Waterloo business project gets $280,000 federal grant

A project in Waterloo that backers hope will spin off new bio-tech industries is getting nearly a three-hundred thousand dollar federal grant. The money from the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development will help develop the “Cedar Valley Tech Works” — on the site of a vacated John Deere facility. Congressman Jim Nussle, a Republican from Manchester who’s running for governor, says the grant will help clean-up the site. Nussle says the state and local governments are involved as well as private businesses. “We’re trying to do a public/private partnership here in order to create jobs,” Nussle says. Backers envision as many as five-hundred people being employed at the “Tech Works” once it’s completed. “The Cedar Valley Tech Works facility is the target for urban renewal,” Nussle says. “What we need to do in order to accomplish that is to clean up the site.”