CBJ Newsmakers 2018

NEWS
MAKERS
2017
LEADERS
SURVEY
2017
TOP
STORIES OF
2017
A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE CBJ
2017 SPONSORS
BUILDING STRONG & SAFE SINCE 1962
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THANK YOU SPONSORS
The good news just keeps coming to us here
at the newly named Debbie and Jerry Ivy
College of Business. On the second day of
classes, we announced a $7 million donation
from the Gerdin Charitable Fund, which allows
us to move forward with a much-needed
building expansion. This is essential as we
continue to experience record enrollment. A
month later, we made national news when
Debbie and Jerry Ivy (’53 industrial administration)
committed $50 million to the college.
Only 14 business colleges in the United
States have ever received a gift larger than
$50 million. The Ivy College of Business is
accredited by the AACSB (Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business). Less
than 5 percent of the world’s business programs
have earned this credential. It’s a great
time to be in business at Iowa State University!
www.business.iastate.edu
John F. Lohman
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & PUBLISHER
johnl@corridorbusiness.com
Aspen N. Lohman
VICE PRESIDENT
Andrea Rhoades
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER & ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
andrea@corridorbusiness.com
Adam Moore
EDITOR & CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER
adam@corridorbusiness.com
Angela Holmes
MAGAZINE & SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR
angela@corridorbusiness.com
Dave DeWitte
SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER
dave@corridorbusiness.com
BUILDING STRONG & SAFE SINCE 1962
T&K Roofing and Sheet Metal Company
is truly one of the few full-service roofing
and sheet metal companies serving Eastern
Iowa. T&K offers roofing and sheet metal
services ranging from new construction to
re-roofing renovation to maintenance and
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sheet metal, wall panels and historical renovations.
T&K’s capabilities extend to steep
sloped roofing applications including
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seam metal roofing. T&K’s low sloped
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built up roofing systems. T&K is one of
the few remaining roofing companies that
maintains an asbestos removal license.
T&K also provides design and budgeting
assistance to general contractors, designers
and building owners, and is proud of
its reputation for undertaking some of the
most challenging projects in the Corridor.
A proud member of Built by Pros, T&K’s
record for safety and quality is unsurpassed
in the construction industry.
Katharine Carlon
BUSINESS REPORTER
katharine@corridorbusiness.com
Becky Lyons
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Julia Druckmiller
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
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Kelly Meyer
MEDIA CONSULTANT
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Rhonda Roskos
EVENT MEDIA CONSULTANT
rhonda@corridorbusiness.com
The Iowa Economic Development Authority’s
(IEDA) mission is to strengthen economic
and community vitality by building
partnerships and leveraging resources to
make Iowa the choice for people and business.
Through two main divisions – business
development and community development
– IEDA administers several state and federal
programs to meet its goals of assisting individuals,
communities and businesses. Visit
the newly-redesigned iowaeconomicdevelopment.com
to search programs that can be
used to support a variety of business functions,
from workforce training to exporting
and more.
Additionally, 2017 is officially the “Year
of Manufacturing” in Iowa. IEDA has partnered
with the Iowa Association of Business
and Industry and Iowa State University to
create a new website: iowamfg.com. Visit
this site to easily find resources available to
help Iowa manufacturers.
Judith Cobb
MAGAZINE MEDIA CONSULTANT
judith@corridorbusiness.com
Jean Suckow
MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
jean@corridorbusiness.com
Ashley Levitt
EVENT MARKETING COORDINATOR
ashley@corridorbusiness.com
Samantha Kollasch
CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER
samantha@corridorbusiness.com
Kassie Kilpatrick
EVENTS INTERN
kassie@corridorbusiness.com
About this publication
Welcome to Newsmakers, a year-end
wrap-up from the staff of the Corridor
Business Journal. Newsmakers is a compilation
of the most noteworthy stories
of 2017, as told through stories from the
weekly issues of the CBJ.
We selected stories and developments
we thought most impacted businesses
and people in the Corridor this year. The
abridged stories are not ranked, but rather
appear chronologically, as they did in
the issues of the CBJ.
This edition of Newsmakers also includes
the results of our first-ever Leaders
Survey, a subscribers-only poll rating the
year in business and setting expectations
for the year ahead (see page 36). We
think you’ll find the results interesting
and somewhat surprising, and hope that
you’ll participate in next year’s poll if
you missed it this year.
As always, we want to hear from
you – did your biggest story of the year
make our list? What are you excited for
in 2018? Weigh in on our Facebook and
Twitter pages, or send an email to news@
corridorbusiness.com. Thanks for reading;
we’ll see you in the new year.
- Adam Moore
Corridor Business Journal
(USPS 024-715) is published weekly by Corridor Media
Group, Inc. $2.00 a copy, $69.95 a year, $149.95 for three
years. Copyright Corridor Media Group, Inc. 2017. All
rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without permission,
of editorial or graphic contents in any manner is strictly
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@CBJournal
VOL. 14 ISSUE 23
CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 3

The Kalona Creamery is set to open this
DEVELOPMENT
13 and 151 project to create new gateway UPDATE
$50M development in
east Marion could begin
as early as this year
By Adam Moore
adam@corridorbusiness.com
A former driving range on the eastern
edge of Marion could become a striking
gateway to the city under a new development
proposal.
A three-person development group
named 13 and 151 LLC has filed plans
for a $50 million, 20-acre mixed-use
project at the corner of Highways 13
and 151, which was previously home to
Village Green Driving Range but has sat
unused for the past three years.
The proposed project would include
13 lots in all, including office and commercial
buildings, multi-family housing,
a bank, an 83-room hotel and an
event center capable of hosting up to
500 people.
Developer Brian Ridge declined to
identify the hotel flag or a possible operator,
but did say that his group has
already completed negotiations with an
“upper-scale” hotel brand.
“It’s priced,” Mr. Ridge said. “We’re
basically waiting on the city to get
through this process.
The project would be built in two
phases, Mr. Ridge told Marion’s Planning
and Zoning Commission on Jan.
10, with the western half of the project
getting underway this spring, assuming
site plans are approved by the full
city council.
If the schedule holds, Mr. Ridge said
three of the five commercial buildings in
the western phase could open this year,
and the hotel could be open by August
2018. The entire project could be completed
as soon as 2020.
“Part of the reason we have to phase
it is, we only have so much time and
ability to do any project,” Mr. Ridge said
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
1.16.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JAN. 16 - 22, 2017
Fab labs
of Garling Construction, his employer
and the general contractor on the project.
“There are things that could happen
or could not happen, but we feel pretty
good about it.”
The goal of the project is to create a
high-end destination on the edge of the
city. Preliminary
design guidelines
and renderings
created by design
firm Shive-Hattery
showed
modern, cleanlined
buildings
with a variety of
mixed materials,
including brick,
glass, metal and
wood.
“They’ve got a
beautiful toy box
of items they’ve
put into this plan
here,” Planning
and Zoning Commission Member Phill
Seidl said as the group reviewed design
standards for the project on Jan. 10.
“I’m in favor of this kind of thing.”
While commission members discussed
the potential mix of building
types and noted it may remain fluid until
further details are available, Mr. Ridge
acknowledged after the meeting that
“there’s pretty much a mix that’s been
set into motion,” meaning much of the
plan would likely remain intact.
Developers sought and received approval
for a rezoning of the land from
C-3 General Commercial to a Planned
Special Development, which would restrict
the types of businesses allowed
in the development, but also allow
developers variances on parking and
signage regulations, and the ability to
include residential buildings. Land at
each corner of the 13-151 intersection
is zoned for General Commercial, with
a Walmart, McDonald’s and a Culvers
restaurant located across the road.
City officials said the rezoning to
a planned special development
will
slow the project,
as it will require
additional
approvals and
13 and 151
A former driving range on the eastern edge
of Marion could become a striking new
gateway to the metro area.
PAGE 3
Cream of the crop
public hearings for each building, but
it will also provide the city more ability
to control the overall look and evolution
of the development.
Nick Glew, president of the Marion
Economic Development Corporation,
spoke in favor of the rezoning, noting
The former Village Green Driving Range office at the northeast
corner of Highways 13 and 151 in Marion will be coming down as
part of a planned 20-acre, mixed-use development that could bring
$50 million in new real estate investment. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE
that many in the community expected
the location to be the site of a big-box
store. The decision to rezone would be
a positive one for the area and the community
as a whole, he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s guaranteeing
that … we’re elevating the quality of
what’s going to happen on these sites, as
opposed to just a C-3 [zoning] today,”
Mr. Glew said.
Mr. Ridge, a project manager with
Garling Construction, declined to name
his partners in the LLC, but said the
company was organized after seeing “a
need and an opportunity.” It purchased
the land from Water Rock LLC for $1.5
million in July 2015.
The group has not made a formal request
for incentives from the city, according
to Mr. Ridge, who added that they are
“approaching that a little differently than
everybody else,” by waiting to see what
their exact financial needs will be.
Site plans are expected to begin appearing
before the full council in early
spring, at which point Mr. Ridge expects
enthusiasm for the project to grow.
“It’s hard to believe that that corner
has sat vacant for so long,” he said. “I
think people will be excited when they
see what we’ll actually be bringing in
once we can announce those.” CBJ
Credit union
rising at
Squaw Creek
Crossing
A Dupaco Community Credit
Union building is rapidly taking
shape at the development that has
been named Squaw Creek Crossing,
and a large convenience store
is set to follow.
“Hopefully, you’re going to see
a convenience store and a hotel
coming out of the ground in the
spring or summer of 2018,” said
Jim Angstmann of Coldwell Banker
Hedges Realty, who is marketing
the 20-acre gateway project at the
busy intersection of highways 151
and 13 in Marion.
Much of the work completed
in 2017 on the project by Squaw
Creek Crossing Inc. has entailed
the installation of what’s generally
termed horizontal infrastructure –
including sewer, water and roads
– on the former driving range and
mini-golf complex.
Talks are advancing with two
hotel chains interested in locating
within the development. While
feeling positive about the prospects
for a deal, Mr. Angstmann said they
are still working through the capital
formation and financing stage, and
aren’t ready to commit.
The hotel developers would like
to open in time for the first games at
Prospect Meadows, a large baseball
complex being developed a few miles
north at Highway 13 and County
Home Road, which is expected to be
a large traffic generator for the area.
Work has begun on roads into the
complex as fundraising continues,
with help from a Hall-Perrine Foundation
matching grant.
- Dave DeWitte
4 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
week, bringing a iconic tourist spot back
to town.
PAGE 4
CR Taxi
overhaul
NewBoCo expands
reach with virtual
City leaders say a new ordinance wi l “level
the playing field” between heavil

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administration before us, there’s a sense
to retire, se ting o f
the Corridor's latest
executive search.
The city of Hiawatha is getting closer to a
decision on creating a municipal dog park.
By Chase Castle
chase@corridorbusiness.com
Mick Starcevich, president of Kirkwood
Community College, has announced he
plans to retire by June 2018.
“This is my 14th year here at the college,
and I have been thinking about the
decision to retire,” Mr. Starcevich said
Jan. 17 during the announcement at
Kirkwood’s main Cedar Rapids campus.
“I believe now the time is right for me,
personally and for the college ... to retire.”
Mr. Starcevich, 69, became the college’s
fourth president when he took
over in 2005. Since then, Kirkwood has
reached its highest enrollment level in
50 years and improved its retention rate,
according to Kirkwood staff.
“I feel Kirkwood is well-positioned for
the future,” Mr. Starcevich said. “This is a
place where dreams become reality for
our students. Kirkwood’s massive impact
has spread like a ripple effect through
our graduates, to the rest of the Corridor,
to the entire state and beyond.”
Lois Bartelme, chair of Kirkwood’s
Board of Trustees, lamented the news of
Mr. Starcevich’s retirement.
“It’s so sad for me, because I was on
the board ... when we selected Mick as
president, and it seemed we had many,
many years ahead of us,” she said. “And
they have gone so fast. They’ve been so
full, and I have to thank him for his fabulous
leadership. It is beyond belief what
we have accomplished in the 14 years
that he’s been our president.”
Under his tenure, the total dollar
amount available for student scholarships
increased at Kirkwood to more than
$3 million annually, up from $740,000
when Mr. Starcevich assumed office. The
college also oversaw the completion in
2010 of The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, a
$30 million hotel and events center that
also serves as a training facility for culinary
arts and hospitality students.
Larry Ebbers, a retired faculty member
at Iowa State University, will serve
as a consultant for the upcoming presidential
search. In that role, Mr. Ebbers
will establish a search strategy and train
search committee members, which will
include trustees, cabinet representatives,
faculty, staff and representation from the
EDUCATION
Kirkwood’s Starcevich to retire in 2018
Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich discusses the economic impact of the college during
a 50th anniversary event held last year. PHOTO JOE PHOTO
college’s foundation board.
Ms. Bartelme said she has volunteered
to chair the presidential search committee
tasked with finding potential replacements.
The committee will eventually
choose three to four finalists, who will
be interviewed next fall, she said.
“Kirkwood has such a wonderful reputation
nationally that we think we will
have a lot of interest in this job,” Ms.
Bartelme said. “We expect to be overwhelmed,
and we expect we will have
some excellent candidates.”
Kirkwood’s profile includes a claim to
economic development in the Corridor,
where the school indirectly generated
more than $819 million in added income
from locally employed graduates, according
to a study of 2013-2014 data commissioned
by the college. The study by Economic
Modeling Specialists of Moscow,
Idaho also found the school spent $92.2
million on payroll. In turn, it estimated
the college provides a $3.70 return on every
$1 spent by students and by taxpayers.
Speaking to the Corridor Business
Journal last year, Mr. Starcevich
said how well the college
can communicate those contributions
could have a major
impact on its finances and future
enrollment costs.
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
1.23.17
“We need to be more aggressive on
how we show our value,” Mr. Starcevich
said, noting that the college received no
increase in financial support from the
state in fiscal year 2016, and only a 1.5
percent increase for 2017.
Last week, Mr. Starcevich said fundraising
is likely to play an increased role
in his successor’s job duties.
“As you look at the state finances …
you can’t continue to put all of the expenses
onto the backs of our students.”
When a new president takes office at
Kirkwood in 2018, he or she will join two
other recently appointed presidents in
Eastern Iowa higher education. University
of Iowa President Bruce Harreld replaced
former UI President Sally Mason
in 2015, while Mark Nook, former chancellor
at Montana State University Billings,
is slated to take office next month
at the University of Northern Iowa. CBJ
Forecasting 2017
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JAN. 23 - 29, 2017
Economic Forecast Luncheon
offers clues to year ahead
Economist
Phil Levy
Keynote
presentation o fers
three risk factors
that could stop the
economic recovery.
PAGE 3
Star power
Kirkwood President
Mick Starcevich
announces plans
Panel
discussion
Executives and
leaders from some
of the Corridor’s
largest employers
weigh in on 2017.
PAGE 5
UPDATE
And then there
were four
After a nationwide search that attracted
more than 60 applications, Kirkwood’s
Presidential Search Committee
interviewed nine candidates, and
invited the top four back to campus
in November for final interviews and
a chance to meet and interact with
students and college leaders.
Finalists for the top spot include:
• J. Michael Thomson, campus
president of Cuyahoga Community
College in Cleveland, Ohio since
2011.
• Lori Sundberg, president of
Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg,
Illinois since 2010.
• Steve Schulz, president of
North Iowa Area Community College
in Mason City since 2013.
• Kristie Fisher, assistant vice
president and senior director of strategic
partnerships at ACT in Iowa
City. She previously served as Kirkwood’s
director of special projects
and assistant to the president from
2004-2006 and vice president of
student services from 2006-2014.
Kirkwood’s 17-member search
committee called for applications
from leaders able to “promote and
foster the college as a community of
learners,” among other requirements
on a three-page list that included the
need for an advanced degree and
prior experience as a president for an
institution of higher education, K-12
superintendent or a minimum of
five years administrative experience
at the dean’s level or higher.
“Everybody in the initial round
was a very highly qualified candidate
and brought a lot to the table, so
just narrowing it down to four was a
tough decision,” said Justin Hoehn,
Kirkwood’s associate director of marketing,
adding that while the search
committee had set no timetable for
making a final decision, it would
likely be “weeks, not months.”
Updated information on the
search is available at kirkwood.edu/
presidentsearch.
—Katharine Carlon
PAGE 9
Going to the dogs
6 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Rue Patel, general manager of General Mi ls’ Cedar Rapids plant, discusses sales and marketing trends during the EFL panel session with
four other Corridor leaders. Turn to page 5 for a condensed recap of the half-hour discussion. PHOTO ADAM MOORE
With a new year and a new presidential
PAGE 15
of both hope and uncertainty in the air.
Will President Donald Trum
tectionist measures that could ultimately brought together hundreds of business
harm the very businesses he’s aiming to leaders in
help? Will our histo
CBJ 5Q

CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 7

shown progress in recent months
after a year that's shown how fickle
drug company investors can be.
GAMING
CR casino proposals shrink
in latest round
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
UPDATE
Another Linn
casino bid
rejected
For the two groups competing in the latest round of proposals
for a Linn County casino, it’s become a question of how small
can you go.
The hope is that by making a casino proposal small enough,
it will be able to “squeeze in the door,” as one project partner
put it, with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
The commission in 2014 shot down a previous proposal by
the Steve Gray-led Cedar Rapids Development Group (CRDG)
that had strong local support, solely because of estimates that
73-81 percent of its revenues would come at the expense of
other Iowa casinos. That left a smaller casino as the best hope
for winning acceptance.
With a three-year moratorium on considering new casino
applications soon to expire, veteran Iowa casino operator
Wild Rose Entertainment was the first to try to exploit the
possible opportunity. Wild Rose lined up a development deal
with Steve Emerson of Aspect Architecture and Hunter Parks
of Hunter Companies on a small “boutique” casino project.
The partners pitched the $40 million project as a first for Iowa,
combining an urban location with a compact footprint that
included about 700 slot machines and 15-20 gaming tables
in a new building Mr. Parks and Mr. Emerson’s companies
would develop at 411 First Ave. SE.
CRDG, not to be overtaken, last week submitted a $105
million, 550 slot/15 table casino just across First Avenue
from the site proposed by Wild Rose, where a city parking garage
now stands. It also resubmitted its earlier proposal for a
$165-million, 840 slot/22 gaming table casino with development
partner Peninsula Pacific.
Peninsula Pacific CEO Brent Stevens seemed to suggest at a
recent press conference that the smaller casino has the best shot
at a license. CRDG and Peninsula Pacific’s own economic impact
study indicated its small casino proposal would reduce revenue
by only 4.7 percent at Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in
Riverside, which previous studies have shown to be the casino
most vulnerable to losing business from a Cedar Rapids casino.
“What we learned in 2014 was the size of Cedar Crossing
on the River was larger than the Iowa Racing and Gaming
Commission was comfortable in allowing,” Mr. Stevens said,
adding the group decided it was important to offer the larger
proposal as well because of its many benefits to the state and
the community.
CRDG and Peninsula worked out their proposals with assistance
and input from the city, releasing them on the eve
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
2.20.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I FEB. 20 - 26, 2017
CBJ Health Care Summit
Block grants,
HSAs likely tenets
of ACA reform
8 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Dueling
casinos
For the two groups competing in the latest
round of Cedar Rapids casino proposals,
smaller may turn out to be be ter.
PAGE 3
3-D knees
A new knee implant procedure comes to
the Corridor, promising patients be ter
results and smoother recoveries.
PAGE 4
Seeing success
Coralvi le-based KemPharm has
A rendering of the $105 million Cedar Crossing Central casino,
one of two concepts proposed by Cedar Rapids Development
Group and Peninsula Pacific. CREDIT CRDG/PENINSULA
of the Feb. 13 license application deadline in hopes of not
tipping their hand. Wild Rose eventually applied with a 600
slot/20 table proposal smaller than it originally pitched.
Acceptance of either of the two smaller applications could
leave Cedar Rapids with a casino not much larger than those
in Emmetsburg, Jefferson or Marquette, although it would
likely be a bigger draw because of the larger local population
and visitor base.
Sixty-one percent of Linn County voters who participated
in a 2013 referendum voted in favor of allowing a casino
license in the county, while 39 percent were opposed. The
Cedar Crossing proposal was the only one on the table at
that time.
“It just seems like that 61 percent of voters should be recognized
for having voted for a full-amenity casino,” said Maureen
Hunt, a citizen who addressed the city council Feb. 14.
After Ms. Hunt spoke, Daniel Kaiser took the podium. He
expressed concerns that the Wild Rose Cedar Rapids proposal
wouldn’t be large enough to compete with the others in the area.
They were not alone in their views on small casinos. The
bigger-is-better contingent includes Mayor Ron Corbett, who
prefers Cedar Crossing on the River. He said the city-owned
site of Cedar Crossing on the River could be the best in the
state, with its downtown location, riverfront views and easy
access from I-380.
“It’s bigger and it can have a greater impact,” Mr. Corbett
CASINO PAGE 43
After reviewing two entirely new casino
proposals and a largely recycled
one from 2015, the Iowa Racing and
Gaming Commission on Nov. 16
came to the same conclusion it had
two years earlier regarding a gaming
license for Linn County.
The commission voted 3-2 to
reject the two Cedar Crossing casino
license applications from Cedar
Rapids Development Group and a
submittal from Wild Rose Resorts in
cooperation with local developers
Steve Emerson and Hunter Parks.
Commission Chairman Richard
Arnold had praise for what’s
been called Cedar Crossing 2.0 – a
small-scale casino that would have
given Cedar Rapids a new parking
structure to replace the aging Five
Seasons parking garage that serves
the U.S. Cellular Center and the
DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids
Convention Complex. He said
the advantages were enough to outweigh
his concerns about the business
other casinos would lose to a
newly licensed casino.
Dolores Mertz of Algona also
said she’d support one of the applications,
saying “Iowa’s second largest
city deserves something.”
But it never came down to a vote
on which license to approve after
commission member Jeff Lamberti,
an Ankeny attorney, moved to deny
all three license applications. He
was joined by Kristine Kramer of
New Hampton and Carl Heinrich
of Council Bluffs.
Cedar Rapids Development
Group said it wasn’t giving up on
seeking a gaming license in Linn
County. Wild Rose Resorts, which
has several existing casinos in the
state, said it will continue to seek
opportunities for growth.
- Dave DeWitte
PAGE 6
Sco t Sundstrom, vice pre
Tech &

CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 9

NewBoCo's Iowa Startup Accelerator
A proposed mixed-use project in Cedar
Rapids' NewBo District is bringing interest
in home ownership in the area to the fore.
HEALTH CARE
UI Children‘s Hospital already
making a difference
By Cindy Hadish
news@corridorbusiness.com
UPDATE
UI Children’s
Hospital finds
its footing
IOWA CITY—As another group of patients moves into the new
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, young
charges such as Lilly Timmerman are finding reasons to smile.
Lilly, 9, of Burlington, was diagnosed with acute myeloid
leukemia on Christmas Eve and has spent much of her time
hospitalized since then, undergoing chemotherapy and preparing
for a bone marrow transplant.
Before she moved into the new 14-story hospital last
month, she often had to stay confined to her room because of
her weak immune system. A HEPA air filtration system on all
patient floors reduces the risk and spread of infection in the
new hospital, allowing Lilly to go to classes and other activities.
“When your [blood] counts drop, you’re kind of isolated,”
said Lilly’s mother, Maria Timmerman. “It’s hard for them to
not be with their peers. Here, we can go anywhere on this unit.”
The HEPA system filters out 99.9 percent of contaminants
on patient floors, such as tiny dust particles, mold spores, pollen
and bacteria. Operating rooms and inpatient rooms, such
as the 11th floor where Lilly is staying, are equipped with additional
HEPA filters at the vents to provide an extra line of
defense against the spread of airborne agents.
Ms. Timmerman also appreciates the spacious patient
rooms, which include a couch that converts into a bed. Lilly, a
third-grader who enjoys art, has taken a liking to the high-tech
bedside touchscreen that allows her to play games or watch
movies on a flat-screen TV.
The $360 million hospital’s opening has been long anticipated,
beginning with the demolition of a parking ramp that
previously sat on the site in 2012.
Originally expected to open in December 2016, the first
patients were moved Feb. 25, with another group arriving
March 25.
Scott Turner, executive director of Stead Family Children’s
Hospital, said the limited availability of skilled labor needed
for the project was one factor in the delay. Finding certified
people to install the special rubberized floors, for example,
was a challenge, he said.
Mr. Turner added that changes, such as including windows
strong enough to withstand an EF3 tornado – with speeds of
165 mph – led to increased costs over the original budget estimate
of $270 million.
No tax dollars were used to fund the building, he noted.
Instead, it was funded by $190 million in bonds, $120 million
in cash reserves and operational funds and $50 million
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
3.27.17
*wink* and *nod*
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2017
Marketers find new
ways to connect with
‘textual paralanguage’
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
TTYL
BFFs
LOL
UI Children's Hospital
Patients have completed their move into
the new hospital, which is already giving
people reasons to smile.
PAGE 3
Meet the teams
Nine-year-old Lilly Timmerman, sits in her new room with her
mother, Maria. CREDIT SHUVA RAHIM
in private donations.
Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, former Maquoketa residents for
whom the hospital is named, committed $25 million to children’s
medicine at the University of Iowa. Jerre Stead has had
a long career leading technology and information companies,
currently serving as chairman and CEO of IHS Inc.
The Gerdin family, of North Liberty-based Heartland Express,
made a $12 million gift commitment to support the new
hospital. The first-floor lobby is named after the Gerdin family.
Jason Miller, director of project management for the children’s
hospital, said the project did not have a single general
contractor. Rather, contractors bid on 26 prime contracts,
with nearly 4,000 workers involved in the building project
and 90 percent of those from Iowa.
Workers put in more than 2 million hours of labor on
500,000-plus-square-feet of space, with no accidents resulting in
serious injury and only two lost-time accidents, Mr. Miller said.
Mr. Turner declined to comment on a contract dispute
with Modern Piping regarding work on the facility. Hospital
spokesman Tom Moore sent a statement saying University of
Iowa Health Care representatives do not discuss matters that
involve litigation.
The former pediatric rooms in the main hospital will be
used to accommodate adult patients, Mr. Turner said. There
were previously 165 inpatient pediatric beds in the main hospital;
there are now 189 patient beds between the new Children’s
Hospital – most of those in single-patient rooms – and 55 beds
in the neonatal intensive care unit in the main hospital.
With the completion of the March 25 move, all pediatric
inpatient units have relocated to the new hospital. Only the
Level 4 surgery center and Level 5 surgery and post-anesthesia
care unit have yet to move into the new facility. CBJ
Iowa’s favorite new tradition – the
first quarter wave from football fans
at Kinnick Stadium to the young
patients huddled at the top-floor
windows – has put the University
of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s
Hospital on the map.
But hospital administrators say
“The Kinnick Wave,” which has
captivated sports fans from coast
to coast, is only one of the developments
worth cheering about now
that the facility has been open for
about six months.
“The new hospital is elevating
the overall patient and family experience,”
said Scott Turner, chief operating
officer at the hospital, adding
that the time and attention paid
to the facility’s planning and design
is paying off in increased efficiency
and patient satisfaction.
Mr. Turner said highlights of the
hospital’s half-year anniversary include
greater availability of state-ofthe-art
technology, expanded services
and treatment options, “and a
caring environment that transcends
every floor.”
Over the summer, the new hospital
was ranked among the top 50
children’s hospitals in six specialties
by U.S. News and World Report:
34th in cancer, 48th in cardiology/
heart surgery, 20th in neonatology,
21st in nephrology, 45th in pulmonology
and 36th in urology.
“Our children’s hospital is a special
place and moving into a brand
new hospital is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity,” said Jodi Kurtt, the
hospital’s director of nursing and
patient care services. “Now that all
of our units and services have been
in their new home for more than
six months, we’re fully settled in,
with our feet on the ground.”
- Katharine Carlon
Marketers are expanding their messaging to incorporate
the digital shorthand of texts, posts
and snaps – a trend that now has a name,
thanks to newly published research
from a University of Iowa business
professor.
It’s called ‘textual paralanguage,’
or TPL, and it’s defined as
written manifestations
of nonverbal
audible, tactile and visual
elements that supple-
10 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
IDK
*sigh*
ROFL
introduces its new year-long format and its
first startup teams of 2017.
PAGE 4
ment and replace written
language.
A paper offering the
new definition appeared
*eye roll*
NewBo housing
in the January edition of
the Journal of Consumer Psychology, presented
by UI Assistant Professor of Marketing Andrea
Luangrath, Joann Peck of the
University of Wisconsin-Madiso
PAGE 5

Celebrating
10
AWESOME
YEARS OF
growth, giving
and gratitude
right here in the Corridor
#cheersto10years

By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Flood, hail, tornado – even sewer backups.
If you’re in business in Iowa, some
things are hard to overlook in discussions
about insurance. There’s simply too much
weather drama to ignore the possible need
for big checks to be written down the line.
But what about data breaches, power
failures, breakdowns in critical equipment
or human factors that could result in lawsuits,
or even workplace violence?
Risk management experts say that
while some risks remain steady, others
are emerging and business coverage
needs are constantly changing. That has
put the onus on business leaders to look
“It’s easy to only look at it one time a
year,” said Spencer Stephens, risk consultant
for Sheets Forrest Draper Insurance
in Marion. “But over times, things change.
Sales can go up, you’re switching vehicles,
you’ve started operations in a different
Celebrating Our New Office
New York Life Insurance Company is
readying to expand in Eastern Iowa.
Don't miss next week's special
edition honoring the 2017 W
EXPANSIONS
Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa announces
new facility in MedQuarter
UPDATE
PCI’s expansion
takes shape
Adam Moore
adam@corridorbusiness.com
Cedar Rapids-based multi-specialty medical group Physicians’
Clinic of Iowa (PCI) is exploring a second facility
on the current PCI campus in the downtown Cedar Rapids
Medical Quarter.
“PCI’s exploratory plans are to construct a
new 100,000-square-foot medical facility and
an additional 500-car parking structure,” David
Hart, M.D., PCI’s president and medical
director, stated in a press release. “These new
facilities are necessary to accommodate PCI’s
continuing growth and to attract other non-PCI
healthcare-related services.”
The new medical facility, designed by BBL
Medical Facilities of Albany, New York, will be
located to the south and west of Firestone Tire,
between Second and Third avenues SE.
“The vision is that the new pavilion will have
a wellness theme, featuring new PCI specialties
and new health and wellness-related tenants, potentially in
the areas of executive health, men’s and women’s focused
wellness, and a sports performance center,” Dr. Hart continued.
“PCI is very proud to be a part of the continued development
within the downtown MedQuarter. Our goal is the new
facility will strengthen the PCI Medical Pavilion campus as
a medical destination for patients, referring physicians, employers
and visitors we serve throughout east central Iowa.”
The 500-car parking structure will be located to the south
of the PCI Medical Pavilion, along Third Avenue SE. Current
plans are to connect the new medical facility to the existing
parking structure via walkway. Covered walkways will be
constructed from the new parking structure to the existing
PCI Medical Pavilion.
“The plans for this new facility are exciting. Patients will
continue to receive a complete ambulatory health care experience
within one centralized location, whether it’s the original
PCI Medical Pavilion, or the planned health
and wellness pavilion,” Dr. Hart said. “PCI is actively
recruiting new physicians in existing and new
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
4.24.17
medical and surgical specialties to provide comprehensive
specialty-care services for Eastern Iowa.”
In September, the Cedar Rapids City Council supported
grant funding of up to $9.5 million for development of a
parking structure. The two structures and their associated
skywalks represent a total investment of around $30 million.
A rendering of the second Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa building coming to Cedar
Rapids’ MedQuarter. IMAGE BBL
Caleb Mason, the city’s economic development analyst,
said the project qualifies for the city’s Community Benefit
Economic Development Program, because of benefits such
as allowing increased development density in the MedQuarter
and reducing the need for surface parking lots.
Because the parking structure will be privately owned,
Cedar Rapids plans to issue bonds to fund construction and
use Tax Increment Financing revenues to pay them off, as it
did on the existing PCI parking structure, Mr. Mason said.
Because tax collections lag a year behind the completion of
a new structure, PCI will make the first two payments on the
bonds, and will later be reimbursed from TIF collections.
During the city council’s deliberations on Sept. 12, Mayor
Ron Corbett emphasized the 200 employees the facility will
house as a benefit of supporting the project. City staff recommended
that PCI be required to commit to a minimum
$30 million investment, along with a commitment to build
a 98,000-square-foot building and 540-space parking
garage in a development
agreement. CBJ
Filling the gaps
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I APRIL 24 - 30, 2017
Corridor insurers offer tips for
making sure your business
stays covered as risks evolve
EDC
Meeting
The Cedar Rapids-based business center
highlights the support provided to area
businesses and entrepreneurs in 2016.
PAGE 10
Seeking
retirees
Kirkwood looks for early retirement
commitments amid pending decreases in
state funding and othe revenue shortfa ls.
PAGE 3
Planning for growth
After winning enthusiastic support
for the expansion from its board,
Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa has unveiled
new plans and details about
its second facility, billed as a “specialty
care medical destination.”
Michael Sundall, PCI’s CEO,
said plans for the new facility call
for a 98,000-square-foot, three-story
structure featuring a glass atrium
and covered drop-off area facing
10th Street SE and a second parking
garage. Skywalks connecting both
facilities to the existing patient-only
parking structure will provide convenient
covered parking and access.
BBL Medical Facilities of Albany,
New York, will design the building
and lead the project with local
subcontractors hired to execute the
construction. Commercial realtors
with Skogman Realty are currently
sourcing new health and wellness-related
tenants for new facility.
Other tenants may be added once
the facility is complete.
“Our vision for MedQuarter is a
bustling, thriving destination,” Mr.
Sundall said in a release. “The new
medical pavilion may attract new
wellness-focused businesses to this
neighborhood and increase traffic
for existing businesses. People will
continue to travel from all over the
state to take advantage of some of
the nation’s best specialty health
care, found right here in the heart
of Cedar Rapids.”
PCI plans to break ground on
the new structure in early 2018
and anticipates a 24-month-long
construction process prior to moving
in. In addition to the tenants,
the new space will accommodate
growth of existing PCI services,
provide space for 15 new specialists
and house support services that are
currently off-site.
-- Katharine Carlon
more frequently at their coverage and
possible gaps.
PAGE 5
12 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
state – you have go to through more than
a conversation once a year.”
A high percentage of insured businesses
have either a business owner’s policy
(BOP) or a commercial package policy
(CPP) to cover their major risks. A BOP
combines basic property and liability coverage
into one package that is typically
GAPS PAGE 6
CBJ 5Q
Lena Hi l, Associate Professor of
English and African American Studies
a the University of Iowa discusses how
employers can embrace di ferences among
their employees.
PAGE 22
A Passion for Growth
Coming Up

