CBJ Newsmakers 2018
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NEWS<br />
MAKERS<br />
2017<br />
LEADERS<br />
SURVEY<br />
2017<br />
TOP<br />
STORIES OF<br />
2017<br />
A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
2017 SPONSORS<br />
BUILDING STRONG & SAFE SINCE 1962<br />
Corridor Business Journal<br />
2345 Landon Rd.<br />
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T&K Roofing Projects<br />
Arconic/Alcoa 2017 Reroofing<br />
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Johnson County Ambulance Services<br />
Kirkwood Community College - Iowa City Remodel<br />
Mt. Mercy Athletic Complex<br />
The Gardens of Cedar Rapids<br />
UI Elizabeth Catlett Residence Hall<br />
UI Power Plant<br />
T&K Upcoming Projects:<br />
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Kinnick Stadium 2017/<strong>2018</strong> Renovations and Additions<br />
Grinnell College - Admission & Financial Aid Building<br />
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2 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
THANK YOU SPONSORS<br />
The good news just keeps coming to us here<br />
at the newly named Debbie and Jerry Ivy<br />
College of Business. On the second day of<br />
classes, we announced a $7 million donation<br />
from the Gerdin Charitable Fund, which allows<br />
us to move forward with a much-needed<br />
building expansion. This is essential as we<br />
continue to experience record enrollment. A<br />
month later, we made national news when<br />
Debbie and Jerry Ivy (’53 industrial administration)<br />
committed $50 million to the college.<br />
Only 14 business colleges in the United<br />
States have ever received a gift larger than<br />
$50 million. The Ivy College of Business is<br />
accredited by the AACSB (Association to Advance<br />
Collegiate Schools of Business). Less<br />
than 5 percent of the world’s business programs<br />
have earned this credential. It’s a great<br />
time to be in business at Iowa State University!<br />
www.business.iastate.edu<br />
John F. Lohman<br />
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & PUBLISHER<br />
johnl@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Aspen N. Lohman<br />
VICE PRESIDENT<br />
Andrea Rhoades<br />
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER & ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER<br />
andrea@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Adam Moore<br />
EDITOR & CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER<br />
adam@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Angela Holmes<br />
MAGAZINE & SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR<br />
angela@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Dave DeWitte<br />
SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
BUILDING STRONG & SAFE SINCE 1962<br />
T&K Roofing and Sheet Metal Company<br />
is truly one of the few full-service roofing<br />
and sheet metal companies serving Eastern<br />
Iowa. T&K offers roofing and sheet metal<br />
services ranging from new construction to<br />
re-roofing renovation to maintenance and<br />
repair, and is experienced in architectural<br />
sheet metal, wall panels and historical renovations.<br />
T&K’s capabilities extend to steep<br />
sloped roofing applications including<br />
high-end shingle applications and standing<br />
seam metal roofing. T&K’s low sloped<br />
experience ranges from PVC, TPO, EPDM<br />
and other single-ply membranes to modified<br />
bitumen membranes and traditional<br />
built up roofing systems. T&K is one of<br />
the few remaining roofing companies that<br />
maintains an asbestos removal license.<br />
T&K also provides design and budgeting<br />
assistance to general contractors, designers<br />
and building owners, and is proud of<br />
its reputation for undertaking some of the<br />
most challenging projects in the Corridor.<br />
A proud member of Built by Pros, T&K’s<br />
record for safety and quality is unsurpassed<br />
in the construction industry.<br />
Katharine Carlon<br />
BUSINESS REPORTER<br />
katharine@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Becky Lyons<br />
GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER<br />
becky@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Julia Druckmiller<br />
GRAPHIC DESIGNER<br />
julia@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Kris Lacina<br />
MEDIA CONSULTANT<br />
kris@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Kelly Meyer<br />
MEDIA CONSULTANT<br />
kelly@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Rhonda Roskos<br />
EVENT MEDIA CONSULTANT<br />
rhonda@corridorbusiness.com<br />
The Iowa Economic Development Authority’s<br />
(IEDA) mission is to strengthen economic<br />
and community vitality by building<br />
partnerships and leveraging resources to<br />
make Iowa the choice for people and business.<br />
Through two main divisions – business<br />
development and community development<br />
– IEDA administers several state and federal<br />
programs to meet its goals of assisting individuals,<br />
communities and businesses. Visit<br />
the newly-redesigned iowaeconomicdevelopment.com<br />
to search programs that can be<br />
used to support a variety of business functions,<br />
from workforce training to exporting<br />
and more.<br />
Additionally, 2017 is officially the “Year<br />
of Manufacturing” in Iowa. IEDA has partnered<br />
with the Iowa Association of Business<br />
and Industry and Iowa State University to<br />
create a new website: iowamfg.com. Visit<br />
this site to easily find resources available to<br />
help Iowa manufacturers.<br />
Judith Cobb<br />
MAGAZINE MEDIA CONSULTANT<br />
judith@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Jean Suckow<br />
MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER<br />
jean@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Ashley Levitt<br />
EVENT MARKETING COORDINATOR<br />
ashley@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Samantha Kollasch<br />
CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER<br />
samantha@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Kassie Kilpatrick<br />
EVENTS INTERN<br />
kassie@corridorbusiness.com<br />
About this publication<br />
Welcome to <strong>Newsmakers</strong>, a year-end<br />
wrap-up from the staff of the Corridor<br />
Business Journal. <strong>Newsmakers</strong> is a compilation<br />
of the most noteworthy stories<br />
of 2017, as told through stories from the<br />
weekly issues of the <strong>CBJ</strong>.<br />
We selected stories and developments<br />
we thought most impacted businesses<br />
and people in the Corridor this year. The<br />
abridged stories are not ranked, but rather<br />
appear chronologically, as they did in<br />
the issues of the <strong>CBJ</strong>.<br />
This edition of <strong>Newsmakers</strong> also includes<br />
the results of our first-ever Leaders<br />
Survey, a subscribers-only poll rating the<br />
year in business and setting expectations<br />
for the year ahead (see page 36). We<br />
think you’ll find the results interesting<br />
and somewhat surprising, and hope that<br />
you’ll participate in next year’s poll if<br />
you missed it this year.<br />
As always, we want to hear from<br />
you – did your biggest story of the year<br />
make our list? What are you excited for<br />
in <strong>2018</strong>? Weigh in on our Facebook and<br />
Twitter pages, or send an email to news@<br />
corridorbusiness.com. Thanks for reading;<br />
we’ll see you in the new year.<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
Corridor Business Journal<br />
(USPS 024-715) is published weekly by Corridor Media<br />
Group, Inc. $2.00 a copy, $69.95 a year, $149.95 for three<br />
