IEDA board awards tax credits to pet food maker, lip care company
BY MICHAEL CRUMB, Senior Staff Writer Friday, December 18, 2020 4:46 PM The Iowa Economic Development Authority today approved tax credits to a pet food maker in Dubuque and a lip care products maker that wants to move to Cedar Rapids.
Combined, the companies plan to create more than 280 jobs that pay between $20 and $24 an hour.
The IEDA board approved $3.3 million in tax credits for Simmons Pet Food Inc, as well as an $800,000 forgivable loan.
According to board documents, the company is the biggest manufacturer of pet food in the country, making both dry and wet food for dogs and cats and dog treats.
By Sue Danielson
Dec 18, 2020
(Cedar Rapids, IA) Eco-Lips, Inc is announcing a $5.6 million expansion, and plans to hire more than dozen employees.
The company, which sells non-GMO products in stores and on-line plans to renovate a warehouse at at 6000 Huntington Ct. NE in Cedar Rapids. The 87,000 square foot facility will more than double the manufacturing and warehouse space to accommodate the company’s growth and expansion.
The project will create 13 jobs incented at a qualifying wage of $23.20 per hour, as well as numerous job opportunities paying a minimum $15.00 per hour. Earlier today, the Iowa Economic Development Authority board awarded tax benefits through the High Quality Jobs (HQJ) program.
Deadline extended on River City Renaissance hotel financing
Local lender if offering a $15 million loan.
Posted: Dec 18, 2020 3:07 PM
Posted By: Mike Bunge
DES MOINES, Iowa – The deadline has been pushed back for the hotel part of Mason City’s River City Renaissance project to secure funding.
The project was awarded $9.1 million in February 2018 by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) but that money was contingent on private financing also being guaranteed. The deadline to demonstrate private money had been secured was March 31, but that was missed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At Friday’s meeting of the IEDA Board of Directors, Mason City City Administrator Aaron Burnett provided details on a $15 million loan from First Citizens Bank to build a convention center and a Hyatt Place hotel in the current parking lot of Southbridge Mall. The loan has not been completely finalized and the Board of Directors unanimously voted to extend the financing deadline to A
Eco Lips plans to move from its current Marion location into a larger Cedar Rapids facility, with help from Iowa Economic Development Authority’s approval of $238,410 in tax credits Friday morning.
The new site is expected to more than double Eco Lips’ manufacturing and warehouse space and create 13 additional jobs.
“We have just been growing at unbelievably rapid rates,” Eco Lips owner Steve Shriver told The Gazette Friday.
“We had planned on our Marion location being our home for at least a decade, and we outgrew it rapidly.”
Eco Lips, which produces organic lip balm and has products in more than 10,000 retail locations, plans to purchase a 78,750-square-foot facility at 6000 Huntington Court NE.
Iowa Economic Development Authority issued a five-year, $2.9 million grant for the University of Iowa’s IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering program Friday morning to assist rural communities in wastewater management.
The grant will specifically go toward the Iowa Wastewater and Waste-to-Energy Research Program Innovation Center and Tech Park to “hasten solutions for rural Iowa communities where municipal wastewater treatment costs stifle local economic vitality,” according to the project summary submitted to IEDA.
Instruments and building costs will account for $2.25 million of the funding. Another $625,000 will go to service contracts, and $50,000 will go toward indirect faculty and administrative costs.
The IWWERP Innovation Center is located at Iowa City’s municipal water resource recovery facility.