COMING SOON
PCI MEDICAL PAVILION II
Proud partner in the
Time Line
2017
Strategic recruitment of
potential tenants.
Planning continues.
Spring 2018
Construction begins on
Medical Pavilion II
Late Fall 2019
Medical Pavilion II OPENS
Together in health.
Find a complete list of PCI providers at pcofiowa.com/ExpertCare

The Cedar Rapids
yeast maker is set
to head in a new
direction with its
latest expansion.
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
TECHNOLOGY
Crystal Group ready to grow
Employee-owners at the Crystal Group configure
network servers to customer requirements on the final
chassis assembly line at the company's Hiawatha
facility on May 1. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE
HIAWATHA—A $17.5 million facility
plan lies at the center of
Crystal Group’s efforts to become
a major supplier of servers to the
emerging autonomous vehicle
market and expand its positions
in the defense market.
The employee-owned company
manufactures network servers
and switches designed to operate
in extreme environments such as
military humvees, tanks and submarines.
It takes commercial offthe-shelf
components and customizes
them for performance under
intense conditions, testing each
unit rigorously before delivery to
customers.
Crystal Group will soon break
ground on a 111,500-square-foot
facility on a 9-acre site at 855
Metzger Road acquired from Armstrong Development, just behind
its current headquarters at 850 Kacena Drive, Hiawatha.
Primus Construction will design and build the facility, which
will provide better product flow and more production capacity
to meet growing demand from the defense market.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of our demanding customers
in the DOD [Department of Defense], offering the facilities
and capabilities we think they’ll be asking for,” said Michael
Kruger, vice president of operations and leader of the facility
project. “It should give us about a 50 percent increase in production
capacity.”
Crystal Group has also been contracted by several global automobile
manufacturers to supply equipment on autonomous
and semi-autonomous vehicle programs, according to Marketing
Director Leslie George. The automakers will need a different
style of rugged server than most of those Crystal Group currently
supplies, which are designed to fit into a standard rack or a rugged
transit case. The autonomous vehicle servers will be “much
more customized,” with a form designed to fit in a non-standard
space, Ms. George said.
In the two-year planning process for the facility, Mr. Kruger
said Crystal Group began by asking each department what their
needs were, and then evaluating and prioritizing those needs
based on the company’s capital budget.
“The biggest things we need are a new environmental test
facility and secure room,” he said. “These were the things that
could open new doors for us.”
The environmental test facility is used to evaluate the performance
of Crystal products under extreme conditions. The new
facility will add vibration testing, which is currently outsourced,
to testing in extreme humidity and temperature conditions.
Two secure rooms will meet the requirements of certain defense
agencies for space that can
be used to review secret plans and
documents.
“We have customers requesting
that,” Mr. Kruger said. “We’ll be
able to quote more business when
we have it.”
The new facility will also house
Crystal Group’s corporate headquarters.
A new part of that component
will be a new “proposal
room” for marketing and engineering
staffs to use in developing proposals.
It will incorporate multiple
video screens for displaying information
from the proposals to facilitate
communication among the
company’s teams, Mr. Kruger said.
Access control and security
were also high on the list of needs,
along with an uninterruptible
power supply for the entire building.
That is partly because final assembly
and test operations will be
moved into the new facility.
A standard test for a Crystal Group server, called the burn-in,
requires operating it at maximum capacity for 24 hours straight.
If even the slightest power blip interrupts the test, the process begins
all over again, Mr. Kruger said.
A building management system was designed into the project
to control all of the energy-consuming features of the building,
from its lighting and access control system to its high-efficiency
heating and air conditioning system.
Building close to home
Early in the planning process, Crystal Group determined the
logistics of expanding its nearly 20-year-old current facility
wouldn’t work, and began looking for a new location.
Building new in Cedar Rapids and other cities outside Hiawatha
were considered, but Crystal Group ultimately found
the best option to be right in the backyard of its current location,
Mr. Kruger said.
The new facility will allow synergies with the other Crystal
Group facilities nearby, is only a few minutes from a UPS shipping
facility, and will have even better access to Interstate 380
when the new Tower Terrace Road interchange is built.
“Hiawatha is growing,” Mr. Kruger said. “When Tower Terrace
[the interchange] is open, we’ll be in a prime location.”
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
5.8.17
CRYSTAL GROUP PAGE 46
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 8 - 14, 2017
Rugged and ready to grow
Carlson's message
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen
Carlson spoke at the Iowa Women Lead
Change 10th anniversary dinner.
PAGE 7
UPDATE
Driving hard
With its new Hiawatha facility
rising out of the ground in 2017,
Crystal Group was gaining sales
momentum that will keep its occupants
busy when it opens in
late 2018.
“Our year continues with
solid performance, and we expect
to exceed our 2017 financial
plan with excellent business
momentum heading into 2018,”
Marketing Director Leslie George
said. “We are especially pleased
with the growth of our military
segment. Crystal Group’s core
military business increased over
20 percent since 2016.”
Industrial and commercial
demand for the company’s rugged
servers also improved in
2017, with new contracts that
included a significant deal with
a West Coast power distribution
company that could open doors
for future business.
Demand from the emerging
autonomous vehicle industry
was also improving.
“We spent much of this year
delivering equipment to our
initial autonomous vehicle customer,
and in the process we
have developed the designs,
engineering, relationships and
credibility to allow us further
penetration in the autonomous
market,” Ms. George said.
Construction of the
111,500-square-foot headquarters
facility at 855 Metzger Road
in Hiawatha is going according
to plan, according to company
officials.
- Dave DeWitte
Automation analysis
14 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Hiawatha
computer
maker hopes
to tap new
markets
with $17.5M
expansion
New study lays out the risks of automation
by industry, with several of the state's
biggest sectors in the crosshairs.
PAGE 3
Lesaffre
rising
New
leaders
Jennifer Daly, Doug
Neumann tapped
to lead economic
development orgs.
PAGE 4

NEW BUILDING. NEW JOBS.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
Coming in September 2018: Over 45 new jobs. 50% production
capacity increase. 169,500 total square feet of manufacturing and operations in Hiawatha.
Crystal Group would like to thank the City of Hiawatha, HEDCO, CRMEA, IEDA and all professional
partners for their support of this expansion.
CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS OF THE 111,500 SQ.FT. FACILITY
AT 855 METZGER RD. IN HIAWATHA.
crystalrugged.com | info@crystalrugged.com | 800.378.1636
Crystal Group is an employee-owned designer/manufacturer/integrator of rugged computers for military and industrial applications worldwide.

market demands. PHOTO DAV
The Cedar Rapids
yeast maker is set
to head in a new
direction with its
latest expansion.
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
A pair of key appointments unveiled
May 3 set the stage for what leaders say
will be a reenergized relaunch of the
Corridor’s first workforce and economic
development joint venture.
Jennifer Daly, 45, was named the
first president and CEO of the joint
venture formed in 2016 between the
Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance
and the Iowa City Area Development
(ICAD) Group.
At the same time, the Economic Alliance
board of directors named Doug
Neumann, 47, executive director after
observing him in action as interim president
and CEO for just over one year.
There was no mistake to the timing
of the announcements. The region
has serious workforce needs, which are
closely entwined with its economic development
efforts.
“Clearly from a board perspective
and from the perspective of our 1,200
business members, there’s certainly going
to be a major focus on developing
a great relationship with Jennifer and
making sure workforce development is
as strong as it can be,” Mr. Neumann
said. “This is a chance to for us to really
relaunch this joint effort with ICAD
around the regional initiatives.”
Ms. Daly said workforce development
has become the leading issue for
economic development agencies across
the country, and it’s been no different
in her role as CEO of the Greater Peoria
Economic Development Council in Illinois.
The council serves a five-county
region similar in size and population to
the Corridor.
“For us, a lot of it is about alignment
– introducing local students to careers
in the most critically needed areas, and
giving them the chance to advance
their skills in those
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
5.8.17
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
New leaders to ‘relaunch’
regional efforts
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 8 - 14, 2017
Rugged and ready to grow
Hiawatha
computer
maker hopes
to tap new
markets
with $17.5M
expansion
16 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Carlson's message
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen
Carlson spoke a the Iowa Women Lead
Change 10th anniversary dinner.
PAGE 7
Automation analysis
New study lays ou the risks of automation
by industry, with several of the state's
biggest sectors in the crosshairs.
PAGE 3
Lesaffre
rising
New
leaders
Jennifer Daly, Doug
Neumann tapped
to lead economic
development orgs.
PAGE 4
areas,” Ms. Daly said in an interview
with the CBJ. “The people who grew up
in a community are the most likely to
stay in a community or move back to
that community to find a career.”
The joint venture had
been without a permanent
leader since plans were announced
in January 2015
and a nonprofit entity, the Iowa’s
Creative Corridor Economic
Development Corp.,
was launched Jan. 1, 2016.
Mr. Neumann assumed the
interim CEO position with
the Economic Alliance in
April 2016 following the resignation
of Dee Baird.
“We are thrilled to be
able to relaunch and move
the strategic direction forward
for the joint venture,”
said Tom Goedken, who
co-chairs the joint venture
board with Lydia Brown. “A
lot of hard work has gone
into creating this entity, and
we have now found the right
person to lead it into its next
successful phase.”
Mr. Neumann said he
had the opportunity to meet with Ms.
Daly during the hiring process. He was
impressed by her expertise in workforce
development, and her experience managing
change in Peoria.
“The model of how they restructured
economic development there [in
Peoria] is what we want to do here,” Mr.
Neumann said, referring to that area’s
regional approach.
Ms. Daly said her work with the
Greater Peoria Economic Development
Council included building an organization
from three regional economic development-related
organizations after a
period of upheaval in regional development
efforts. The organization now has
a full-time staff
of eight.
“Regional
economic development,
first
and foremost,
Jennifer Daly
Doug Neumann
needs to be there to support the efforts
of local economic development officials
and entities,” said Ms. Daly, adding that
the services provided by the Greater
Peoria group include marketing, training
and providing resources
such as market and labor
force data.
Both Ms. Daly and Mr.
Neumann bring a wealth
of familiarity with the Corridor
in addition to their
professional experience to
the positions.
Mr. Neumann has more
than 10 years experience at
the Economic Alliance and
its predecessor organizations,
serving as executive
vice president for about five
years and leading the organization’s
Downtown District
efforts. He also served
as opinion page editor and
a reporter at The Gazette in
Cedar Rapids.
Ms. Daly, a University
of Iowa psychology graduate
and former Coralville
resident, is a co-founder
and the former executive
director of programs for the Iowa Children’s
Museum. She served as executive
director of the Mount Pleasant Area
Chamber of Commerce and Area Development
Commission before moving
to Illinois, where she also served as executive
director of the Morton Economic
Development Council and Morton
Chamber of Commerce.
With the reallocation of some roles
to the joint venture, the Economic Alliance
remains focused on its roles as
an advocate for businesses in public
policy, in providing member services
and in supporting the downtown area,
among others.
Being promoted from interim CEO
to regular executive director “makes
this a very immediate and natural transition,”
Mr. Neumann said. With that
transition, he said he’ll be able to focus
more on long-term goals, strategies and
vision. CBJ
UPDATE
Daly set to
move the ball
Now that she’s met just about everyone
who’s anyone, Jennifer Daly,
the new CEO of the Corridor’s new
joint venture, said she is ready to
make things happen.
“It’s feeling really good after a
couple of months in here,” said Ms.
Daly, who is finalizing strategies
aimed at addressing both sides of
the economic development equation:
attracting new businesses to
the Corridor and recruiting and retaining
workers to staff them.
On the business attraction side,
Ms. Daly said she and her staff have
identified industry clusters they
plan to target, “and we’re moving
forward with a robust schedule
of trade shows and marketing in
2018.” Brian Crowe, who already
serves as economic development
strategist for the Cedar Rapids Metro
Economic Alliance, has signed on
as the group’s director of business
attraction. Tom Banta, ICAD’s director
of strategic growth, will also
assist with that effort.
On the workforce development
side, Ms. Daly said DaLayne Williamson
of ICAD Group will serve
as the venture’s director of workforce
solutions.
“The focus there is on talent and
retention strategy and we have a
draft [plan] in the process of being
finalized,” she said. “One important
piece of that will be working with
students in schools and hopefully
building that pipeline of talent.”
Other upcoming projects include
updating the creativecorridor.co
website to align with the Corridor’s
new economic development goals
and launching a marketing campaign
showcasing the seven-country
region. Ms. Daly said she hopes
the campaign will debut in the first
quarter of 2018.
“It’s been a wonderful four
months,” she said. “Very, very busy,
but I think we’ve made a great deal
of progress.”
—Katharine Carlon
PAGE 5
Employee-owners a the Crystal Group configure network servers to custome requirements on the fina
ny's Hiawatha facility on May 1. The company plans to expand its p

Creating home...
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Proud to receive the CBJ’s
2017 Coolest of The Cool Award
An Active LifeCare Community Since 1966
Steve Roe, Executive Director
Founded in 1966 Oaknoll Court, Iowa City 319-351-1720 www.oaknoll.com

their career choices, and what would keep them in the Corridor,
where their talents are sorely needed.
jobs, and they wan the kind of life-work balance that won’t leave
them scrambling to find another job in a year.
Kevin Techau, of Scheldrup
Blades Law Firm, discusses
DEVELOPMENT
GEICO planning to open
office in North Liberty
By Adam Moore
adam@corridorbusiness.com
In May, the CBJ was the first to report that insurance
company GEICO was finalizing plans to open
a new office located in North Liberty, according to
multiple sources familiar with the deal.
Land at the targeted site is owned by A&M Development,
a group of investors led by Mike Hahn,
co-owner of McComas-Lacina Construction in
Iowa City. A&M had a purchase agreement for the
land in place with Bourn Companies of Tucson,
A rendering of the new GEICO building coming to North Liberty in
2018. IMAGE A&M DEVELOPMENT
Arizona, which is representing GEICO in the deal.
The agreement, which was in the due diligence
phase when first reported, called for the purchase of
about 5 acres of property just east of Interstate 380,
less than half a mile south of the Penn Street exit,
and near the Corridor Business Journal and University
of Iowa Community Credit Union headquarters.
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
5.15.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 15 - 21, 2017
The Corridor’s
next generation
The deal valued the land around $4.50 per
square foot, with an estimated total value of more
than $1 million.
GEICO representatives declined to comment on
any details of the project, including the timeline or
how the new office will impact the company’s existing
Midwest regional office in Coralville.
According to the company’s website, GEICO
opened its Coralville office in 1997. The office employs
about 450 people, primarily in sales and customer
service, and announced as recently as 2015
plans to hire additional managers and customer
service representatives.
In July, plans for the company’s new
customer service center in North Liberty
went up for review, impressing planning
officials as large, but also keeping
with the city’s design standards.
In a memo, City Planner Dean Wheatley
said A & M was proposing a 227-footlong
building - nearly a block long. He
said the structure and parking would
span nearly the entire site from setback
line to setback line. He is recommending
approval of the request, saying the project,
with its high masonry and glass content,
“will be a positive design influence
for the office park and the city.”
City officials said they planned to
seek state funding to improve vehicular
traffic flow to the area by paving the
current gravel section of Kansas Avenue south from
its paved portion to Forevergreen Road, where a
new I-380 interchange is being built.
Among the positive attributes Mr. Wheatley
cited were favorable traffic circulation, fire access,
and an outside dining area connected to the break
room and vending area of the facility. CBJ
Powering startups
A new GoDaddy-backed program aims to
help entrepreneurs hurdle economic and
social barriers in Cedar Rapids.
PAGE 5
EntreFEST
returns
Statewide festival
draws hundreds of
innovators to Iowa
City.
PAGE 3
TrueNorth
We’re happy to welcome
GEICO to North Liberty’s
family of businesses.
UPDATE
- Terry Donahue
North Liberty Mayor
Improvements ahead
Early site work is underway at the site of GEICO’s
new 50,000-square-foot facility, and thanks to an
assist from the Iowa Department of Transportation,
improved road access won’t be far behind.
In late summer, the state gave the nod to more
than $3 million in Revitalize Iowa’s Sound Economy,
or RISE, funding for North Liberty to pave a
5,200-foot gravel stretch of Kansas Avenue south to
Forevergreen Road, where a new I-380 interchange
is under construction.
According to a DOT news release, the $3.07 million
in funding will also assist in reconstruction of
a roundabout at Kansas Avenue and St. Andrews
Drive. The road upgrades are necessary, state officials
said, “to provide improved access to the proposed
site of GEICO’s national auto insurance
claims processing facility to support the creation of
307 new full-time jobs and $11,939,340 in associated
capital investment.”
The GEICO facility is expected to open in summer
2018, bringing about 400 workers currently
based in Coralville to North Liberty, with room for
upwards of 300 more. The road improvements are
set for completion by December 2018.
“We’re happy to welcome GEICO to North Liberty’s
family of businesses,” said North Liberty Mayor
Terry Donahue in a statement. “More and more people
are realizing that North Liberty is a great place to
live and work, and this new facility will allow them
to attract an even larger pool of talent.”
- Katharine Carlon
18 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Six graduates offer
thoughts on what the class
of 2017 really wants
Coe College graduate McKenna Heisler sits in the co lege's Stewart Memorial Library on a recent morning. PHOTO ADAM MOORE
They’re taking that big walk across the stage to receive their co lege
diploma, but the biggest question of a l will be where they walk next.
Six graduating seniors took time out of their busy schedules
to answer the CBJ’s questions about what’s next, what will guide
opportunities for growth and development, and give back to their
communities. They want to be able to make a difference in their
Book Club
This week's Book
Club reviews
a new memoir/
advice guide from political veteran in a
demanding job.
PAGE 17
CBJ 5Q
Succession
planning
exemplified in
father-son CEO
transition.
PAGE 4
There's certainly some common ground among these bright
young professionals. They are looking for employers that offer
transitioning to
private practice.
Of course, not everyone’s on the same path. Some are headed
home, while others are looking for that one big opportunity. We
hope you’ll find some insights – and maybe your next star employee
– as you read thi special roundup. > PAGE 10
PAGE 22