years. Copyright Corridor Media Group, Inc. 2017. All<br />
rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without permission,<br />
of editorial or graphic contents in any manner is strictly<br />
prohibited. Periodicals Postage Rate is paid at Iowa City, IA<br />
and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address<br />
changes to Corridor Business Journal, 2345 Landon Rd, Ste.<br />
100, North Liberty, IA 52317 Phone: 319-665-NEWS (6397)<br />
CORPORATE OFFICE:<br />
2345 Landon Rd. Ste. 100, North Liberty, IA 52317<br />
Phone: (319) 665-NEWS (6397)<br />
Fax: (319) 665-8888<br />
www.corridorbusiness.com<br />
www.facebook.com/CorridorBusinessJournal<br />
@<strong>CBJ</strong>ournal<br />
VOL. 14 ISSUE 23<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 3
The Kalona Creamery is set to open this<br />
DEVELOPMENT<br />
13 and 151 project to create new gateway UPDATE<br />
$50M development in<br />
east Marion could begin<br />
as early as this year<br />
By Adam Moore<br />
adam@corridorbusiness.com<br />
A former driving range on the eastern<br />
edge of Marion could become a striking<br />
gateway to the city under a new development<br />
proposal.<br />
A three-person development group<br />
named 13 and 151 LLC has filed plans<br />
for a $50 million, 20-acre mixed-use<br />
project at the corner of Highways 13<br />
and 151, which was previously home to<br />
Village Green Driving Range but has sat<br />
unused for the past three years.<br />
The proposed project would include<br />
13 lots in all, including office and commercial<br />
buildings, multi-family housing,<br />
a bank, an 83-room hotel and an<br />
event center capable of hosting up to<br />
500 people.<br />
Developer Brian Ridge declined to<br />
identify the hotel flag or a possible operator,<br />
but did say that his group has<br />
already completed negotiations with an<br />
“upper-scale” hotel brand.<br />
“It’s priced,” Mr. Ridge said. “We’re<br />
basically waiting on the city to get<br />
through this process.<br />
The project would be built in two<br />
phases, Mr. Ridge told Marion’s Planning<br />
and Zoning Commission on Jan.<br />
10, with the western half of the project<br />
getting underway this spring, assuming<br />
site plans are approved by the full<br />
city council.<br />
If the schedule holds, Mr. Ridge said<br />
three of the five commercial buildings in<br />
the western phase could open this year,<br />
and the hotel could be open by August<br />
<strong>2018</strong>. The entire project could be completed<br />
as soon as 2020.<br />
“Part of the reason we have to phase<br />
it is, we only have so much time and<br />
ability to do any project,” Mr. Ridge said<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
1.16.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JAN. 16 - 22, 2017<br />
Fab labs<br />
of Garling Construction, his employer<br />
and the general contractor on the project.<br />
“There are things that could happen<br />
or could not happen, but we feel pretty<br />
good about it.”<br />
The goal of the project is to create a<br />
high-end destination on the edge of the<br />
city. Preliminary<br />
design guidelines<br />
and renderings<br />
created by design<br />
firm Shive-Hattery<br />
showed<br />
modern, cleanlined<br />
buildings<br />
with a variety of<br />
mixed materials,<br />
including brick,<br />
glass, metal and<br />
wood.<br />
“They’ve got a<br />
beautiful toy box<br />
of items they’ve<br />
put into this plan<br />
here,” Planning<br />
and Zoning Commission Member Phill<br />
Seidl said as the group reviewed design<br />
standards for the project on Jan. 10.<br />
“I’m in favor of this kind of thing.”<br />
While commission members discussed<br />
the potential mix of building<br />
types and noted it may remain fluid until<br />
further details are available, Mr. Ridge<br />
acknowledged after the meeting that<br />
“there’s pretty much a mix that’s been<br />
set into motion,” meaning much of the<br />
plan would likely remain intact.<br />
Developers sought and received approval<br />
for a rezoning of the land from<br />
C-3 General Commercial to a Planned<br />
Special Development, which would restrict<br />
the types of businesses allowed<br />
in the development, but also allow<br />
developers variances on parking and<br />
signage regulations, and the ability to<br />
include residential buildings. Land at<br />
each corner of the 13-151 intersection<br />
is zoned for General Commercial, with<br />
a Walmart, McDonald’s and a Culvers<br />
restaurant located across the road.<br />
City officials said the rezoning to<br />
a planned special development<br />
will<br />
slow the project,<br />
as it will require<br />
additional<br />
approvals and<br />
13 and 151<br />
A former driving range on the eastern edge<br />
of Marion could become a striking new<br />
gateway to the metro area.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Cream of the crop<br />
public hearings for each building, but<br />
it will also provide the city more ability<br />
to control the overall look and evolution<br />
of the development.<br />
Nick Glew, president of the Marion<br />
Economic Development Corporation,<br />
spoke in favor of the rezoning, noting<br />
The former Village Green Driving Range office at the northeast<br />
corner of Highways 13 and 151 in Marion will be coming down as<br />
part of a planned 20-acre, mixed-use development that could bring<br />
$50 million in new real estate investment. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE<br />
that many in the community expected<br />
the location to be the site of a big-box<br />
store. The decision to rezone would be<br />
a positive one for the area and the community<br />
as a whole, he said.<br />
“At the end of the day, it’s guaranteeing<br />
that … we’re elevating the quality of<br />
what’s going to happen on these sites, as<br />
opposed to just a C-3 [zoning] today,”<br />
Mr. Glew said.<br />
Mr. Ridge, a project manager with<br />
Garling Construction, declined to name<br />
his partners in the LLC, but said the<br />
company was organized after seeing “a<br />
need and an opportunity.” It purchased<br />
the land from Water Rock LLC for $1.5<br />
million in July 2015.<br />
The group has not made a formal request<br />
for incentives from the city, according<br />
to Mr. Ridge, who added that they are<br />
“approaching that a little differently than<br />
everybody else,” by waiting to see what<br />
their exact financial needs will be.<br />
Site plans are expected to begin appearing<br />
before the full council in early<br />
spring, at which point Mr. Ridge expects<br />
enthusiasm for the project to grow.<br />
“It’s hard to believe that that corner<br />
has sat vacant for so long,” he said. “I<br />
think people will be excited when they<br />
see what we’ll actually be bringing in<br />
once we can announce those.” <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Credit union<br />
rising at<br />
Squaw Creek<br />
Crossing<br />
A Dupaco Community Credit<br />
Union building is rapidly taking<br />
shape at the development that has<br />
been named Squaw Creek Crossing,<br />
and a large convenience store<br />
is set to follow.<br />
“Hopefully, you’re going to see<br />
a convenience store and a hotel<br />
coming out of the ground in the<br />
spring or summer of <strong>2018</strong>,” said<br />
Jim Angstmann of Coldwell Banker<br />
Hedges Realty, who is marketing<br />
the 20-acre gateway project at the<br />
busy intersection of highways 151<br />
and 13 in Marion.<br />
Much of the work completed<br />
in 2017 on the project by Squaw<br />
Creek Crossing Inc. has entailed<br />
the installation of what’s generally<br />
termed horizontal infrastructure –<br />
