansion here."
"It's a highly competitive arena when you go after big companies that can create thousands of jobs," said Mike Blouin, director of the Iowa Dept. of Economic Development. "You find yourself bumping shoulders in a crowd. With the Iowa Values Fund, we feel we can elbow our way to the front."