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The 43-year-old company makes plans
for a new $13 million, LEED-certified
headquarters off I-380.
EXPANSIONS
Lil’ Drug Store building on success
Corridor
distributor
capitalizing on
growth trends in
C-store sector
Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Lil’ Drug Store Products may
be hitting middle age, but the
consumer products distributor
sees a lot of room to run
in a retail sector that remains
strong and growing.
The 43-year-old company
made a flurry of headlines
with plans for a new $13 million
LEED-certified headquarters,
and the launch of two
healthy snack food lines in the
convenience store channel.
President and CEO Chris
Chris DeWolf, president
and CEO of Lil' Drug Store
Products, shows one of
the newer additions in the
company's Cedar Rapids
distribution facility: Popchips
brand potato and corn snacks.
PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE
DeWolf says it’s all about growth – both in Lil’ Drug Store,
and in the channel it supplies.
The company distributes to more than 125,000 convenience
stores, and sold more than 145 million items last year – 10 times
more than in 2000. It has become the largest convenience store
distributor of over-the-counter drugs and personal care products
in the U.S., and is a big supplier of automotive products,
sensible snacks and other merchandise.
“There are a lot of examples of our products being more
than convenience and impulse purchases,” Mr. DeWolf said.
The company’s expansion meshes well with a trend in the
convenience store industry of becoming more of a destination,
rather than simply a place to pick up a few items when stopping
for gas, he added. Many new convenience stores are larger and
carry many basic household items needed for daily living.
Last year’s sales data suggests one possible reason for the trend.
Sales industry-wide declined 4.3 percent, to about $550 billion,
according to the National Association of Convenience Stores. But
that decline was entirely due to lower gas prices, which brought
fuel sales down 9.2 percent. If sales of items inside the store, such
as those Lil’ Drug Store Products supplies, had not increased by
3.2 percent, the decline would have been even larger.
Consumer product companies often seek out Lil’ Drug Store
to get their products into the convenience store channel, Mr.
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
6.5.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 5 - 11, 2017
The Branstad effect
Lil' Drug Store
CBJ 5Q
Betsy McCloskey,
Principal with Plaid Swan
Inc., talks about why
she opened an
office in Cedar
Rapids.
PAGE 17
DeWolf said. It can be a hard
channel to open, he noted, because
shelf space is tight and the
industry still has many competitors
with 10 stores or less.
“We really consider ourselves
an access point for products
and trends that want to be
in the convenience store channel,”
Mr. DeWolf said.
A good example of that came
this spring with an exclusive
convenience store marketing
agreement between Lil’ Drug
Store and two manufacturers
of healthier snack foods. While
mainstream grocery and convenience
stores both get a comparable
percentage of their revenue
from meat snacks like beef
jerky, sales of healthy snacks in
convenience stores didn’t come
close to the percentage in mainstream
groceries.
Lil’ Drug Stores added the
Sensible Foods Crunch Dried Fruit line and the Popchips line of
healthy grain snacks on the expectation that convenience stores
will benefit from the growing popularity of those categories.
Mr. DeWolf said he also expects to see growth in services
at convenience stores. Lil’ Drug Store has acquired a 20 percent
stake in a Minnesota company that supplies tire filling and
auto vacuum equipment with the expectation that it can grow
its convenience market presence.
With its decades of experience in studying the convenience
store market, Lil’ Drug Store has also built a consulting and
analytics business. More than 45,000 convenience stores use
the company’s services to help determine the optimal mix of
product and pricing for profitability.
Lil’ Drug Store is owned by husband-and-wife Chris and
Suzy DeWolf, who acquired it from Ms. DeWolf’s parents, Dennis
and Donna Oldorf, in 2005. The company operates with
a lean local staff of about 50 at 1201 Continental Place NE, a
100,000-square-foot location it has leased since the mid-1990s.
Mr. DeWolf said the company had became serious about
building at a new location about one year ago, both to position
the company for growth and offer a more attractive workplace
for employees. With input from its department heads, it
worked with developer-builder Hunter Companies and Aspect
Architecture to come up with a facility to suit its needs.
The main location choices were along I-380 at the north
and south ends of the Cedar Rapids metro area. Mr. DeWolf
said the southern location is close to the FedEx air freight
hub at Eastern Iowa Airport, provides easy in and out access
for truckload carriers, and will be convenient for visiting
customers. CBJ
UPDATE
Lil’ Drug finds
growth in
private label
Growth remained strong for Lil’
Drug Store as work on its new headquarters
along I-380 in Cedar Rapids
progressed throughout 2017.
“It has been a sweet year for Lil’
Drug Store,” said Director of Marketing
Doug Marquardt.
Driving Lil’ Drug Store’s results
were growth in the company’s private-label
brand, its category management
business for convenience
store chains, and overall improvement
in its core health and beauty
care business, Mr. Marquardt said.
One trend that has been driving
sales is a growing consumer
preference for private-label products,
which typically sell for much
less than national brands. A line of
private-label Lil’ Drug Store health
and beauty products offers lower
prices than the brand names and
has been a success for Lil’ Drug
Store and its retailer clients.
The percentage of convenience
store sales coming from private label
products has doubled from 3 to 6
percent from 2014 to 2017.
Lil’ Drug Store acquired rights to
bring new products to market under
the No-Doz brand this year. No-
Doz is the leading over-the-counter
product for mental alertness, Mr.
Marquardt said. The products are in
Walmarts, Walgreens and grocery
stores, and Lil’ Drug Store Products
planned to bring them to market in
the convenience store channel in
November.
The foundation of the new $13
million headquarters was complete
and the structure was going up in
November.
“The project is on track and we’re
one year from the projected movein,”
said Lil’ Drug Store President
and CEO Chris DeWolf.
- Dave DeWitte
PAGE 3
20 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Folience's
new CEO
Daniel Goldstein
discusses The
Gazette Co.'s
rebranding.
PAGE 4
Prospects for improved trade
with China rise with
ambassador appointment
China's then-Vice President Xi Jinping is welcomed on stage by Gov. Terry Branstad on Feb. 15, 2012, a the
Mr. Branstad toasted Mr. Xi and the long-lasting friendship between Iowa a
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Companies are leveraging mobile devices and apps in
increasingly creative ways to keep customers engaged by
pushing out information about new products or services,
making shopping easier and tempting them with deals.
less and use the internet for more purchases.
Leadership trio at Central State Bank
brings an entrepreneurial approach to the
Corridor’s banking scene.
By Adam Moore
adam@corridorbusiness.com
Guaranty Bank & Trust, one of the Corridor’s
oldest banking brands, is joining
one of its newest as part of a $44.2
million deal announced June 9.
QCR Holdings, the Moline-based
parent company of Cedar Rapids Bank
& Trust (CRBT), has agreed to purchase
all of Guaranty Bankshares’ stock and
assets, and will merge Guaranty Bank
into CRBT’s operations once the transaction
closes later this year.
No decisions have yet been made on
the banks’ offices or staffing, leaders
said. Guaranty has five offices, including
its headquarters at Third Street and
Third Avenue; CRBT counts two offices
in Cedar Rapids. Its headquarters is located
at 500 First Ave. NE, three blocks
away from Guaranty’s main office.
The sale brings an end to the 83-yearold
Guaranty brand, but leaders framed
the deal as an opportunity to build
scale and expand their footprint with a
like-minded partner.
“Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust has a local
board, their leadership is very local.
They make the decisions here as far as
what loans to make and what community
activities to be involved in,” said
Chris Lindell, president and CEO of
Guaranty Bank. “Being a local, community
bank and being involved – we want
that to continue on.”
Larry Helling, president and CEO of
CRBT, recalled that he met the bank’s
then-owner, Harold Becker, and his
son, Robert, around 25 years ago in
Omaha at a bar mitzvah for Harold’s
grandson. The leaders maintained that
relationship over the years, opening the
door to talks after Harold’s death last
May and Robert’s move to chairman of
the board.
“That’s the way a lot of business
deals come together – you build a relationship,”
Mr. Helling said. “I knew
M&A
CRBT acquires Guaranty Bank
in $44M deal
Merger forms second-largest bank in CR market
Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust's headquarters at 500 First Ave. NE in Cedar Rapids shown in
an undated photo. PHOTO POINT BUILDERS
[the Becker family] on a different level,
and because of that, it was a natural
fit for us.”
The acquisition will make CRBT the
largest community bank chartered in
Linn County, with the banks reporting
combined assets of almost $1.2 billion
as of March 31. It will also make CRBT
the second-largest in deposit share in
the county, behind U.S. Bank, with the
banks reporting $946 million in deposits
that same month.
That increased size will help CRBT
compete in an industry where “scale
matters,” Mr. Helling said, allowing it
to offer more services and cope with
the nation’s current period of “long,
low, protracted” interest rates. It will
also give the bank more resources to
deal with the complex regulatory environment
and develop more technologies
for customers, who are demanding
them from banks of all sizes.
“As a community
bank, at our size, it’s really
hard. Today, we’re
fine, but in 10 years
from now?” Mr. Lindell
said. “This gets it to the
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
6.19.17
right scale, where it needs to be.”
CRBT’s acquisition will also allow it
to better serve “the entire marketplace”
through an expanded branch network,
Mr. Helling said. The deal will double
the size of CRBT’s retail business, while
also bringing a book of “meaningful
commercial business” to its folio.
The acquisition is the latest for QCR
Holdings, which owns Quad Cities
Bank & Trust, and last May purchased
Community State Bank, based in Ankeny.
That bank was bought from Van
Dienst Investment Co. for $80 million.
Guaranty Bank & Trust was organized
and founded in 1934 by Van
Vechten Shaffer. Robert Becker’s grandfather,
Orrie Becker, was a founding
shareholder, and Harold Becker purchased
control of the bank from Mr.
Shaffer in 1969. CBJ
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 19 - 25, 2017
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Swipe for speed
& savings
Bankers Trust hits 100
As the state's largest community bank
marks its centennial year this month, it’s
celebrating more than just longevity.
Guaranty to CRBT
PAGE 3
UPDATE
CRBT makes
it official
It’s been a few months of change for
customers of Cedar Rapids-based
Guaranty Bank.
Customers received letters explaining
the merger and switchover
to Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT)
in November, said President and
CEO Larry Helling, and the banks’
data processing systems were officially
merged on Dec. 4. CRBT signage
also went up on former Guaranty
branches in early December.
Mr. Helling said he expected the
transition to have a minimal impact
on client service. While two former
Guaranty locations were closed in
the merger – the bank’s headquarters
at the corner of Third Street and
Third Avenue in downtown Cedar
Rapids and a branch location on
42nd Street NE – those employees
were moved to nearby branches,
ensuring that customers will continue
to see “the same faces,” Mr.
Helling said. No other significant
staff changes are expected.
The next decision to be made
will center around the former Guaranty
headquarters building, which
is situated on a prime corner downtown.
Mr. Helling said the bank
is working with the city of Cedar
Rapids to “identify appropriate developers
who will hopefully turn
that into something very nice for
the city,” but added “it won’t be us,
we’re not developers.”
CRBT surpassed the $1 billion
asset mark in September, making it
the second largest bank in the Cedar
Rapids market and the largest
community bank headquartered in
Linn County. The bank’s newfound
scale will allow it to offer additional
account products and make larger
loans, Mr. Helling said, adding “as
clients grow, we’ll be able to grow
with them.”
- Adam Moore
Retailers turning to mobile apps
Guaranty Bank ends its 83-yea run
fo lowing its $44 mi lion sale to Cedar
to lure and keep customers
Rapids Bank & Trust.
PAGE 4
22 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Ed. note: This is the last part in the CBJ’s series on the Future of
Retail. Find our past installments at h tp://bit.ly/CBJFutureofRetail.
The smartphone is increasingly the tie that binds consumers
to their favorite retailers.
Startup banking
It’s a strategy driven by necessity, as consumers get out
PAGE 8
“Three years ago, we started to invest in all things mobile,”
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said during the
company’s Investor Day presenta
CBJ 5Q

A Stronger, Combined
Community Bank.
Visit www.crbt.com for our new locations and teams
Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender

Who's the Best of the
Corridor? Grab the n
How Our Obsessions Are
Changing What We Buy
MID-YEAR ECONOMIC REVIEW
Corridor’s biggest business
stories of 2017 (so far)
A SEASON for mergers
Rockwell primed the Corridor’s recent M&A storm
by completing its $8.3 billion acquisition of North
Carolina-based B/E Aerospace on April 13. Then
in June, in rapid fire, John Deere announced its
$5.2 billion purchase of global road construction
equipment maker Wirtgen Group, Cedar Rapids
Bank & Trust bought Guaranty Bank for $44 million,
and publicly-traded tech company Trimble
acquired Innovative Software Engineering (ISE)
for an undisclosed amount.
Headquarters rising
Hawkeye Hotels last week officially opened the
doors on its new headquarters in Coralville,
while both Crystal Group in Hiawatha and Lil’
Drug Store Products in Cedar Rapids recently announced
big-dollar headquarter expansions and
construction. The new Watts Group headquarters
on Coralville’s Oakdale Boulevard also opened in
April.
Talent in development
A key regional leadership position was filled in
May when the Cedar Rapids
Metro Economic Alliance
and ICAD Group
announced Jennifer
Daly will be the first
CEO of their new
workforce and economic
development
joint venture. She will
arrive this month from
her post as CEO of the
Greater Peoria Economic
Development Council in
Kim Casko
Peoria, Illinois. Simultaneously,
the Alliance announced that interim CEO
Doug Neumann will serve as the organization’s
executive director. Kim Casko, president and CEO
of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce,
meanwhile, settled into her role after arriving in
September 2016 from ACT.
Compiled by Dave DeWitte and Adam Moore
news@corridorbusiness.com
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
7.3.17
C-suite changes
CRST and Bankers Trust
both announced big
C-suite changes earlier
this year, with Group
President and COO
Hugh Eckberg slated
to take over for CEO
Dave Rusch at CRST,
and Des Moines President
Don Coffin to
follow CEO Suku Radia
at Bankers Trust Company.
Iowa City’s MetaCommunications
named former Nautilus
chief executive Gregg Hammann president
and CEO in April, closing a period of uncertainty
following Bob Long’s departure last October.
Startup scene
The Cedar Rapids startup Acre Broadband
launched fundraising this spring for the first phase
of a large project to create a statewide wireless mesh
network to offer rural residents high-speed Internet,
as well as voice and navigation services. At the
Iowa Startup Accelerator in Cedar Rapids, the first
two startup teams were announced in March under
a longer, but less intense, one-year program format
that will help participants who want to maintain
their student or employment status while completing
the program. And in Iowa City, the new
MERGE space opened at 136 S. Dubuque St. to
offer entrepreneurs and startups resources, space
and a network to help them launch successfully in
June with support from ICAD Group and the UI’s
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and Office
of Research and Economic Development.
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JULY 3 - 9, 2017
Mid-Year 2017
Reviewing the first six months
and looking ahead
Despite all of this year’s
political drama, in many
ways the story remains the
same for business:
Labor remains tight, taxes
and health care are status
quo, and growth comes at a
premium. But there are also
reasons to be optimistic,
as consumers continue
to spend, energy prices
stay low and deregulation
Gregg Hammann
CBJ 5Q
Robin Therme, president of CIVCO,
discusses the changes in the medical
device market.
PAGE 22
RSM economist
Keynote speaker Joseph Brusuelas, chief
economist of RSM US LLP, kicked o f the
CBJ Mid-Year Economic Review.
PAGE 3
Big stories
Five of the Corridor's
biggest business
stories of 2017 (so far).
PAGE 6
CBJ Book Club
UPDATE
Mergers, leadership
changes continue
Two of the Corridor’s biggest story threads at the midpoint
of the year continued to develop through the fall.
The CBJ reported on no less than 16 corporate deals between
July and November, including United Fire Group’s
sale of its United Life division for (see page 32) and United
Technologies’ $30 billion bid for Rockwell Collins (page
30). Other notable acquisitions included Heartland Express’
$113 million deal to purchase Interstate Distributors
Co. in July; food giant Cargill’s deal to buy Cedar
Rapids-based Diamond V; and Motion Industries’ deal to
acquire Cedar Rapids-based Apache Inc.
When it comes to leadership changes, MetaCommunications
set the pace this summer, hiring Patrick Tierney
as chief financial officer, Vanessa McDonald as chief development
officer and promoting Ali Ahmad to chief operating
officer.
Urbana-based e-commerce company Clickstop
launched a shared-services model in August that included
the creation of a new leadership team. Members included
Tom Altman, chief technology officer; Tammy Karr,
president of the Clickstop Accelerator team; Todd Kuennen,
chief intelligence officer and executive vice president;
Monica Steffeck, chief talent enrichment officer; Chad
Brandmeyer, chief financial officer; and Phil Akin, chief
marketing officer. August also saw the promotion of Tad
Cooper to president and chief operating officer of Acterra
Group, a full-service energy services and development
firm based in Marion.
In September, Aaron Horn was named the new chief
operating officer of NewBoCo, the Cedar Rapids-based
innovation and entrepreneurial hub, while Dennis Murdock,
executive vice president and CEO with Central Iowa
Power Cooperative (CIPCO), retired after nearly three decades
in his role.
In October, the University of Iowa named J. Brooks
Jackson to lead UI Health Care, which includes the Roy J.
and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, the UI Hospitals
and Clinics and UI Physicians. Dr. Jackson comes from the
University of Minnesota, where he served as the vice president
for health sciences and dean of the medical school.
In November, Kimberly Maes was named to lead CRST
Logistics Inc., one of CRST International’s eight operating
companies, after most recently serving as president of
Swift Logistics LLC.
Local leaders moving on or retiring include Lee Belfield,
the general manager of The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Iowa’s
only teaching hotel, and Syniverse President and CEO
Steve Gray, who announced that he will retire from the Orlando-based
telecommunications tech company in February
2018. Mr. Gray, of Cedar Rapids, has invested in and led
a series of successful startups in the Corridor through his
venture firm, Gray Venture Partners.
- Adam Moore
accelerates.
Review of "Superfandom:
INSIDE: Analysis and expert
and Who We Are."
24 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
opinion on the challenges
and opportunities ahead.
CBJ NEWS QUIZ
PAGE 21
Test your comprehension with the
CBJ News Quiz, compiled from stories
appearing over the last month. How
we l have you been fo lowing the news?
PAGE 23
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news@corridorbusiness.com
IOWA CITY—Grubhub, the mobile food
ordering and delivery giant, has been gobbling
up the competition in recent months,
leaving some restaurateurs wondering
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
The decision, announced last week, to
phase out the full-time MBA program
that the University of Iowa’s Tippie
College of business had offered for 56
years made big headlines, and it wasn’t
an easy one, Tippie Dean Sarah Fisher
Gardial said.
Nevertheless, the day after the Aug.
22 announcement, Ms. Gardial’s inbox
received a stream of emails from other
deans and academic professionals,
many of them praising the UI for making
a tough but smart move.
Academic leaders have seen full-time
MBA enrollment slipping for years, Ms.
Gardial said, but have been reluctant
to drop the programs because they are
highly visible in national rankings of
business schools by publications such
as U.S. News & World Report and the
Princeton Review.
“We have finally decided the trends
are undeniable, and rather than continue
to put resources into a program
that’s in decline, we need to prepare for
the future,” Ms. Gardial said.
The UI’s full-time MBA program enrollment
has fallen from 140 in 2010
to 100 in 2017, and makes up only
one-eleventh of this year’s record MBA
enrollment of 1,101. The remaining
students are in evening and weekend
programs like the growing Professional
MBA and Executive MBA, which are designed
to enable students to complete
their studies while they continue working
full-time.
“The market’s not demanding less
MBAs, especially for people who want
to ascend to the top ranks of leadership,”
Ms. Gardial noted. “What has
changed is the demand on the part of
students and the workplace.”
EDUCATION
MBA phaseout
a tough call for UI
Those pursuing MBAs are increasingly
taking evening and weekend programs
because they don’t want to put their careers
on pause or run up as much college
debt, said Ms. Gardial,
who arrived at the UI five
years ago. The UI and other
universities have also seen a
weakening in full-time MBA
applications from international
students – a trend
some attribute to the Trump
administration’s tougher
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
8.28.17
stance on immigration.
“You could call it the
Trump effect or the Brexit
effect,” Ms. Gardial said,
noting that she first experienced
it during a visit to England
after its vote to leave
the European Union. Soon
after the vote, she said it became clear
to business colleges in England that foreign
interest in attendance was waning,
apparently due to concerns about how
welcoming the country would be to foreign
nationals.
Ms. Gardial said the constraints of
state education funding in Iowa – a decades-long
trend that has led to sizable
tuition hikes – were one of the factors
in the decision, but noted that discontinuation
of the program had been
discussed even before her arrival, and
long before current university funding
shortfalls. If it appeared that the fulltime
MBA program was worth saving,
she said she was willing to go the fundraising
route to help sustain it.
The UI will instead redeploy faculty
and staff associated with the full-time
program to its Professional MBA and
Executive MBA programs,
and to specialized offerings
like a new master’s
degree in finance that will
be launched in the fall of
2018. No faculty or staff
layoffs will result, Ms. Gardial
said.
The UI offers MBA courses
not only on campus, but
in Davenport, Cedar Rapids
and Des Moines. It also
Sarah Fisher offers international MBA
Gardial programs in Hong Kong
UI Tippie Dean and Italy.
If the Iowa Board of Regents
concurs after a presentation
on the decision scheduled for
Sept. 6, the UI’s last full-time MBA students
will graduate in May 2019.
If the Tippie College of Business’
reputation does suffer from the move,
it may be because it will no longer
appear in some rankings of MBA programs.
Ms. Gardial said the UI’s MBA
programs have typically scored best in
measures of value to students, which
compare the gain in salaries before and
after graduation.
Still, she said most publications now
rank business colleges on a variety of
degree programs, not just full-time
MBAs, ensuring the UI won’t be overlooked.
CBJ
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I AUG. 28 - SEPT. 3, 2017
Eating the competition
Cargofy hits the road
Iowa Startup Accelerator participants Stakh
and Natal ia Vozniak look to launch their
promising logistics app in the U.S. market.
PAGE 3
MBA
phaseout
Announced last
week, to phase out
the full-time MBA
program tha the
University of Iowa’s
Tippie Co lege of
business.
PAGE 6
UPDATE
Tippie leads
the way
The decision by UI’s Tippie College
of Business to end its full-time MBA
program turned out to be in the vanguard
of a trend that in October saw
King’s College in London become
the first leading British university
to open a business school not offering
the degree and the University of
Wisconsin’s briefly consider closing
its own full-time program.
UW leaders reversed their proposal
to temporarily stop admissions
into the program for a review
less than a week after it became
public, following complaints from
students and alumni, according to
a news report.
The question facing business
schools is, “do we stay in a shrinking
market with ever-decreasing
payouts, or do we move out to areas
that represent growth?” Tippie
Dean Sarah Fisher Gardial asked in
a conference call with reporters earlier
this year.
Students, and schools like Iowa,
Wake Forest University, Virginia
Tech and Simmons College, are increasingly
answering that question
“no.” According to a report by the
General Management Admissions
Council (GMAC), only 40 percent
of full-time, two-year MBA programs
in the U.S. reported receiving
an increase in applications in 2016;
48 percent reported a decline. And
an October Fortune Magazine article,
“What’s Killing U.S. Business
Schools?” argues that trend is likely
to continue
Tippie, which moved up two
spots in the U.S. News and World
Report ranking of business schools
to No. 31 this fall, has shifted its
focus to specialized master’s programs,
like its new master of science
in business analytics, and plans to
increase investment in its MBA programs
for working professionals,
according to a recent press release.
- Katharine Carlon
26 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Grubhub’s purchase of OrderUp leaving
some IC businesses with a bad taste
By Steve Gravelle
Running the Roost
The Tin Roost opened this month on one of
North Liberty’s busiest roads, and promises
to have enough room for the whole gang.
PAGE 5
where they fit in the company’s strategy.
On Aug. 1, Chicago-based Grubhub
served by Groupon subsidiary OrderUp,
which arrived in Iowa City in the summer
of 2015. Three days later, Grubhub bought
Eat24, Yelp’s food-delivery service.
When Grubhub announced the OrderUp
acquisition, a company spokeswoman
said OrderUp’s brand would be phased
out. The company's Iowa City webpage is
rants in Iowa City under the Grubhub brand
and are working with Groupon to transition
a l of the restaurants over to our ecosystem
in the coming months,” Grubhub spokeswoman
Katie Norris wrote in an email. “OrderUp
diners will also join the Grubhub
platform and be able to order from new and
Taste of Iowa City
completed a deal to acquire all 27 markets
still active, although that will change.
“We intend
existing Grubhub restaurants.”
From its humble beginnings a deca

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CBJ
of business at Mount
Mercy University,
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
The retirement of the baby boom generation
is playing out in various ways
in the Corridor, but none more visible
than the current surge in senior living
developments.
More than a half-dozen senior living
projects totaling more than $55 million
in investment have been completed in
the past year, and nearly a dozen more
are in progress. When those additional
projects are completed over the next two
years, the total investment will approach
a quarter of a billion dollars.
The projects will bring at least 1,359
new living units onto the market by the
CBJ’s count, producing ripple effects in
everything from demand for workers
and development services to municipal
property taxes.
As one project after another unfolded
in 2016, it began to seem like overbuilding
was imminent. But experts say that
virtually every project has been based
on careful market analysis, and that even
more development could be coming.
“This is historic in nature – there’s
never been anything close to this,” said
Scott Olson of Skogman Commercial,
who has served as a real estate advisor
to about half of the new senior living
projects under development in the Cedar
Rapids metro.
The reasons include a demographic
shift with the retirement of the huge
baby boom generation (see page 4), and
the strong financial returns being generated
by senior living facilities built in
recent years.
Iowa’s senior population is forecast
to grow by 26 percent, or 218,000
people, from 2010-2020, according to
a 2012 study conducted for the Iowa
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
9.4.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 4 - 10, 2017
Senior Lifestyles
A golden
opportunity
Inside the Corridor’s senior housing boom
Senior Lifestyles
A golden opportunity
Inside the Corridor’s senior housing boom
28 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Seniors leave The Gardens, a new senior living facility at 5710 Dean Road SW, Cedar Rapids,
after touring the facility during an Aug. 10 grand opening event. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE
Finance Authority. Seniors between the
ages of 65-75 are forecast to comprise 88
percent of that growth.
The report projects 27,000 additional
housing units will be needed over that
time period, with demand in the East
Central region – encompassing much of
the Corridor – expected to average 410
units annually.
The boom in senior housing is happening
in all parts of the country. In
the second quarter of 2017, 6,600 new
senior housing units hit the market, according
to the NIC MAP Data Service,
the largest number since it began tracking
the market in 2006.
Development projects include both
profit and nonprofit ventures; many involve
partnerships between senior living
operators and real estate developers. They
are backed by senior living chains, local
investors and seasoned real estate investors,
and sometimes receive gap financing
assistance from local governments
and federal loan guarantees.
Projects include
a broad range of
facility types, from
New ISA teams
Startups focused on easing some of life's
less-enjoyable decisions are joining the
Iowa Startup Accelerator.
PAGE 12
NewBoCo
hires COO
Aaron Horn to step
into newly created
role as NewBoCo
gears up for next
stage of growth.
PAGE 8
CBJ 5Q
Nathan Klein,
associate professor
affordable senior living apartments to independent
living, assisted living, skilled
care, and continuum of care communities.
One of the most telling signs regarding
the momentum in the Corridor’s
senior housing market is that some of
the area’s oldest and most established
communities are still expanding. The
Oaknoll Retirement Community, one of
the largest in the Corridor, completed its
70-unit Spring Street Addition in 2015.
In Cedar Rapids, Meth-Wick Community,
one of the state’s oldest and largest
senior communities, will complete the
addition of 18 large independent living
units this fall.
“This is a little unique for the whole
Corridor,” Meth-Wick CEO Robin Mixdorf
said. “There’s been a real uptick in
new construction, which leads you to
believe that these developers have identified
a demand for senior housing. This
is probably the largest uptick I’ve seen in
my [18-year] time at Meth-Wick.”
Developers like Ewing Development
of Pella are scouting sites, and city planners
in several Corridor communities said
they’ve fielded inquiries from others.
SENIOR PAGE 46
UPDATE
The boom
continues
The largest senior housing buildout
in the history of the Corridor
rolled on as 2017 came to a close,
with an assortment of large projects
under way, one starting and
one more reaching completion.
Meth-Wick Community announced
in October it had completed
construction of Oakwood,
its newest condominium offering
in the 68-acre Cedar Rapids
senior living community.
The three-story building has six
condominiums on each floor,
ranging in size from 1,116-1,822
square feet.
The high-end condominiums
offer as much space as many
single-family homes and afford
a higher degree of privacy than
most senior living alternatives,
Meth-Wick President Robin Mixdorf
said, but also offer access to
on-campus dining, programs and
services.
A groundbreaking was held
Nov. 17 for Stoney Point Meadows,
a 95-unit, $19 million assisted
living and memory care facility
at 16th Avenue and Stoney
Point Road SW in Cedar Rapids
developed by Bob Samples with
a large group of local investors.
Construction on the facility,
which will include a mix of 67 assisted
living and 28 memory care
units, is expected to be complete
in November 2018.
Major continuing care communities
under development
through the winter months will
include Grand Living at Bridgewater
in Coralville, Grand Living
at Indian Creek in Cedar Rapids,
and two projects in Marion: Terrace
Glen Village and The Views
Senior Living of Marion.
- Dave DeWitte
talks leadership and
world travel.
PAGE 26