including sewer, water and roads<br />
– on the former driving range and<br />
mini-golf complex.<br />
Talks are advancing with two<br />
hotel chains interested in locating<br />
within the development. While<br />
feeling positive about the prospects<br />
for a deal, Mr. Angstmann said they<br />
are still working through the capital<br />
formation and financing stage, and<br />
aren’t ready to commit.<br />
The hotel developers would like<br />
to open in time for the first games at<br />
Prospect Meadows, a large baseball<br />
complex being developed a few miles<br />
north at Highway 13 and County<br />
Home Road, which is expected to be<br />
a large traffic generator for the area.<br />
Work has begun on roads into the<br />
complex as fundraising continues,<br />
with help from a Hall-Perrine Foundation<br />
matching grant.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
4 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
week, bringing a iconic tourist spot back<br />
to town.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
CR Taxi<br />
overhaul<br />
NewBoCo expands<br />
reach with virtual<br />
City leaders say a new ordinance wi l “level<br />
the playing field” between heavil
C rridor<br />
C rridor<br />
C rridor<br />
JobClub<br />
C rridor<br />
JobClub<br />
C rridor<br />
JobClub<br />
C rridor<br />
JobClub
administration before us, there’s a sense<br />
to retire, se ting o f<br />
the Corridor's latest<br />
executive search.<br />
The city of Hiawatha is getting closer to a<br />
decision on creating a municipal dog park.<br />
By Chase Castle<br />
chase@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Mick Starcevich, president of Kirkwood<br />
Community College, has announced he<br />
plans to retire by June <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
“This is my 14th year here at the college,<br />
and I have been thinking about the<br />
decision to retire,” Mr. Starcevich said<br />
Jan. 17 during the announcement at<br />
Kirkwood’s main Cedar Rapids campus.<br />
“I believe now the time is right for me,<br />
personally and for the college ... to retire.”<br />
Mr. Starcevich, 69, became the college’s<br />
fourth president when he took<br />
over in 2005. Since then, Kirkwood has<br />
reached its highest enrollment level in<br />
50 years and improved its retention rate,<br />
according to Kirkwood staff.<br />
“I feel Kirkwood is well-positioned for<br />
the future,” Mr. Starcevich said. “This is a<br />
place where dreams become reality for<br />
our students. Kirkwood’s massive impact<br />
has spread like a ripple effect through<br />
our graduates, to the rest of the Corridor,<br />
to the entire state and beyond.”<br />
Lois Bartelme, chair of Kirkwood’s<br />
Board of Trustees, lamented the news of<br />
Mr. Starcevich’s retirement.<br />
“It’s so sad for me, because I was on<br />
the board ... when we selected Mick as<br />
president, and it seemed we had many,<br />
many years ahead of us,” she said. “And<br />
they have gone so fast. They’ve been so<br />
full, and I have to thank him for his fabulous<br />
leadership. It is beyond belief what<br />
we have accomplished in the 14 years<br />
that he’s been our president.”<br />
Under his tenure, the total dollar<br />
amount available for student scholarships<br />
increased at Kirkwood to more than<br />
$3 million annually, up from $740,000<br />
when Mr. Starcevich assumed office. The<br />
college also oversaw the completion in<br />
2010 of The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, a<br />
$30 million hotel and events center that<br />
also serves as a training facility for culinary<br />
arts and hospitality students.<br />
Larry Ebbers, a retired faculty member<br />
at Iowa State University, will serve<br />
as a consultant for the upcoming presidential<br />
search. In that role, Mr. Ebbers<br />
will establish a search strategy and train<br />
search committee members, which will<br />
include trustees, cabinet representatives,<br />
faculty, staff and representation from the<br />
EDUCATION<br />
Kirkwood’s Starcevich to retire in <strong>2018</strong><br />
Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich discusses the economic impact of the college during<br />
a 50th anniversary event held last year. PHOTO JOE PHOTO<br />
college’s foundation board.<br />
Ms. Bartelme said she has volunteered<br />
to chair the presidential search committee<br />
tasked with finding potential replacements.<br />
The committee will eventually<br />
choose three to four finalists, who will<br />
be interviewed next fall, she said.<br />
“Kirkwood has such a wonderful reputation<br />
nationally that we think we will<br />
have a lot of interest in this job,” Ms.<br />
Bartelme said. “We expect to be overwhelmed,<br />
and we expect we will have<br />
some excellent candidates.”<br />
Kirkwood’s profile includes a claim to<br />
economic development in the Corridor,<br />
where the school indirectly generated<br />
more than $819 million in added income<br />
from locally employed graduates, according<br />
to a study of 2013-2014 data commissioned<br />
by the college. The study by Economic<br />
Modeling Specialists of Moscow,<br />
Idaho also found the school spent $92.2<br />
million on payroll. In turn, it estimated<br />
the college provides a $3.70 return on every<br />
$1 spent by students and by taxpayers.<br />
Speaking to the Corridor Business<br />
Journal last year, Mr. Starcevich<br />
said how well the college<br />
can communicate those contributions<br />
could have a major<br />
impact on its finances and future<br />
enrollment costs.<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
1.23.17<br />
“We need to be more aggressive on<br />
how we show our value,” Mr. Starcevich<br />
said, noting that the college received no<br />
increase in financial support from the<br />
state in fiscal year 2016, and only a 1.5<br />
percent increase for 2017.<br />
Last week, Mr. Starcevich said fundraising<br />
is likely to play an increased role<br />
in his successor’s job duties.<br />
“As you look at the state finances …<br />
you can’t continue to put all of the expenses<br />
onto the backs of our students.”<br />
When a new president takes office at<br />
Kirkwood in <strong>2018</strong>, he or she will join two<br />
other recently appointed presidents in<br />
Eastern Iowa higher education. University<br />
of Iowa President Bruce Harreld replaced<br />
former UI President Sally Mason<br />
in 2015, while Mark Nook, former chancellor<br />
at Montana State University Billings,<br />
is slated to take office next month<br />
at the University of Northern Iowa. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Forecasting 2017<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JAN. 23 - 29, 2017<br />
Economic Forecast Luncheon<br />
offers clues to year ahead<br />
Economist<br />
Phil Levy<br />
Keynote<br />
presentation o fers<br />
three risk factors<br />
that could stop the<br />
economic recovery.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Star power<br />
Kirkwood President<br />
Mick Starcevich<br />
announces plans<br />
Panel<br />
discussion<br />
Executives and<br />
leaders from some<br />
of the Corridor’s<br />
largest employers<br />
weigh in on 2017.<br />
PAGE 5<br />
UPDATE<br />
And then there<br />
were four<br />
After a nationwide search that attracted<br />
more than 60 applications, Kirkwood’s<br />
Presidential Search Committee<br />
interviewed nine candidates, and<br />
invited the top four back to campus<br />
in November for final interviews and<br />
a chance to meet and interact with<br />
students and college leaders.<br />
Finalists for the top spot include:<br />
• J. Michael Thomson, campus<br />
president of Cuyahoga Community<br />
