The Economic Development Board today approved state incentives for 14 projects with the promise of keeping or creating 2,700 jobs. Governor Chet Culver talked about the board’s action after their meeting.
Culver says the board’s actions is good news for communities from the Missouri to the Mississippi River. Culver says the awards include up to 1,500 jobs for Des Moines and 116 new "quality jobs" added to Ruthven’s economy.
The awards include benefits for Newton in hopes of luring T-P-I Composites, a composite materials manufacturer, to the city. Culver says with a more than two-million dollar commitment, along with a highly skilled workforce, he’s confident the state will lure the project and its 723 new jobs to Newton. Culver says, "As we stand here today, I’m looking forward to the day when I stand with Newton’s leaders and break ground for this new facility, and celebrate this community’s re-birth."
Culver says the incentives approved today are important to the Newton project. "We’ve got work to do however, but we’re making the right steps, we’re making progress," Culver says, "and I think it’s important for people to recognize how competitive this environment is across the country and certainly in the midwest."
Culver believes the money approved by the state does enough to get T-P-I to locate in Newton. Culver says today’s action is something he believes others couldn’t offer. Culver says the loan of roughly two million dollars "is something that needed to be done to make the project to happen."
Tax benefits were also approved for the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, which has promised to create 15-hundred new jobs over five years. The company will build a new 1,800 vehicle parking ramp and a child care center for 180 children. Additional employees will be housed in the company’s existing complex. Wages of 840 of the new jobs will pay an average of $23.45 per hour.
Other projects that received benefits from the board include: Midwest Manufacturing in Kellogg, which will expand and remodel buildings and create 20 jobs;vthe Target and Martin Brothers distribution centers in Cedar Falls; the Cargill plant in Eddyville for a major expansion of corn wet-milling operations. The expansion creates 31 jobs paying an average wage of $23.37 per hour. Increased capacity will support additional ethanol production of 110 million gallons per year as well as new production of animal feeds, corn oil, gluten meal and other products ;a 75-million dollar expansion for the Red Star yeast Company in Cedar Rapids; the doubling of the Siouxland Energy and Livestock Corporation ethanol plant, which operates the oldest farmer-owned ethanol plant in Iowa, for a 42-million dollar expansion to more than double production to 60 million gallons per year.; the construction of the Belmond Renewable Energy ethanol plant; 410-thousand dollars in benefits for Farmers Corrugated Solutions in Ruthven; 320-thousand dollars to Salford Farm Machinery to buy and expand a trailer manufacturer in Osceola; 150-thousand dollars for the expansion of the Ohler Machinery Company in Janesville. W.S. Darley Company plans to purchase and expand Ohler, a manufacturer of pumps, creating 14 jobs and retaining 10 jobs paying an average wage of $17.02 per hour. ; 250-thousand dollars to FoodChain Global Advisors to expand their operation in Fairfield.