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attention of the media and analysts.
than it was worth
United Technologies (UTC)
agreed to pay $30 billion for
Rockwell Collins, the global avionics
manufacturer based in Cedar Rapids,
earning it the title of the largest aerospace acquisition
in history by the Wall Street Journal.
The offer of $140 per share for Rockwell was an 18 percent premium
over the company’s trading price before news of the deal broke in
Dana Larson, executive director of
communications and marketing a the
University of Iowa Foundation, talks about
the power of giving back.
A new kind of competition in Iowa City
is aiming to explore the intersection of
technology and fashion.
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
United Technologies (UTC) agreed to
pay $30 billion for Rockwell Collins,
the global avionics manufacturer based
in Cedar Rapids, earning it the title of
the largest aerospace acquisition
in history by the Wall
Street Journal.
The offer of $140 per
share for Rockwell was an
18 percent premium over
the company’s trading price
before news of the deal
broke in August, and drew
criticism from some analysts
that UTC was overpaying.
The Connecticut-based
conglomerate expects to
borrow about $15 billion of
the purchase price, possibly paying off
the debt by selling off other business
units, and earned some minor credit
rating downgrades as a result.
For Rockwell shareholders – most
of them large institutional investors – it
felt more like Christmas. They would
be able to sell their stock for 67.7 percent
more than it was worth on Oct.
24, 2016, right after Rockwell Collins
announced its own $8.6 billion acquisition
of B/E Aerospace.
UTC CEO and Chairman Greg Hayes
said the strategic benefits Rockwell Collins
could bring made the price worth it.
“When you’re buying beachfront
property, I think it’s a pretty good deal,”
Mr. Hayes said on CNBC’s “Squawk on
the Street.”
Another number may be more important
to Rockwell Collins employees
and shareholders in the Corridor,
however: $500 million. That’s UTC’s
estimate of the cost synergies expected
to result from the merger in the fourth
year after it is finalized, and Rockwell
M&A
The $500M question in
UTC’s Rockwell deal
As Wall Street digested the deal announced Sept. 4 for United
Technologies Corp. to buy Rockwell Collins, one number in particular
grabbed the attention of the media and analysts.
Kelly Ortberg
Collins is reorganized into a new Collins
Aerospace Systems business unit, to
be run by Rockwell Chairman and CEO
Kelly Ortberg.
Cost synergies are the gravy that Wall
Street analysts savor from big mergers,
and can come from things like combining
headquarters, closing
or selling excess factory
space and trimming sales
forces. But a number of academic
studies find that big
mergers usually fail to deliver
the benefits promised to
shareholders through higher
earnings and stock price performance.
“The question is, are the
synergies great enough to
justify the price being paid?”
said Amrita Nain, a University
of Iowa associate professor of finance
who has reviewed the literature and published
some of her own studies on the
outcomes of acquisitions and mergers.
Ms. Nain said acquisition synergies
include both cost synergies and revenue
synergies. She described the latter as “2
+ 2 = 5” enhancements that can come
from things like cross-selling products,
or innovations that combine the advantages
of products from both companies.
Those synergies tend to be more difficult
to quantify and achieve, Ms. Nain
said. In fact, UTC did not try to quantify
them in announcing the merger.
In such large company mergers, Ms.
Nain said most do not produce the
big shareholder advantages promised.
Roughly 20 percent are significantly
harmful to shareholder value, and
about 60 percent result
in no significant
change, despite the
oft-promised improvements.
When they fail
to boost shareholder
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
9.11.17
value as promised, she said, it’s usually
because the synergies they expected
weren’t realized.
A synergy shortfall could affect
Rockwell Collins shareholders because
one-third of their payment for the deal
will be in UTC stock, Ms. Nain said. It
could become an issue for employees
if the synergies in expected areas don’t
materialize, forcing UTC to look for
other ways to reduce costs.
In a conference call with analysts on
Sept. 5, Mr. Hayes expressed confidence
UTC can achieve its synergy target
through a reduction in public company
and SG&A (selling, general and administrative)
costs, greater efficiencies in
procurement and increased productivity
in factories.
The acquisition “is not about closing
a lot of factories,” Mr. Hayes said during
the CNBC interview – a theme reflected
in a statement that came directly from
Rockwell Collins.
“United Technologies’ announced
acquisition of Rockwell Collins is expected
to have minimal impact on the
company’s overall presence in Iowa,”
read the statement, released through
spokesman Josh Baynes. “The majority
of jobs in the state are driven by design,
engineering and manufacturing of
our products and systems, and there is
virtually no overlap between our work
done in Iowa and UTC’s portfolios.”
The overlap is “only a couple hundred
million dollars” of product sales,
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 11 - 17, 2017
The $500 million question in
UTC’s Rockwell Collins deal
By Dave DeWitte | dave@corridorbusiness.com
As Wall Street digested the deal announced Sept.
4 for United Technologies Corp. to buy Rockwell
Collins, one number in particular grabbed the
ROCKWELL PAGE 43
Cutting costs
Former Marine Capt. Aaron Serrano
discusses the growth of Military Cost
Cu ters and its recent move.
CBJ 5Q
PAGE 3
UPDATE
Uncertain
future ahead
United Technologies Corp. (UTC)
remains on track to close its acquisition
of Rockwell Collins in the third
quarter of fiscal 2018, with plans to
create a new Collins Aerospace Systems
business folding in its Aerospace
Systems businesses, including
components suppliers Goodrich
and Hamilton Sundstrand.
The next hurdle is a vote by Rockwell’s
shareholders, expected in February.
At least five lawsuits seeking
class-action status have been filed
against the merger in U.S. district
court – a common occurrence in
most corporate transactions – although
share-price moves since the
deal’s announcement suggest that a
majority of shareholders expect the
deal to pass as planned. No vote is
required of UTC’s shareholders.
The bigger challenge could be securing
regulatory approvals in timely
matter. UTC and Rockwell will need
17 different approvals from global
regulators, including China and the
European Union, and some analysts
have suggested that the company’s
final size – at an estimated $68 billion
in annual sales – could make
it a target for regulators concerned
about the accelerating pace of consolidation
in the aerospace industry.
While corporate leaders have emphasized
the fact that there will be little
product overlap between Rockwell
and UTC, EU regulators are expected
to raise concerns over the combined
company’s overall size and its ability
to apply leverage on suppliers. That
argument was used to scuttle GE’s
proposed purchase of Honeywell in
2001, Reuters reported.
“If there is an issue, we expect
it would be in Europe and/or China,
because scope, rather than just
scale, matters,” Sanford C. Bernstein
& Co. analyst Doug Harned told the
Journal.
- Adam Moore
PAGE 22
30 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
Fashion Lab
August, and drew criticism from some analysts that UTC was overpaying.
The Connecticut-based conglomerate expects to borrow about $15 billion of
the purchase price, possibly paying off the debt by selling off other business units,
PAGE 9
and earned some minor credit rating downgrades as a result.
For Rockwell shareholders – most of them large institutional investors – it felt
more like Christmas. They would be able to sell thei

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By Dave DeWitte | dave@corridorbusiness.com
dealerships, and many others like it, they’re invaluable.
Recent public filings reveal what Rockwe l
Co lins leaders are being told abou the
$30 bi lion deal to sell their company.
INSURANCE
UFG sells United Life
for $280 million
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Spending $280 million to acquire the life insurance business
of Cedar Rapids-based United Fire Group is part of a Chicago
startup’s ambitious growth plans.
United Fire Group (UFG) and Kuvare US Holdings announced
on Sept. 19 that Kuvare will buy United Life Insurance
Company next year for $280 million. UFG,
which started the life insurance business in 1955,
will sharpen its focus on its core property and
casualty business, using the big capital infusion
for share repurchases, shareholder dividends and
potentially acquisitions.
Spurring Kuvare’s interest in the deal is a vast
opportunity to deliver more annuity and complex
life insurance products to retiring baby boomers
and other middle-market consumers, CEO Dhiren
Jhaveri told the CBJ after the announcement.
“What we like about United Life is that it enables
us to deliver solutions throughout our customer’s
life cycle,” Mr. Jhaveri said. “Particularly
when you’re younger and just starting a family,
you tend to look at protective products like the
fantastic life insurance products United Life offers. As you get
older, you look at more accumulation-oriented products, like
annuities and more sophisticated life insurance policies.”
Kuvare offers the latter kinds of products through Guaranty
Income Life Insurance Co. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
which it acquired six months ago.
As baby boomers stop earning a steady paycheck at retirement,
Kuvare sees opportunities to sell them annuities
that can provide a stream of predictable income from their
retirement savings. Beyond that, Kuvare sees opportunities
to sell them insurance products that will provide tax and
convenience benefits for transferring wealth.
The acquisition will bring “great cross-pollination from
a product standpoint,” Mr. Jhaveri said, along with distribution
synergies. United Life is sold exclusively through a
network of independent insurance agents and brokers, while
Guaranty Income Life is sold through community banks
and independent marketing agencies. Kuvare’s ownership
will allow both insurance companies’ sales channels to sell
all of its products.
Carlos Sierra, chief operating officer of Kuvare, will be
a key architect of the integration of Guaranty Income Life,
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
9.25.17
Randy Ramlo
President and CEO
of UFG
United Life and a third Kuvare company, Kuvare Life Re,
based in Bermuda. Although the United Life acquisition
isn’t expected to close until the first half of 2018, Mr. Sierra
said the work is already beginning on how best to tap the
synergies of the companies.
About 46 employees of United Life, most of them working
in Cedar Rapids, will be offered employment with Kuvare
with no change in positions or salaries. Kuvare will sign a
short-term lease agreement with UFG to enable
them to remain in Cedar Rapids for a time, after
which Mr. Jhaveri and Mr. Sierra said the company
is committed to keeping a Cedar Rapids metro
area presence.
The 46 employees represent a small percentage
of United Life’s 1,000-plus employees nationwide,
of which more than 600 are in Cedar Rapids.
Mr. Jhaveri said he’d been studying United Life
over the past two years, becoming an admirer of its
products and independent agent network. His interest
in acquiring United Life aligned with UFG’s
organizational plans, he said, and they worked
through their respective advisors to develop a deal.
The purchase works out to a roughly 20 percent
premium over United Life’s book value, and
will be paid in cash. The terms restrict UFG from reentering
the life insurance business or soliciting any of its United Life
employees for employment for two years after it is concluded,
according to an SEC filing.
UFG President and CEO Randy Ramlo said in a press release
that the deal “establishes a solid future for our life insurance
employees, insurance agents and customers, while
allowing us to continue to build on the success of our property
and casualty operations.” He said UFG plans to reinvest
in its property and casualty business and surety operations,
with initiatives such as a new technology platform to enhance
underwriting decisions and productivity.
The deal comes as UFG expands its downtown Cedar
Rapids campus, a project including the construction of a
new tower next to the American Building on First Avenue SE,
and copes with a wave of property insurance claims resulting
from hurricanes Harvey and Katrina.
Mr. Jhaveri said the growth strategy of Kumare calls for
both organic growth and more acquisitions that will add to its
scale, but the company has no plans at present to go public.
UFG shares rose on the deal, gaining nearly 3.5 percent before
giving up some of the gains over the next two days. CBJ
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 25 - OCT. 1, 2017
Calling all customers
Innovation EXPO
If there’s waning interest in startups,
you wouldn’t have guessed i touring the
seventh-annual event.
PAGE 3
UPDATE
On track for
a 2018 close
The $280 million acquisition of
United Life by Kuvare US Holdings
from United Fire Group (UFG) was
on pace to be completed in the
second quarter of 2018 as the year
came to a close.
“We’re working very closely with
the leaders and management team
on the transition plan that we will
complete over the next two years,”
CEO Dhiren Jhaveri said.
Kuvare had completed its regulatory
filings in connection with the
acquisition at the end of October,
Mr. Jhaveri said, and is awaiting
regulatory approvals that could run
into 2018.
No decisions were finalized regarding
a separate office location
for the employees of UFG in Cedar
Rapids that will join Kuvare.
Regardless of where the office is
located, Mr. Jhaveri reinforced that
“we expect to be a vibrant member
of this community” and maintain a
strong local presence.
Chicago-based Kuvare US Holding
continues to actively look at
possible transactions that could
add value and complement its existing
businesses, Mr. Jhaveri said.
UFG ended its third fiscal quarter
with a loss of $17.9 million, or
72 cents per share, but not due to
its life insurance business. UFG incurred
catastrophe losses of $30.7
million resulting primarily from
hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria,
and said it experienced continued
deterioration in its core loss
ratio due to the increased severity
of commercial auto losses. CEO
Randy Ramlo said UFG is taking
aggressive measures to bring those
losses under control.
- Dave DeWitte
32 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
They’ve become a predictable part of purchases – those
reminders via email, sales receipt or the voice of a friendly cashier
to fill out an online survey. They’re called Voice of the Customer
(VOC) surveys, and to the largest Corridor-based chain of auto
Ortberg on UTC
PAGE 5
UFG deal
A Chicago startup
is spending

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CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 33

Companies are leveraging mobile devices and apps in
increasingly creative ways to keep customers engaged by
pushing out information about new products or services,
making shopping easier and tempting them with deals.
less and use the internet for more purchases.
Leadership trio at Central State Bank
brings an entrepreneurial approach to the
Corridor’s banking scene.
EXPANSIONS
Cardella & Associates plans
largest expansion yet
UPDATE
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Cedar Rapids-based Thomas L. Cardella
& Associates (TLC) plans to add four new
call centers and expand an Iowa call center
in the next six months, marking the
largest expansion in history for one of the
Corridor’s fastest-growing companies.
Founder and President Tom Cardella
said the expansions will add 800 employees,
most of them in the southwest,
as the company increases capacity for
about six new clients.
TLC & Associates Founder Thomas Cardella, shown
earlier this year. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE
“All these locations are already sold
out,” Mr. Cardella said, adding that the
company has its eye on one other expansion
location in El Paso, Texas.
The expansions currently planned are:
• 75 additional employees and a
4,000-square-foot building expansion
at an existing call center in Keokuk. It
will open in November.
• A new contact center in eastern El
Paso, with 150 employees. The center
will complement an existing center in
central El Paso and open in December.
• A new contact center in Las Cruces,
New Mexico, with 350 additional
employees. It will open January 2018.
• A new call center in Marshalltown
with 75 employees. It will open February
2018.
• A new call center at
a soon-to-be-announced
location in the southwestern
United States with 150
employees. It will open in
March.
The company provides
a full range of customer
contact services, including
inbound calls, outbound
calls, chat, email, business
process outsourcing and
fulfillment. It employs
more than 1,500 at seven
existing call centers in
Iowa, Texas, Florida and
the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Cardella said the
company gained new contracts
partly by expanding
its sales team late last year
with some experienced
talent, and partly because
consolidation in the contact
center industry has
created opportunities to
meet the needs of dissatisfied
customers.
The call center TLC will be opening
in Las Cruces is in a former location of
a Sitel call center that went dark after its
operations were moved offshore to the
Philippines, Mr. Cardella said. TLC is already
receiving interest in jobs from former
Sitel employees, he said, and is refurbishing
the call center to its standards.
Although much of the company’s
past expansion has been in Iowa, Mr.
Cardella said TLC has been forced to
look elsewhere because the job market
in Iowa has been so strong that the supply
of personnel is now constrained.
“It’s killing us – the unemployment
rate has contracted so much,” Mr. Cardella
said. TLC has been pleased with
the supply of applicants and the work
ethic of workers hired in New Mexico
and Texas, he added.
While expanding its call center capacity,
Mr. Cardella said TLC will be
moving its Cedar Rapids headquarters
to 3735 Queen Court SW from 4515
20th Ave. SW in April 2018 due to considerations
related to a lease expiration.
An announcement of the southwestern
United States call center location
that has not been disclosed is expected
in the next two weeks, he noted.
TLC has been honored multiple times
in the CBJ’s annual Fastest Growing
Companies recognition program, and
was recognized this spring as the “fastest
of the fast,” with a 919 percent two-year
growth rate in 2010, during an event celebrating
the program’s first decade.
The company has been ranked as the
ninth-largest integrated contact center
operator in the United States, and Mr.
Cardella said this spring that TLC’s revenues
have grown sixfold since it won
its first Fastest Growing Companies
honor in 2010.
Beyond the possibility of more call
center announcements this year, Mr. Cardella
said TLC is on the lookout for other
call center companies to acquire. CBJ
Cardella’s
expansion
gets into gear
Thomas L. Cardella & Associates
held a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 27 for
its new call center in Ottumwa and
is making progress on its planned
expansion of four more.
“Everything’s going great,” said
President Tom Cardella, who attended
the ribbon-cutting with Gov.
Kim Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Adam
Gregg. The new facility will eventually
employ about 150 people.
At the time of this writing, TLC
was on track to open a new call
center every month for the next
four months. November brought
a new 75-employee TLC call center
in Keokuk, while December will
bring a 150-employee call center
in El Paso, Texas. A 350-employee
call center in Las Cruces, New
Mexico, is set to open in January
and a 75-employee call center in
Marshalltown in February.
However, plans for a fifth call
center at an undisclosed location in
March 2018 have not solidified. The
company has a site in mind, Mr.
Cardella said, but has not been able
to come to terms with the building
owner, so the focus may shift to a
different location.
The search for new locations has
been largely outside Iowa and primarily
in the southwest. Iowa’s unemployment
remained at a low 3
percent in September, creating a challenging
hiring environment, he said.
- Dave DeWitte
ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED
10.2.17
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 19 - 25, 2017
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Swipe for speed
& savings
Retailers turning to mobile apps
Bankers Trust hits 100
As the state's largest community bank
marks its centennial year this month, it’s
celebrating more than just longevity.
PAGE 3
Guaranty to CRBT
Guaranty Bank ends its 83-yea run
fo lowing its $44 mi lion sale to Cedar
to lure and keep customers
Rapids Bank & Trust.
PAGE 4
34 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
Ed. note: This is the last part in the CBJ’s series on the Future of
Retail. Find our past insta lments at h tp://bit.ly/CBJFutureofRetail.
The smartphone is increasingly the tie that binds consumers
to their favorite retailers.
Startup banking
It’s a strategy driven by necessity, as consumers get out
PAGE 8
“Three years ago, we started to invest in all things mobile,”
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said during the
company’s Investor Day presenta
CBJ 5Q

Celebrating 10 Years
of Growth!
We look forward to expanding two of our facilities
and opening three new centers in 2018!
At TLC Associates, we offer our clients a unique combination of
talent, experience and expertise in the sales and service environment.
www.tlcassociates.com
4515 20th Avenue, SW | Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 | 319-730-4028