College in Cleveland, Ohio since<br />
2011.<br />
• Lori Sundberg, president of<br />
Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg,<br />
Illinois since 2010.<br />
• Steve Schulz, president of<br />
North Iowa Area Community College<br />
in Mason City since 2013.<br />
• Kristie Fisher, assistant vice<br />
president and senior director of strategic<br />
partnerships at ACT in Iowa<br />
City. She previously served as Kirkwood’s<br />
director of special projects<br />
and assistant to the president from<br />
2004-2006 and vice president of<br />
student services from 2006-2014.<br />
Kirkwood’s 17-member search<br />
committee called for applications<br />
from leaders able to “promote and<br />
foster the college as a community of<br />
learners,” among other requirements<br />
on a three-page list that included the<br />
need for an advanced degree and<br />
prior experience as a president for an<br />
institution of higher education, K-12<br />
superintendent or a minimum of<br />
five years administrative experience<br />
at the dean’s level or higher.<br />
“Everybody in the initial round<br />
was a very highly qualified candidate<br />
and brought a lot to the table, so<br />
just narrowing it down to four was a<br />
tough decision,” said Justin Hoehn,<br />
Kirkwood’s associate director of marketing,<br />
adding that while the search<br />
committee had set no timetable for<br />
making a final decision, it would<br />
likely be “weeks, not months.”<br />
Updated information on the<br />
search is available at kirkwood.edu/<br />
presidentsearch.<br />
—Katharine Carlon<br />
PAGE 9<br />
Going to the dogs<br />
6 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Rue Patel, general manager of General Mi ls’ Cedar Rapids plant, discusses sales and marketing trends during the EFL panel session with<br />
four other Corridor leaders. Turn to page 5 for a condensed recap of the half-hour discussion. PHOTO ADAM MOORE<br />
With a new year and a new presidential<br />
PAGE 15<br />
of both hope and uncertainty in the air.<br />
Will President Donald Trum<br />
tectionist measures that could ultimately brought together hundreds of business<br />
harm the very businesses he’s aiming to leaders in<br />
help? Will our histo<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q
<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 7
shown progress in recent months<br />
after a year that's shown how fickle<br />
drug company investors can be.<br />
GAMING<br />
CR casino proposals shrink<br />
in latest round<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
UPDATE<br />
Another Linn<br />
casino bid<br />
rejected<br />
For the two groups competing in the latest round of proposals<br />
for a Linn County casino, it’s become a question of how small<br />
can you go.<br />
The hope is that by making a casino proposal small enough,<br />
it will be able to “squeeze in the door,” as one project partner<br />
put it, with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.<br />
The commission in 2014 shot down a previous proposal by<br />
the Steve Gray-led Cedar Rapids Development Group (CRDG)<br />
that had strong local support, solely because of estimates that<br />
73-81 percent of its revenues would come at the expense of<br />
other Iowa casinos. That left a smaller casino as the best hope<br />
for winning acceptance.<br />
With a three-year moratorium on considering new casino<br />
applications soon to expire, veteran Iowa casino operator<br />
Wild Rose Entertainment was the first to try to exploit the<br />
possible opportunity. Wild Rose lined up a development deal<br />
with Steve Emerson of Aspect Architecture and Hunter Parks<br />
of Hunter Companies on a small “boutique” casino project.<br />
The partners pitched the $40 million project as a first for Iowa,<br />
combining an urban location with a compact footprint that<br />
included about 700 slot machines and 15-20 gaming tables<br />
in a new building Mr. Parks and Mr. Emerson’s companies<br />
would develop at 411 First Ave. SE.<br />
CRDG, not to be overtaken, last week submitted a $105<br />
million, 550 slot/15 table casino just across First Avenue<br />
from the site proposed by Wild Rose, where a city parking garage<br />
now stands. It also resubmitted its earlier proposal for a<br />
$165-million, 840 slot/22 gaming table casino with development<br />
partner Peninsula Pacific.<br />
Peninsula Pacific CEO Brent Stevens seemed to suggest at a<br />
recent press conference that the smaller casino has the best shot<br />
at a license. CRDG and Peninsula Pacific’s own economic impact<br />
study indicated its small casino proposal would reduce revenue<br />
by only 4.7 percent at Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in<br />
Riverside, which previous studies have shown to be the casino<br />
most vulnerable to losing business from a Cedar Rapids casino.<br />
“What we learned in 2014 was the size of Cedar Crossing<br />
on the River was larger than the Iowa Racing and Gaming<br />
Commission was comfortable in allowing,” Mr. Stevens said,<br />
adding the group decided it was important to offer the larger<br />
proposal as well because of its many benefits to the state and<br />
the community.<br />
CRDG and Peninsula worked out their proposals with assistance<br />
and input from the city, releasing them on the eve<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
2.20.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I FEB. 20 - 26, 2017<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> Health Care Summit<br />
Block grants,<br />
HSAs likely tenets<br />
of ACA reform<br />
8 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Dueling<br />
casinos<br />
For the two groups competing in the latest<br />
round of Cedar Rapids casino proposals,<br />
smaller may turn out to be be ter.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
3-D knees<br />
A new knee implant procedure comes to<br />
the Corridor, promising patients be ter<br />
results and smoother recoveries.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
Seeing success<br />
Coralvi le-based KemPharm has<br />
A rendering of the $105 million Cedar Crossing Central casino,<br />
one of two concepts proposed by Cedar Rapids Development<br />
Group and Peninsula Pacific. CREDIT CRDG/PENINSULA<br />
of the Feb. 13 license application deadline in hopes of not<br />
tipping their hand. Wild Rose eventually applied with a 600<br />
slot/20 table proposal smaller than it originally pitched.<br />
Acceptance of either of the two smaller applications could<br />
leave Cedar Rapids with a casino not much larger than those<br />
in Emmetsburg, Jefferson or Marquette, although it would<br />
likely be a bigger draw because of the larger local population<br />
and visitor base.<br />
Sixty-one percent of Linn County voters who participated<br />
in a 2013 referendum voted in favor of allowing a casino<br />
license in the county, while 39 percent were opposed. The<br />
Cedar Crossing proposal was the only one on the table at<br />
that time.<br />
“It just seems like that 61 percent of voters should be recognized<br />
for having voted for a full-amenity casino,” said Maureen<br />
Hunt, a citizen who addressed the city council Feb. 14.<br />
After Ms. Hunt spoke, Daniel Kaiser took the podium. He<br />
expressed concerns that the Wild Rose Cedar Rapids proposal<br />
wouldn’t be large enough to compete with the others in the area.<br />
They were not alone in their views on small casinos. The<br />
bigger-is-better contingent includes Mayor Ron Corbett, who<br />
prefers Cedar Crossing on the River. He said the city-owned<br />
site of Cedar Crossing on the River could be the best in the<br />
state, with its downtown location, riverfront views and easy<br />
access from I-380.<br />
“It’s bigger and it can have a greater impact,” Mr. Corbett<br />
CASINO PAGE 43<br />
After reviewing two entirely new casino<br />
proposals and a largely recycled<br />
one from 2015, the Iowa Racing and<br />
Gaming Commission on Nov. 16<br />
came to the same conclusion it had<br />
two years earlier regarding a gaming<br />
license for Linn County.<br />
The commission voted 3-2 to<br />
reject the two Cedar Crossing casino<br />
license applications from Cedar<br />
Rapids Development Group and a<br />
submittal from Wild Rose Resorts in<br />
cooperation with local developers<br />
Steve Emerson and Hunter Parks.<br />
Commission Chairman Richard<br />
Arnold had praise for what’s<br />
been called Cedar Crossing 2.0 – a<br />
small-scale casino that would have<br />
given Cedar Rapids a new parking<br />
structure to replace the aging Five<br />
Seasons parking garage that serves<br />
the U.S. Cellular Center and the<br />
DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids<br />
Convention Complex. He said<br />
the advantages were enough to outweigh<br />
his concerns about the business<br />
other casinos would lose to a<br />
newly licensed casino.<br />
Dolores Mertz of Algona also<br />
said she’d support one of the applications,<br />
saying “Iowa’s second largest<br />
city deserves something.”<br />
But it never came down to a vote<br />
on which license to approve after<br />
commission member Jeff Lamberti,<br />
an Ankeny attorney, moved to deny<br />
all three license applications. He<br />
was joined by Kristine Kramer of<br />
New Hampton and Carl Heinrich<br />
of Council Bluffs.<br />
Cedar Rapids Development<br />
Group said it wasn’t giving up on<br />
seeking a gaming license in Linn<br />
County. Wild Rose Resorts, which<br />
has several existing casinos in the<br />
state, said it will continue to seek<br />
opportunities for growth.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
PAGE 6<br />
Sco t Sundstrom, vice pre<br />
Tech &
<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 9
NewBoCo's Iowa Startup Accelerator<br />
A proposed mixed-use project in Cedar<br />
Rapids' NewBo District is bringing interest<br />
in home ownership in the area to the fore.<br />
HEALTH CARE<br />
UI Children‘s Hospital already<br />
making a difference<br />
By Cindy Hadish<br />
news@corridorbusiness.com<br />
UPDATE<br />
UI Children’s<br />
Hospital finds<br />
its footing<br />
IOWA CITY—As another group of patients moves into the new<br />
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, young<br />
charges such as Lilly Timmerman are finding reasons to smile.<br />
Lilly, 9, of Burlington, was diagnosed with acute myeloid<br />
leukemia on Christmas Eve and has spent much of her time<br />
hospitalized since then, undergoing chemotherapy and preparing<br />
for a bone marrow transplant.<br />
Before she moved into the new 14-story hospital last<br />
month, she often had to stay confined to her room because of<br />
her weak immune system. A HEPA air filtration system on all<br />
patient floors reduces the risk and spread of infection in the<br />
new hospital, allowing Lilly to go to classes and other activities.<br />
“When your [blood] counts drop, you’re kind of isolated,”<br />
said Lilly’s mother, Maria Timmerman. “It’s hard for them to<br />
not be with their peers. Here, we can go anywhere on this unit.”<br />
The HEPA system filters out 99.9 percent of contaminants<br />
on patient floors, such as tiny dust particles, mold spores, pollen<br />
and bacteria. Operating rooms and inpatient rooms, such<br />
as the 11th floor where Lilly is staying, are equipped with additional<br />
HEPA filters at the vents to provide an extra line of<br />
defense against the spread of airborne agents.<br />
Ms. Timmerman also appreciates the spacious patient<br />
rooms, which include a couch that converts into a bed. Lilly, a<br />
third-grader who enjoys art, has taken a liking to the high-tech<br />
bedside touchscreen that allows her to play games or watch<br />
movies on a flat-screen TV.<br />
The $360 million hospital’s opening has been long anticipated,<br />
beginning with the demolition of a parking ramp that<br />
previously sat on the site in 2012.<br />
Originally expected to open in December 2016, the first<br />
patients were moved Feb. 25, with another group arriving<br />
March 25.<br />
Scott Turner, executive director of Stead Family Children’s<br />
Hospital, said the limited availability of skilled labor needed<br />
for the project was one factor in the delay. Finding certified<br />
people to install the special rubberized floors, for example,<br />
was a challenge, he said.<br />
Mr. Turner added that changes, such as including windows<br />
strong enough to withstand an EF3 tornado – with speeds of<br />
165 mph – led to increased costs over the original budget estimate<br />
of $270 million.<br />
No tax dollars were used to fund the building, he noted.<br />
Instead, it was funded by $190 million in bonds, $120 million<br />
in cash reserves and operational funds and $50 million<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
3.27.17<br />
*wink* and *nod*<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2017<br />
Marketers find new<br />
ways to connect with<br />
‘textual paralanguage’<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
TTYL<br />
BFFs<br />
LOL<br />
UI Children's Hospital<br />
Patients have completed their move into<br />
the new hospital, which is already giving<br />
people reasons to smile.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Meet the teams<br />
Nine-year-old Lilly Timmerman, sits in her new room with her<br />
mother, Maria. CREDIT SHUVA RAHIM<br />
in private donations.<br />
Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, former Maquoketa residents for<br />
whom the hospital is named, committed $25 million to children’s<br />
medicine at the University of Iowa. Jerre Stead has had<br />
a long career leading technology and information companies,<br />
currently serving as chairman and CEO of IHS Inc.<br />
The Gerdin family, of North Liberty-based Heartland Express,<br />
made a $12 million gift commitment to support the new<br />
hospital. The first-floor lobby is named after the Gerdin family.<br />
Jason Miller, director of project management for the children’s<br />
hospital, said the project did not have a single general<br />
contractor. Rather, contractors bid on 26 prime contracts,<br />
with nearly 4,000 workers involved in the building project<br />
and 90 percent of those from Iowa.<br />
Workers put in more than 2 million hours of labor on<br />
500,000-plus-square-feet of space, with no accidents resulting in<br />
serious injury and only two lost-time accidents, Mr. Miller said.<br />
Mr. Turner declined to comment on a contract dispute<br />
with Modern Piping regarding work on the facility. Hospital<br />
spokesman Tom Moore sent a statement saying University of<br />
Iowa Health Care representatives do not discuss matters that<br />
involve litigation.<br />
The former pediatric rooms in the main hospital will be<br />
used to accommodate adult patients, Mr. Turner said. There<br />
were previously 165 inpatient pediatric beds in the main hospital;<br />
there are now 189 patient beds between the new Children’s<br />
Hospital – most of those in single-patient rooms – and 55 beds<br />
in the neonatal intensive care unit in the main hospital.<br />
With the completion of the March 25 move, all pediatric<br />
inpatient units have relocated to the new hospital. Only the<br />
Level 4 surgery center and Level 5 surgery and post-anesthesia<br />
care unit have yet to move into the new facility. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Iowa’s favorite new tradition – the<br />