2017
LEADERS
SURVEY
We are excited to unveil the results from the
CBJ’s inaugural Leaders Survey, a subscribersand
members-only survey designed to gauge
the sentiment of the Corridor’s business and
community leaders.
Since it’s our first year conducting the survey,
our response numbers are far from a scientific
sample. Nevertheless, we feel it provides
an interesting snapshot of how the region is
faring and what our readers are expecting in the
months ahead. It’s our hope that as the survey
grows, these first results will provide a base
reading from which to observe the Corridor’s
evolution and attitudes in the years to come.
We are offering the overall survey results
here, along with some selected verbatim responses
from those who cared to leave them.
We couldn’t have done this without the
more than 75 leaders who took time to answer
our survey and so we thank you for your input
and time. Now onto the show.
- Adam Moore
How would you rate the Corridor’s business
community and climate?
How optimistic are you about the job market
outlook for your industry?
AVERAGE SCORE:
53%
AVERAGE SCORE:
29%
7.9 7.6
19%
22%
19%
4%
0% 1% 0% 0% 0%
3%
1% 0%
3% 3%
19%
5%
8%
10%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders are feeling very good about the region’s current business
climate, with 90 percent of respondents rating it as an 8 or higher. In analyzing the verbatim
responses, most wrote that business opportunities are strong and consumers are
continuing to spend, although there was a lingering feeling that the local economy “could
be stronger.” Many cited workforce challenges as the primary reason for not rating the
region higher.
SUMMARY: Most respondents maintained their optimism of the first question, with 61
percent of respondents rating the job market outlook at an 8 or higher – although not
everyone shared the positivity. Many described the Corridor as a “growing and vibrant
community” with good job opportunities for motivated workers, although 12 percent
ranked the region’s job prospects as a 5 or lower, citing intensifying competitive pressures
and the difficulty of replacing employees who leave.
READER COMMENTS AND RATINGS
Pam Tiedt
Owner, PIP Printing & Marketing
7 – I still think we are recovering from the
recession. It is definitely getting better
but still would like to see an increase in
customer spending. The internet is our
competition and with high property taxes
and wage scale, it is sometimes hard to
compete.
Curt Heideman
Market President, U.S. Bank
8 — Unemployment is low. The economy
has been stable, people are buying
houses, cars, etc.
Linda Kuster
Director of Research Strategies, Vernon
Research Group
8 – We have an ethical, collaborative,
productive and educated workforce, low
property costs, low insurance costs, etc.
Not a 10 because it is still very traditional
in some industries and still not easy for
women or minorities.
READER COMMENTS AND RATINGS
Cathy Johnson
Chief Administrative Officer and CFO,
World Trend Financial/Terry Lockridge &
Dunn
8 – Accounting, business consulting and
wealth management services continue to
be growing segments.
Nate Kass
Branch Manager, Fehr Graham
8 – With a large number of the workforce
near retirement age, there will be a strong
demand to fill those open positions.
Anne Parmley
SVP, Client Services/Iowa General
Manager, Pearson
6 – Pressures on price and margin impact
our industry like so many others. There is
a continuous drive to automate, increase
efficiency and drive out costs. The
pressure on assessments is to reduce the
time spent testing, which puts volume
pressure on our business.
36 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

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2017 LEADERS SURVEY
What’s the biggest issue facing Iowa
businesses right now?
What major business or community story did
you watch the most this year?
60%
Workforce availability/quality
32%
Federal health care/tax reform
25%
Health care costs
31%
UTC-Rockwell Collins merger
9%
Other
18%
Urban redevelopment in CR/IC
4%
Taxes
6%
Continued ag weakness
SUMMARY: Surprise, surprise: Workforce concerns dominated voting, with three out of
five respondents citing “workforce availability/quality” as their biggest issue. Health care
costs came in second, with 25 percent citing the “unsustainable” health care climate that
continues to eat away at profits and employees’ paychecks, and the ongoing confusion
about the Affordable Care Act’s future. “Other” was the surprise third choice, with almost
10 percent selecting it as an opportunity to air their disappointment about the current
political climate and a “lack of leadership from Des Moines” on important business issues.
SUMMARY: CBJ readers were virtually tied on the $30 billion Rockwell Collins-United
Technologies merger proposed earlier this fall and the ongoing drama over federal health
care and tax reform. A third of survey respondents cited Rockwell, noting that the deal could
have a “huge impact on the progress of Cedar Rapids as a whole,” while another third noted
that the uncertainty surrounding health care and taxation “has left businesses unsure of
how to plan for the future.” Nearly 20 percent said they are most focused on watching the
ongoing urban redevelopment in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, noting that it serves as a “good
indicator of the overall [economic] climate.”
READER COMMENTS
READER COMMENTS
Dana Gratton
Marketing Manager, MediRevv
HEALTH CARE – All of the above, but high
health care costs ring true for many. Many
employers can only offer high-deductible
health care plans, and often the
employees, when they become patients,
struggle to meet those deductibles, which
means health care organizations don’t get
paid for the care they provided.
David Tominsky
ISA Managing Director, NewBoCo
WORKFORCE – We need to be prepared
for a complex future and lead the nation
in areas like technical trade training and
computer science education.
Charlie Funk
President and CEO, MidWestOne Bank
WORKFORCE – Our headquarters are
in Iowa City and it’s fairly easy to attract
good persons to open positions. Outside
of Iowa City, hiring capable persons to fill
positions is extremely difficult.
Gordon Epping
Owner and Principal, Gordon Epping LLC
LEADERSHIP – All you need to is read the
newspaper – our budget is upside down,
our Medicaid system is broke, our tax
system is not working. Poor leadership.
Brad Hart
Attorney/Partner, Bradley & Riley PC
ROCKWELL MERGER – Rockwell is
such an important member of our
community in terms of employment and
its support of so many area nonprofits.
Losing a corporate headquarters could
reduce Rockwell’s ‘contributions’ to our
communities.
Dan Brown
Marketing & Communications Director,
Central State Bank
CR/IC DEVELOPMENT – Iowa City’s urban
redevelopment in the 1970s has carried
an impact for nearly 50 years. What
transpires over the next few years will
change both places in a long-term way.
Doug Neumann
Executive Director, Cedar Rapids Metro
Economic Alliance
HEALTH CARE/TAX REFORM –
Uncertainty hampers business. Issues that
get resolved with certainty can be factored
into business plans. The long-lingering
uncertainty of health care reform and tax
reform has left business unsure of how to
plan for the future.
Steve Fangman
President, Steve’s Roofing
HEALTH CARE/TAX REFORM – The costs
to taxpayers and individuals have just
gotten out of hand.
Take the over or under:
Regulators and shareholders will
approve the $30 billion United
Technologies-Rockwell Collins merger.
SUMMARY: A whopping 94 percent of survey respondents said they expect the
Rockwell Collins-UTC deal to close successfully, citing a minimum of product overlap
between the two companies and the scale it would create in the industry. A small
but passionate group of voters indicated they already believed the deal’s close to
be “baked into the cake” due to the massive amount of money on the line. “What
doesn’t get approved in this day and age?” one respondent asked.
READER COMMENTS
UNDER:
OVER: IT WILL HAPPEN
94%
IT WON’T
6%
Darryl High
Owner, High Development Corp.
OVER – Those folks would not bet on a chance.
Bart Floyd
Eastern Iowa President, Great Western Bank
OVER – Based on past precedent, I don’t think
enough of a case can be made against it.
HAPPEN
Jim Tinker
President Emeritus, Mercycare Service Corp.
OVER – Only Europe and the existing
competitors appear to oppose the merger with
UTC. I wish it were otherwise for Cedar Rapids,
but it will be hard to oppose.
38 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

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2017 LEADERS SURVEY
Take the over or under:
Congress will revisit and pass health
care reform next year.
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders were much less confident about the prospect
of Congress revisiting and passing health care reform in 2018, with
two-thirds of respondents saying it won’t happen. Respondents cited
“too much divisiveness”, “too much negative publicity” and the coming
2018 elections as reasons it won’t, although most agreed that health
care is “unsustainable” in its current form and will likely force action in
the years to come. Several saluted “reasonable Republicans” for voting
against prior repeal attempts that could have “hurt real people” and
caused chaos in markets.
UNDER: IT WON’T HAPPEN OVER:
66%
IT WILL HAPPEN 34%
Aaron Warner
CEO, ProCircular
UNDER – There are enough reasonable people left in
the Republican party to keep from passing something
that would impact the people who keep them in office.
Robert Downer
Member, Meardon, Sueppel & Downer PLC
UNDER – They are more concerned with slogans,
e.g. repeal and replace Obamacare, than with
accomplishing something substantive.
Lynn Manternach
Co-Founder and President, MindFire Communications
OVER – This year’s chaos will force our elected
leaders to find a middle ground. Too many Americans
will be negatively impacted if this is not sorted out.
Lee Kreger
Manager (Retired), Intermec Technologies
OVER – Somehow there has to be a compromise that
corrects the faults of Obamacare.
Rate the effectiveness of our political leaders:
5.65
5.38
3.70
3.51
6.78
5.90
Gov. Kim Reynolds
Iowa Legislature
U.S. Congress
President Donald Trump
Corridor City Councils
Corridor Boards of Supervisors
Given the recent cyber attacks on businesses
and individuals, how worried are you about
online data security?
AVERAGE SCORE:
7.96
1% 0% 1%
3%
6% 4%
13%
27% 26%
18%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SUMMARY: The idiom “local government governs best” proved itself in this year’s survey,
with respondents generally saving their best ratings for city and county governing bodies.
The region’s local leaders were hailed for their “strong interest in working together for
the betterment of the whole Corridor,” although respondents had fewer kind words for
their state legislators and federal representatives. Nearly 40 percent of respondents rated
the Iowa Legislature at a 4 or lower, while two-thirds felt the same away about Congress.
More than half rated President Donald Trump at 2 or lower, although a quarter gave him
marks of 6-8.
GENERAL READER COMMENTS
Kim Lehrman
President, enTouch Wireless
The rhetoric is more important than
the vision and work that needs to be
completed – ridiculous.
Steve Gray
Chairman, ImOn Communications
Locally, leaders are quite good. What has
Governor Kim Reynolds done? What is
going on with the budget?
Grant Westemeier
Branch Sales Manager, Advanced Systems
It seems as though the ‘right’ is way right
and the ‘left’ is way left. I understand we
all have different thoughts and ideas, but
we need to get better at not separating us
but bringing us closer together. It starts at
the top, as always.
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders are very concerned about online data security, it seems,
with nearly half of respondents rating it a 9 or 10. Many now see the risk of cyber theft
as “the new normal,” and expressed concern about the fact that “the good guys can’t
seem to stay ahead of the bad guys.” There was almost a fatalistic sense to the responses,
with one respondent writing “I’m not sure we can stop it from happening in one way or
another.” Others emphasized the importance of personal diligence among employees as
the only way of truly securing business data.
READER COMMENTS
John Kenyon
Executive Director, Iowa City UNESCO City
of Literature
9 – When one-third of the country is in
danger of suffering identity theft, there is
much cause for worry.
Chris Hummer
President, Don Hummer Trucking
6 – “This is a hazard of the world that we
live in. There are always things that can
happen. This is no different than storms,
tornadoes or illness.”
Kim Becicka
Vice President, Continuing Education and
Training Services, Kirkwood Community
College
10 – It’s way too prevalent. I’m very
concerned with where we are headed and
the cost to small business.”
40 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

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2017 LEADERS SURVEY
Yes or no:
The creation of a joint regional venture,
and the hiring of Jennifer Daly to lead it,
will lead to improved regional cooperation.
SUMMARY: More than three-quarters of respondents said they expect the Corridor’s
new joint venture to improve regional cooperation – but “maybe” was perhaps the
more accurate thought for many. All seemed to welcome the prospect of greater
regionalism, but many wondered if Ms. Daly and her staff will be able to overcome
the parochialism that continues to slow regional initiatives; others expressed concern
that Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are, to quote one voter, “both terrific, but vastly
different,” making it a challenge to bring the two communities together.
READER COMMENTS
Anne Parmley
SVP, Client Services/Iowa
General Manager, Pearson
YES – This is a long time
coming and if influential
people don’t think it will
lead the region in the right
direction at this point in time,
we are in trouble.
YES: 83% NO: 17%
Nancy Young
Workplace Learning
Coordinator, Workplace
Learning Connection
YES – I sure hope so - we
are desperately needing
workforce development
strategies in this laborshed.
There has been too much
territorialism in the past.
Erik Miles
President, Miles Consulting
NO – Regionalism can work
for a while until smaller
players are increasingly
overlooked and begin their
own initiatives out of selfpreservation
or interests. I’ve
seen it before.
How stressed are you
feeling at work?
AVERAGE SCORE:
5.26
14% 14% 14% 14%
9% 9%
6% 6% 6%
5%
Rate the overall quality of the Corridor’s arts,
culture and entertainment scene.
AVERAGE SCORE:
8.12
0% 0% 0% 1%
3%
6%
14%
39%
21%
16%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SUMMARY: The Corridor appears
relatively distributed when it comes
to stress levels at work, with the
overall average falling just above
the scale’s midpoint. Almost 30 percent
reported light levels of stress
(voting 1-3), while another quarter
reported high levels (voting 8-10).
The rest all fell into the middle,
perhaps best exemplifying Midwesterners’
steady, balanced outlook
on life. “Overall I think life is pretty
good, and some stress is a good
thing,” one voter wrote.
READER COMMENTS
Sherri Proud
Director of Parks and Recreation, City of Coralville
7 – We have so many projects and initiatives,
it’s sometimes just hard to keep up, but it’s also
incredibly exciting to have so much going on and
leading us forward.
Dave Storey
Principal, Rainbow Enterprises
5 – It’s better than it was a few years ago for me.
Naftaly Stramer
Co-Founder, Oasis Falafel
6 – Being a business owner is a stressful position,
but very rewarding most of the time.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SUMMARY: Corridorians are proud of
their arts and cultural institutions, as
evidenced by the solid show of support on
this question. More than three-quarters of
respondents gave the region a score of 8
or higher, and many noted there are many
opportunities “for a group of communities
of our size.” The biggest priority for most
voters was just to “keep doing what we’re
doing” in terms of expanding the area’s diversity
of offerings; others called for better
local visibility for all of the region’s events,
and several called for more mainstream
and popular acts at the revitalized Hancher
Auditorium.
READER COMMENTS
Ruth Paarmann
Owner, Paarlance Creative Writing
Now that Hancher is done, it would
be nice to get the big shows that Des
Moines gets.
Lisa Gleason
Administrative Director, Eastern Iowa
Sleep Center
Keep going! I love the improvements
and culture.
Brad Oppedahl
Realtor, Skogman Realty
Cedar Rapids needs to pay closer
attention to what’s happening in
Coralville and West Des Moines.
42 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