first quarter wave from football fans<br />
at Kinnick Stadium to the young<br />
patients huddled at the top-floor<br />
windows – has put the University<br />
of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s<br />
Hospital on the map.<br />
But hospital administrators say<br />
“The Kinnick Wave,” which has<br />
captivated sports fans from coast<br />
to coast, is only one of the developments<br />
worth cheering about now<br />
that the facility has been open for<br />
about six months.<br />
“The new hospital is elevating<br />
the overall patient and family experience,”<br />
said Scott Turner, chief operating<br />
officer at the hospital, adding<br />
that the time and attention paid<br />
to the facility’s planning and design<br />
is paying off in increased efficiency<br />
and patient satisfaction.<br />
Mr. Turner said highlights of the<br />
hospital’s half-year anniversary include<br />
greater availability of state-ofthe-art<br />
technology, expanded services<br />
and treatment options, “and a<br />
caring environment that transcends<br />
every floor.”<br />
Over the summer, the new hospital<br />
was ranked among the top 50<br />
children’s hospitals in six specialties<br />
by U.S. News and World Report:<br />
34th in cancer, 48th in cardiology/<br />
heart surgery, 20th in neonatology,<br />
21st in nephrology, 45th in pulmonology<br />
and 36th in urology.<br />
“Our children’s hospital is a special<br />
place and moving into a brand<br />
new hospital is a once-in-a-lifetime<br />
opportunity,” said Jodi Kurtt, the<br />
hospital’s director of nursing and<br />
patient care services. “Now that all<br />
of our units and services have been<br />
in their new home for more than<br />
six months, we’re fully settled in,<br />
with our feet on the ground.”<br />
- Katharine Carlon<br />
Marketers are expanding their messaging to incorporate<br />
the digital shorthand of texts, posts<br />
and snaps – a trend that now has a name,<br />
thanks to newly published research<br />
from a University of Iowa business<br />
professor.<br />
It’s called ‘textual paralanguage,’<br />
or TPL, and it’s defined as<br />
written manifestations<br />
of nonverbal<br />
audible, tactile and visual<br />
elements that supple-<br />
10 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
IDK<br />
*sigh*<br />
ROFL<br />
introduces its new year-long format and its<br />
first startup teams of 2017.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
ment and replace written<br />
language.<br />
A paper offering the<br />
new definition appeared<br />
*eye roll*<br />
NewBo housing<br />
in the January edition of<br />
the Journal of Consumer Psychology, presented<br />
by UI Assistant Professor of Marketing Andrea<br />
Luangrath, Joann Peck of the<br />
University of Wisconsin-Madiso<br />
PAGE 5
Celebrating<br />
10<br />
AWESOME<br />
YEARS OF<br />
growth, giving<br />
and gratitude<br />
right here in the Corridor<br />
#cheersto10years
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Flood, hail, tornado – even sewer backups.<br />
If you’re in business in Iowa, some<br />
things are hard to overlook in discussions<br />
about insurance. There’s simply too much<br />
weather drama to ignore the possible need<br />
for big checks to be written down the line.<br />
But what about data breaches, power<br />
failures, breakdowns in critical equipment<br />
or human factors that could result in lawsuits,<br />
or even workplace violence?<br />
Risk management experts say that<br />
while some risks remain steady, others<br />
are emerging and business coverage<br />
needs are constantly changing. That has<br />
put the onus on business leaders to look<br />
“It’s easy to only look at it one time a<br />
year,” said Spencer Stephens, risk consultant<br />
for Sheets Forrest Draper Insurance<br />
in Marion. “But over times, things change.<br />
Sales can go up, you’re switching vehicles,<br />
you’ve started operations in a different<br />
Celebrating Our New Office<br />
New York Life Insurance Company is<br />
readying to expand in Eastern Iowa.<br />
Don't miss next week's special<br />
edition honoring the 2017 W<br />
EXPANSIONS<br />
Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa announces<br />
new facility in MedQuarter<br />
UPDATE<br />
PCI’s expansion<br />
takes shape<br />
Adam Moore<br />
adam@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Cedar Rapids-based multi-specialty medical group Physicians’<br />
Clinic of Iowa (PCI) is exploring a second facility<br />
on the current PCI campus in the downtown Cedar Rapids<br />
Medical Quarter.<br />
“PCI’s exploratory plans are to construct a<br />
new 100,000-square-foot medical facility and<br />
an additional 500-car parking structure,” David<br />
Hart, M.D., PCI’s president and medical<br />
director, stated in a press release. “These new<br />
facilities are necessary to accommodate PCI’s<br />
continuing growth and to attract other non-PCI<br />
healthcare-related services.”<br />
The new medical facility, designed by BBL<br />
Medical Facilities of Albany, New York, will be<br />
located to the south and west of Firestone Tire,<br />
between Second and Third avenues SE.<br />
“The vision is that the new pavilion will have<br />
a wellness theme, featuring new PCI specialties<br />
and new health and wellness-related tenants, potentially in<br />
the areas of executive health, men’s and women’s focused<br />
wellness, and a sports performance center,” Dr. Hart continued.<br />
“PCI is very proud to be a part of the continued development<br />
within the downtown MedQuarter. Our goal is the new<br />
facility will strengthen the PCI Medical Pavilion campus as<br />
a medical destination for patients, referring physicians, employers<br />
and visitors we serve throughout east central Iowa.”<br />
The 500-car parking structure will be located to the south<br />
of the PCI Medical Pavilion, along Third Avenue SE. Current<br />
plans are to connect the new medical facility to the existing<br />
parking structure via walkway. Covered walkways will be<br />
constructed from the new parking structure to the existing<br />
PCI Medical Pavilion.<br />
“The plans for this new facility are exciting. Patients will<br />
continue to receive a complete ambulatory health care experience<br />
within one centralized location, whether it’s the original<br />
PCI Medical Pavilion, or the planned health<br />
and wellness pavilion,” Dr. Hart said. “PCI is actively<br />
recruiting new physicians in existing and new<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
4.24.17<br />
medical and surgical specialties to provide comprehensive<br />
specialty-care services for Eastern Iowa.”<br />
In September, the Cedar Rapids City Council supported<br />
grant funding of up to $9.5 million for development of a<br />
parking structure. The two structures and their associated<br />
skywalks represent a total investment of around $30 million.<br />
A rendering of the second Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa building coming to Cedar<br />
Rapids’ MedQuarter. IMAGE BBL<br />
Caleb Mason, the city’s economic development analyst,<br />
said the project qualifies for the city’s Community Benefit<br />
Economic Development Program, because of benefits such<br />
as allowing increased development density in the MedQuarter<br />
and reducing the need for surface parking lots.<br />
Because the parking structure will be privately owned,<br />
Cedar Rapids plans to issue bonds to fund construction and<br />
use Tax Increment Financing revenues to pay them off, as it<br />
did on the existing PCI parking structure, Mr. Mason said.<br />
Because tax collections lag a year behind the completion of<br />