CASINO
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
said, explaining why he’d rather see that license application
approved than the smaller ones.
But Mr. Corbett said he could support either CRDG
proposal because each brings distinct advantages for the
city. The Cedar Crossing Central proposal would give the
city a large new parking ramp to replace the aging Five
Seasons Parking Ramp, potentially saving the city about
$35 million in borrowing, and would drive business to
the city-owned DoubleTree by Hilton and U.S. Cellular
Center via a connecting sky deck.
The Cedar Crossing on the River proposal would
spark a revitalization of the Kingston area in downtown
Cedar Rapids that still needs investment to recover from
the flood of 2008, and would also add a parking garage
that would help meet the needs of the city-owned outdoor
McGrath Amphitheater.
The city council supported only the CRDG proposals
at its Feb. 14 meeting, extending and expanding exclusive
agreements with CRDG that were set to expire in October
2019 until 2029. Those agreements allow for CRDG to acquire
either of the city-controlled sites for the casino and
provide approvals needed to satisfy license requirements.
CRDG is obligated to make $75,000 annual payments to
the city and satisfy other conditions, including payments
of 1.5 percent of the adjusted gross receipts of the casino
above $50 million.
Beyond the willingness to provide the sites, the city
guarantees it will offer tax increment financing and
other forms of economic assistance typical for large
projects.
Wild Rose Cedar Rapids backers said in their application
for a state license that they have not asked the city
to back out of its exclusive agreements with CRDG. They
said Mr. Gray declined an offer by Wild Rose to work together
on a Linn County project.
City Council Member Scott Overland, who’d received
numerous calls and emails from citizens about the new
proposals, had a message at the Feb. 14 council meeting.
That message was essentially, it’s up to the state gaming
commission, not us.
A rendering of the Wild Rose Cedar Rapids, a “boutique
casino” proposed by Wild Rose Entertainment for First
Avenue in Cedar Rapids. IMAGE WILD ROSE
“Regardless what their decision is, whatever group that
is, we’ll work with whatever group gets the license to get the
best project possible,” Mr. Overland said. CBJ
ROCKWELL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30
Mr. Hayes told analysts. He compared
that to the $8-10 billion in product overlap
that would have occurred had UTC
had gone through with a merger of Honeywell
International the two companies
discussed last year.
Rockwell Collins said it does expect
some job-related impacts due to it no longer
being a separate public company, but
said the overall impact should be minimal.
History as guide
For an example of what cost synergies
could look like in UTC’s Rockwell deal,
one can look to a similar acquisition it
made five years ago.
In 2012, UTC paid about $18.4 billion
to acquire Charlotte, North Carolina-based
Goodrich, a maker of aerospace
systems such as landing gear, aircraft
wheels and brakes. The company had
27,000 employees, compared to about
30,000 at Rockwell Collins.
UTC initially projected it would harvest
$400 million in synergy savings from
the merger, a target later raised to $500
million and achieved ahead of schedule
by the end of 2015.
Those savings took place over a period
of years and came from many areas of the
business, but some of them resulted from
job and plant reductions, and not all came
from the Goodrich side of the business.
The Hartford Business Journal reported
in August 2012 that UTC planned
to lay off 150 salaried employees in its
newly formed UTC Aerospace Systems
division, following the combination of
its Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary with
Goodrich. About 70 were to come from
the roughly 4,000 positions at a former
Hamilton Sundstrand location in the
Connecticut city of Windsor Locks. The
company also said it was closing an intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance
equipment facility in Ithaca, New York,
and moving some of the jobs to a UTC
facility in Danbury, Connecticut.
Some job cuts had already been in the
works at both UTC and Goodrich before
the acquisition, but they weren’t over,
and rippled into succeeding years. A few
were significant enough to make headlines,
and just last year, 150 jobs were
eliminated at a UTC Aerospace Systems
plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
UTC did not respond to an interview
request, referring all questions to Rockwell
Collins.
Not all the news was bad for the communities
where Goodrich had operations.
Charlotte landed the new UTC Aerospace
Systems headquarters, and welcomed
about 75 employees from Connecticut,
according to Aerospace Manufacturing &
Design magazine. UTC received an incentive
package that included a $2.5 million
grant from North Carolina, $2.5 million
in local government grants, and up to
$16.5 million in additional state grants
over a 12-year period contingent on job
and investment targets.
Exactly where the Collins Aerospace
Systems headquarters will be located after
the merger of Rockwell Collins with
UTC’s Aerospace Systems division is
undecided, Rockwell Collins said in its
statement, and will be determined over
the next several months.
Ms. Nain said the delivery of the synergies
will be one of the most closely
watched aspects of the UTC-Rockwell
Collins deal, especially given the high
price UTC is paying for the company.
“Synergies for cutting costs are easiest
to put a number on and argue in favor
of,” Ms. Nain said. “If you have two companies
in a very similar market, you might
have a lot of redundancies to eliminate.”
UTC and Rockwell Collins don’t make
the same products, however, making it
less likely that UTC can save a lot of money
by doing things like consolidating production
into fewer factories.
“Clearly, United Technologies has
something else in mind,” Ms. Nain said,
mentioning possibilities like gaining
market clout to get better volume pricing
from suppliers, or to be in a better position
to bargain with big customers like
Boeing and Airbus.
Turbulence ahead
As is often the case, the UTC-Rockwell
Collins merger announcement came out
sounding like a fait accompli, subject
only to regulatory approvals such as antitrust
reviews, and a vote of Rockwell
shareholders.
In reality, the deal could still have to
navigate some turbulent skies before
reaching a safe landing. Some of the very
customers UTC says the deal will help are
not quite convinced, and that could spell
trouble during antitrust reviews.
Boeing, Rockwell’s largest customer,
said it intends to “take a hard look” at the
proposed combination.
“Until we receive more details, we are
skeptical that it would be in the best interest
of – or add value to – our customers
and industry,” Boeing said in a statement
released to the CBJ. “Our interests and
those of our customers, employees, other
suppliers and shareholders are in ensuring
the long-term health and competitiveness
of the aerospace industry supply
chain. Should we determine that this deal
is inconsistent with those interests, we
would intend to exercise our contractual
rights and pursue the appropriate regulatory
options to protect our interests.”
Boeing added the first priority of both
UTC and Rockwell Collins “should be
delivering on existing cost, schedule and
quality commitments for their customers
and ours.”
Airbus expressed no particular enthusiasm
for the merger in a statement, but
wasn’t outwardly skeptical, either.
“Today, our total focus is on delivering
planes and we hope that this M&A would
not distract UTC from their top operational
priority,” said an Airbus statement. CBJ
Senior Business Reporter Dave DeWitte has
previously provided contractual services for
Rockwell Collins.
CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 43

Top Deals and Projects of 2017
(ranked by deal/project value)
RANK DEAL DEAL/PROJECT VALUE LOCAL ORGANIZATION DEAL/PROJECT DESCRIPTION
1 UTC-Rockwell Collins deal $30 billion Rockwell Collins
400 Collins Road NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52498
(319) 263-7460
www.rockwellcollins.com
2 Rockwell Collins acquires B/E Aerospace $6.4 billion Rockwell Collins
400 Collins Road NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52498
(319) 263-7460
www.rockwellcollins.com
3 Deere acquires Wirtgen Group $5.2 billion Deere & Co.
One John Deere Place
Moline, IL 61265
(866) 993-3373
www.deere.com
4 MidAmerican Energy makes major wind investment $3.6 billion MidAmerican Energy
666 Grand Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50309
(888) 427-5632
midamericanenergy.com
5 Alliant proposes major wind investments $890 million Alliant Energy
200 First St. SE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
1 (800) ALLIANT
alliantenergy.com
6 Deere acquires Blue River Technology $305 million Deere & Co.
One John Deere Place
Moline, IL 61265
(866) 993-3373
www.deere.com
7 UFG sells United Life for $280M $280 million United Fire Group
118 Second Ave. SE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52407
(800) 332-7977
www.ufginsurance.com
8 Heartland Express acquires Interstate Distributors Co. $113 million Heartland Express
901 Kansas Ave.
North Liberty, IA 52317
(319) 626-3600
www.heartlandexpress.com
9 RISE at Riverfront Crossings project in Iowa City $102.5 million CA Ventures
130 Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 994-1880
ca-ventures.com
10 Millennium Housing project in Coralville $68 million Build to Suit
2451 Oakdale Blvd., Ste. 201
Coralville, IA 52241
(319) 512-2322
www.buildtosuitinc.com
Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. in September made its bid to acquire
Rockwell Collins and roll it into a new Collins Aerospace Systems business unit.
Rockwell Collins in April closed on its purchase of B/E Aerospace, a leading supplier of
aircraft seating and cabin systems, rolling it into a new Interior Systems business unit.
Deere & Co. in December completed its acquisition of Wirtgen, the Germany-based world
leader in road construction equipment.
MidAmerican announced the location of its 170-turbine North English Wind Farm, the third
and final wind farm in its massive Wind XI project.
Alliant is seeking state approval to add another 500 megawatts of wind generation on top of
the 500 megawatts announced in 2016 for its Whispering Willow Wind Farm.
Deere & Co. acquired Blue River Technologies, a leader in applying machine learning
technology, to expand its driverless and precision ag initiatives.
UFG agreed to sell its United Life subsidiary to the Chicago-based life insurance startup
Kuvare Holdings, which will keep its offices located in Cedar Rapids.
Heartland Express acquired Interstate Distributor Co., a truckload carrier based in Tacoma,
Washington, from Saltchuk Resources.
Construction of the 15-story residential building and 13-story hotel/office tower continued
this year, with completion expected next summer.
Work began this year on this 483,000-square-foot, mixed-use development proposed in
Iowa River Landing by Build to Suit LLC.
11 Squaw Creek Crossing project in Marion $50 million 13 & 151 LLC
www.squawcreekcrossing.com
Work began on this major mixed-use development in east Marion, with a credit union under
way, and a convenience mart and hotel to be announced.
12 The Chauncey in Iowa City $49 million Moen Group
105 E. College St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 351-3900
www.moengroup.com
13 CRBT acquires Guaranty Bank $44 million Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust
500 First Ave. NE, Ste. 100
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
(319) 862-2728
www.crbt.bank
14 Hieronymus Square mixed-use development in IC $41 million Hieronymi Partners
152 E. Court St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 338-1294
15 Grand Living at Bridgewater senior living development $40 million Grand Living
7825 Washington Ave. S., Ste. 810
Minneapolis, MN 55439
grandliving.com
Work continued on this 15-story mixed-use tower at College and Gilbert Streets that will
include a hotel, bowling alley, office space, condominiums and movie theater.
QCR Holdings, the Moline-based parent of Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT), struck a
deal to merge Cedar Rapids-based Guaranty Bank into CRBT’s operations, creating the
largest community bank headquartered in Linn County.
Iowa City approved an incentive package for this long-simmering mixed-use project at the
corners of Clinton and Burlington streets. It will feature two seven-story towers connected
by a vestibule.
Ryan Companies and Grand Living are constructing this 170-unit senior living community off
of First Avenue in Coralville.
Noteworthy Unranked Deals of 2017
Cargill buys Diamond V ND Diamond V
2525 60th Ave. SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
(319) 366-0745
www.diamondv.com
Motion Industries buys Apache Inc. ND Apache Inc.
4805 Bowling St. SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
(319) 365-0471
www.apache-inc.com
TrueNorth acquires DM-based insurance groups ND TrueNorth Companies
500 First St. SE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
(800) 798-4080
www.truenorthcompanies.com
Cargill reached a deal to buy Diamond V, the Cedar Rapids-based maker of animal nutrition
supplements, to meet growing market demand for healthy food ingredients.
Genuine Parts, through its Motion Industries subsidiary, acquired Cedar Rapids-based
Apache Inc. to broaden its line of belt and hose products for industry.
CSB Insurance Group and Rowles Hayes Carney (RHC) were acquired by TrueNorth
Companies, expanding its presence in the Des Moines area.
44 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

PHELAN’S INTERIORS
728 3 RD AVE SE
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA 52401
WORKSHOP . FOCUS . COLLABORATION

CRYSTAL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
Crystal Group chose Primus Construction in part for
its design-build capabilities. Design-build compresses a
project’s timeframe by allowing design and construction
to occur simultaneously. Crystal Group leaders worked
with both Primus and lean consultants to maximize the
efficiency and workflow of the building design.
The company’s current headquarters was designed
with windows in executive offices, but Mr. Kruger said
the new design “flip-flopped” the lighting scenario to
provide maximum daylight to the most employees. Executive
offices will be in the interior of the building, and
won’t have windows.
An architect's rendering shows Crystal Group's planned
headquarters plant.
A total of 45 employees will be added once the new
building is complete, including a mixture of sales and
engineering staff. Crystal Group plans to keep its existing
Kacena Drive facility and a smaller 10,000-square-foot
CNC milling plant nearby.
The Hiawatha City Council “did everything they could
to keep us in Hiawatha,” Mr. Kruger said. He also credited
Iowa Economic Authority Director Debi Durham and
Jon Dusek of Armstrong Development for working closely
with the company to make the project possible.
Even more growth could be on the horizon for Crystal
Group if the expansion project opens up new opportunities
as is expected. Mr. Kruger said the new building is
specifically designed to be extended by another 35,000
square feet when needed.
Although the process has gone well, Mr. Kruger said
his advice to other manufacturers planning an expansion
is “you can’t start too early.” He said a project manager
has been hired to oversee the new facility’s completion,
allowing him to stay focused on quality and
production issues. CBJ
SENIOR
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28
“The baby boomer market is just so
big right now, and they’re constantly
looking for a newer style of living than
just a rental or a condo, we believe,” said
Nick Crall, project analyst for Ewing.
He noted the company’s 60-unit Vintage
Cooperative senior living community
that opened in June 2016 in Coralville
is full, but added that Ewing has additional
plans for a Vintage Cooperative in
Iowa City – and possibly North Liberty
and Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids got its first big taste of
the senior housing surge in July, when
The Gardens, a $15 million project undertaken
by five local investors, opened
its doors. With 40 beds, The Gardens
represented the first new skilled nursing
facility in Cedar Rapids in 21 years. It also
has 30 assisted living units, 12 assisted
living memory care units and physical
therapy services, making it a continuum
of care facility.
Spokeswoman Angie McClure said
the southwest location was chosen partly
because that area of Cedar Rapids had
no continuum of care facility, and partly
because it’s easily accessible to smaller
communities south and west of Cedar
Rapids such as Fairfax, Walford, Newhall,
Atkins and Norway, which don’t
have such living options.
Mr. Olson, who serves on the Cedar
Rapids City Council and the Meth-Wick
board of directors, said he’s not concerned
about overbuilding. He cited data
from Maxfield Research Inc. of Minneapolis
that keeps tabs on housing market
demand, noting that city officials also use
the data to evaluate their investments.
“Right now, there’s about 600 units of
demand in our area, and though we’ve
got a lot of construction, we’re not there
yet,” he said.
Ripple effects
Many of the broader economic effects
from the senior housing surge have not
hit the market, but could become more
apparent in the coming years. Ms. Mixdorf
sees a variety of dynamics in play,
including a strong housing market and
more competition for nurses and certified
nurse assistants (CNAs).
“When the economic downturn happened
[in 2008], we did see people stay
in their houses longer,” Ms. Mixdorf said.
“Now the housing prices have gone up, and
they feel like they’re getting the real value of
their home out of the real estate market.”
The sales generated by seniors leaving
their homes to move into senior living
communities is expected to provide a
much-needed boost to the tight inventory
of existing homes available for sale in
the Corridor.
At the same time, Meth-Wick is finding
itself competing for the same pool of nursing
talent as large hospitals in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa City and even Waterloo, as Iowa’s
unemployment rate – 3.2 percent as of July
– remains well below the national average.
“We haven’t seen anyone leave yet
[for the new senior living facilities], but
there’s an awareness that these communities
are going to come on, and they’re
going to try to hire who we have,” Ms.
Mixdorf said.
The new communities and expansion
projects in the Corridor will employ well
over 500, with only four of the projects
accounting for 310 of that amount.
Grand Living will have more than 100
employees each at the two continuum of
care communities it is developing with
Ryan Companies: Grand Living at Bridgeview
in Coralville and Grand Living
at Indian Creek in Cedar Rapids. Stoney
Point Meadows has indicated it will employ
at least 60 at its new facility in Cedar
Rapids, and the Views Development has
said it will employ 50 with a $2.8 million
annual payroll when its new 104-bed
continuum of care community opens on
the south side of Marion.
Finding construction talent to build
so many senior living facilities has put a
strain on contractors, although builders
haven’t reached a crisis point yet.
Members of Carpenters Local 308
based in Cedar Rapids have been working
on one of the largest senior living projects
in development: the 170-unit Grand
Living at Bridgewater project, located just
north of I-80.
“We’ve got pretty much full employment,”
said Pat Loeffler, a Carpenters
Union leader who is also president of
the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building
Trades Council.
Although his local members are pretty
much all employed, Mr. Loeffler said the
union can send out calls to other union
locals outside the area if contractors need
more skilled labor.
“The economics of these retirement
communities are vast and very much unsung,”
said Ed Raber, director of the Washington
Economic Development Group.
Mr. Raber said retirees almost always
buy new furniture when they move into
an independent living facility like Halcyon
House in Washington, providing a
boost to local businesses like Marshall’s
Furniture. Seniors moving from outside
the county almost always move their
bank accounts, he added, and some create
new relationships within the county
for services such as insurance.
Peer pressures
David Heusinkveld is administrator of the
Pleasantview Home in Kalona, which was
organized by Amish and Mennonite ministers
in 1957. He says the growing number
of senior facilities, many of them under
for-profit ownership, puts pressure on
existing facilities to upgrade and compete.
Skilled nursing facilities have to get a
state certificate of need to open in Iowa,
he noted, but for independent living facilities,
“it’s whatever the market can bear.”
“All these places are competing for
staff, for nurses,” Mr. Heusinkveld said.
“I honestly want everyone that is in this
business to do well, because if they don’t,
the quality of care goes down and the residents
are the ones who suffer.”
Developer Fred Timko of Cedar Rapids
also has a mixed view of the new arrivals.
He developed the Bridges Senior Lifestyle
independent living facility, which opened
in Waterloo in a former Holiday Inn well
before the current housing boom.
“It’s a tough market,” Mr. Timko said.
“There are a lot of them out there.”
He suggested that the success of the
new senior developments could depend
on their marketing skill.
Still, Mr. Timko said he views senior
living facilities as a good long-term investment
once they are close to full occupancy,
especially in a place like Iowa. Among
all the states, Iowa has one of the highest
percentages of its population over 65.
“It [the senior housing market] should
be getting better and better,” Mr. Timko
said. “Iowa’s getting older and older.” CBJ
46 CBJ NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017

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“The Ivy’s generosity is a powerful endorsement of the college,
our programs, leadership and vision for the future. Most immediately, it will build on momentum in several growing areas, including
entrepreneurship, business analytics, and our supply chain management program, which is ranked sixth in the world for research. We
are proud to have internationally-known scholars leading these programs. The Ivy gift will also provide scholarships, faculty support, and
programmatic funding for those and other areas. We are very grateful to Debbie and Jerry Ivy.” • David Spalding, Raisbeck Endowed Dean