a new structure, PCI will make the first two payments on the<br />
bonds, and will later be reimbursed from TIF collections.<br />
During the city council’s deliberations on Sept. 12, Mayor<br />
Ron Corbett emphasized the 200 employees the facility will<br />
house as a benefit of supporting the project. City staff recommended<br />
that PCI be required to commit to a minimum<br />
$30 million investment, along with a commitment to build<br />
a 98,000-square-foot building and 540-space parking<br />
garage in a development<br />
agreement. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Filling the gaps<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I APRIL 24 - 30, 2017<br />
Corridor insurers offer tips for<br />
making sure your business<br />
stays covered as risks evolve<br />
EDC<br />
Meeting<br />
The Cedar Rapids-based business center<br />
highlights the support provided to area<br />
businesses and entrepreneurs in 2016.<br />
PAGE 10<br />
Seeking<br />
retirees<br />
Kirkwood looks for early retirement<br />
commitments amid pending decreases in<br />
state funding and othe revenue shortfa ls.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Planning for growth<br />
After winning enthusiastic support<br />
for the expansion from its board,<br />
Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa has unveiled<br />
new plans and details about<br />
its second facility, billed as a “specialty<br />
care medical destination.”<br />
Michael Sundall, PCI’s CEO,<br />
said plans for the new facility call<br />
for a 98,000-square-foot, three-story<br />
structure featuring a glass atrium<br />
and covered drop-off area facing<br />
10th Street SE and a second parking<br />
garage. Skywalks connecting both<br />
facilities to the existing patient-only<br />
parking structure will provide convenient<br />
covered parking and access.<br />
BBL Medical Facilities of Albany,<br />
New York, will design the building<br />
and lead the project with local<br />
subcontractors hired to execute the<br />
construction. Commercial realtors<br />
with Skogman Realty are currently<br />
sourcing new health and wellness-related<br />
tenants for new facility.<br />
Other tenants may be added once<br />
the facility is complete.<br />
“Our vision for MedQuarter is a<br />
bustling, thriving destination,” Mr.<br />
Sundall said in a release. “The new<br />
medical pavilion may attract new<br />
wellness-focused businesses to this<br />
neighborhood and increase traffic<br />
for existing businesses. People will<br />
continue to travel from all over the<br />
state to take advantage of some of<br />
the nation’s best specialty health<br />
care, found right here in the heart<br />
of Cedar Rapids.”<br />
PCI plans to break ground on<br />
the new structure in early <strong>2018</strong><br />
and anticipates a 24-month-long<br />
construction process prior to moving<br />
in. In addition to the tenants,<br />
the new space will accommodate<br />
growth of existing PCI services,<br />
provide space for 15 new specialists<br />
and house support services that are<br />
currently off-site.<br />
-- Katharine Carlon<br />
more frequently at their coverage and<br />
possible gaps.<br />
PAGE 5<br />
12 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
state – you have go to through more than<br />
a conversation once a year.”<br />
A high percentage of insured businesses<br />
have either a business owner’s policy<br />
(BOP) or a commercial package policy<br />
(CPP) to cover their major risks. A BOP<br />
combines basic property and liability coverage<br />
into one package that is typically<br />
GAPS PAGE 6<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
Lena Hi l, Associate Professor of<br />
English and African American Studies<br />
a the University of Iowa discusses how<br />
employers can embrace di ferences among<br />
their employees.<br />
PAGE 22<br />
A Passion for Growth<br />
Coming Up
COMING SOON<br />
PCI MEDICAL PAVILION II<br />
Proud partner in the<br />
Time Line<br />
2017<br />
Strategic recruitment of<br />
potential tenants.<br />
Planning continues.<br />
Spring <strong>2018</strong><br />
Construction begins on<br />
Medical Pavilion II<br />
Late Fall 2019<br />
Medical Pavilion II OPENS<br />
Together in health.<br />
Find a complete list of PCI providers at pcofiowa.com/ExpertCare
The Cedar Rapids<br />
yeast maker is set<br />
to head in a new<br />
direction with its<br />
latest expansion.<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
Crystal Group ready to grow<br />
Employee-owners at the Crystal Group configure<br />
network servers to customer requirements on the final<br />
chassis assembly line at the company's Hiawatha<br />
facility on May 1. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE<br />
HIAWATHA—A $17.5 million facility<br />
plan lies at the center of<br />
Crystal Group’s efforts to become<br />
a major supplier of servers to the<br />
emerging autonomous vehicle<br />
market and expand its positions<br />
in the defense market.<br />
The employee-owned company<br />
manufactures network servers<br />
and switches designed to operate<br />
in extreme environments such as<br />
military humvees, tanks and submarines.<br />
It takes commercial offthe-shelf<br />
components and customizes<br />
them for performance under<br />
intense conditions, testing each<br />
unit rigorously before delivery to<br />
customers.<br />
Crystal Group will soon break<br />
ground on a 111,500-square-foot<br />
facility on a 9-acre site at 855<br />
Metzger Road acquired from Armstrong Development, just behind<br />
its current headquarters at 850 Kacena Drive, Hiawatha.<br />
Primus Construction will design and build the facility, which<br />
will provide better product flow and more production capacity<br />
to meet growing demand from the defense market.<br />
“We’re trying to stay ahead of our demanding customers<br />
in the DOD [Department of Defense], offering the facilities<br />
and capabilities we think they’ll be asking for,” said Michael<br />
Kruger, vice president of operations and leader of the facility<br />
project. “It should give us about a 50 percent increase in production<br />
capacity.”<br />
Crystal Group has also been contracted by several global automobile<br />
manufacturers to supply equipment on autonomous<br />
and semi-autonomous vehicle programs, according to Marketing<br />
Director Leslie George. The automakers will need a different<br />
style of rugged server than most of those Crystal Group currently<br />
supplies, which are designed to fit into a standard rack or a rugged<br />
transit case. The autonomous vehicle servers will be “much<br />
more customized,” with a form designed to fit in a non-standard<br />
space, Ms. George said.<br />
In the two-year planning process for the facility, Mr. Kruger<br />
said Crystal Group began by asking each department what their<br />
needs were, and then evaluating and prioritizing those needs<br />
based on the company’s capital budget.<br />
“The biggest things we need are a new environmental test<br />
facility and secure room,” he said. “These were the things that<br />
could open new doors for us.”<br />
The environmental test facility is used to evaluate the performance<br />
of Crystal products under extreme conditions. The new<br />
facility will add vibration testing, which is currently outsourced,<br />
to testing in extreme humidity and temperature conditions.<br />
Two secure rooms will meet the requirements of certain defense<br />
agencies for space that can<br />
be used to review secret plans and<br />
documents.<br />
“We have customers requesting<br />
that,” Mr. Kruger said. “We’ll be<br />
able to quote more business when<br />
we have it.”<br />
The new facility will also house<br />
Crystal Group’s corporate headquarters.<br />
A new part of that component<br />
will be a new “proposal<br />
room” for marketing and engineering<br />
staffs to use in developing proposals.<br />
It will incorporate multiple<br />
video screens for displaying information<br />
from the proposals to facilitate<br />
communication among the<br />
company’s teams, Mr. Kruger said.<br />
Access control and security<br />
were also high on the list of needs,<br />
along with an uninterruptible<br />
power supply for the entire building.<br />
That is partly because final assembly<br />
and test operations will be<br />
moved into the new facility.<br />
A standard test for a Crystal Group server, called the burn-in,<br />
requires operating it at maximum capacity for 24 hours straight.<br />
If even the slightest power blip interrupts the test, the process begins<br />
all over again, Mr. Kruger said.<br />
A building management system was designed into the project<br />
to control all of the energy-consuming features of the building,<br />
from its lighting and access control system to its high-efficiency<br />
heating and air conditioning system.<br />
Building close to home<br />
Early in the planning process, Crystal Group determined the<br />
logistics of expanding its nearly 20-year-old current facility<br />
wouldn’t work, and began looking for a new location.<br />
Building new in Cedar Rapids and other cities outside Hiawatha<br />
were considered, but Crystal Group ultimately found<br />
the best option to be right in the backyard of its current location,<br />
Mr. Kruger said.<br />
The new facility will allow synergies with the other Crystal<br />
Group facilities nearby, is only a few minutes from a UPS shipping<br />
facility, and will have even better access to Interstate 380<br />
when the new Tower Terrace Road interchange is built.<br />
“Hiawatha is growing,” Mr. Kruger said. “When Tower Terrace<br />
[the interchange] is open, we’ll be in a prime location.”<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
5.8.17<br />
CRYSTAL GROUP PAGE 46<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 8 - 14, 2017<br />
Rugged and ready to grow<br />
Carlson's message<br />
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen<br />
Carlson spoke at the Iowa Women Lead<br />
Change 10th anniversary dinner.<br />
PAGE 7<br />
UPDATE<br />
Driving hard<br />
With its new Hiawatha facility<br />
rising out of the ground in 2017,<br />
Crystal Group was gaining sales<br />
momentum that will keep its occupants<br />
busy when it opens in<br />
late <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
“Our year continues with<br />
solid performance, and we expect<br />
to exceed our 2017 financial<br />
plan with excellent business<br />
momentum heading into <strong>2018</strong>,”<br />
Marketing Director Leslie George<br />
said. “We are especially pleased<br />
with the growth of our military<br />
segment. Crystal Group’s core<br />
military business increased over<br />
20 percent since 2016.”<br />
Industrial and commercial<br />
demand for the company’s rugged<br />
servers also improved in<br />
2017, with new contracts that<br />
included a significant deal with<br />
a West Coast power distribution<br />
company that could open doors<br />
for future business.<br />
Demand from the emerging<br />
autonomous vehicle industry<br />
was also improving.<br />
“We spent much of this year<br />
delivering equipment to our<br />
initial autonomous vehicle customer,<br />
and in the process we<br />
have developed the designs,<br />
engineering, relationships and<br />
credibility to allow us further<br />
penetration in the autonomous<br />
market,” Ms. George said.<br />
Construction of the<br />
111,500-square-foot headquarters<br />
facility at 855 Metzger Road<br />
in Hiawatha is going according<br />
to plan, according to company<br />
officials.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
Automation analysis<br />
14 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Hiawatha<br />
computer<br />
maker hopes<br />
to tap new<br />
markets<br />
with $17.5M<br />
expansion<br />
New study lays out the risks of automation<br />
by industry, with several of the state's<br />
biggest sectors in the crosshairs.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Lesaffre<br />
rising<br />
New<br />
leaders<br />
Jennifer Daly, Doug<br />
Neumann tapped<br />
to lead economic<br />
development orgs.<br />
PAGE 4
NEW BUILDING. NEW JOBS.<br />
NEW OPPORTUNITIES.<br />
Coming in September <strong>2018</strong>: Over 45 new jobs. 50% production<br />
capacity increase. 169,500 total square feet of manufacturing and operations in Hiawatha.<br />
Crystal Group would like to thank the City of Hiawatha, HEDCO, CRMEA, IEDA and all professional<br />
partners for their support of this expansion.<br />
CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS OF THE 111,500 SQ.FT. FACILITY<br />
AT 855 METZGER RD. IN HIAWATHA.<br />
crystalrugged.com | info@crystalrugged.com | 800.378.1636<br />
Crystal Group is an employee-owned designer/manufacturer/integrator of rugged computers for military and industrial applications worldwide.
market demands. PHOTO DAV<br />
The Cedar Rapids<br />
yeast maker is set<br />
to head in a new<br />
direction with its<br />
latest expansion.<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
A pair of key appointments unveiled<br />
May 3 set the stage for what leaders say<br />
will be a reenergized relaunch of the<br />
Corridor’s first workforce and economic<br />
development joint venture.<br />
Jennifer Daly, 45, was named the<br />
first president and CEO of the joint<br />
venture formed in 2016 between the<br />
Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance<br />
and the Iowa City Area Development<br />
(ICAD) Group.<br />
At the same time, the Economic Alliance<br />
board of directors named Doug<br />
Neumann, 47, executive director after<br />
observing him in action as interim president<br />
and CEO for just over one year.<br />
There was no mistake to the timing<br />
of the announcements. The region<br />
has serious workforce needs, which are<br />
closely entwined with its economic development<br />
efforts.<br />
“Clearly from a board perspective<br />
and from the perspective of our 1,200<br />
business members, there’s certainly going<br />
to be a major focus on developing<br />
a great relationship with Jennifer and<br />
making sure workforce development is<br />
as strong as it can be,” Mr. Neumann<br />
said. “This is a chance to for us to really<br />
relaunch this joint effort with ICAD<br />
around the regional initiatives.”<br />
Ms. Daly said workforce development<br />
has become the leading issue for<br />
economic development agencies across<br />
the country, and it’s been no different<br />
in her role as CEO of the Greater Peoria<br />
Economic Development Council in Illinois.<br />
The council serves a five-county<br />
region similar in size and population to<br />
the Corridor.<br />
“For us, a lot of it is about alignment<br />
– introducing local students to careers<br />
in the most critically needed areas, and<br />
giving them the chance to advance<br />
their skills in those<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
5.8.17<br />
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT<br />
New leaders to ‘relaunch’<br />
regional efforts<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 8 - 14, 2017<br />
Rugged and ready to grow<br />
Hiawatha<br />
computer<br />
maker hopes<br />
to tap new<br />
markets<br />
with $17.5M<br />
expansion<br />
16 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Carlson's message<br />
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen<br />
Carlson spoke a the Iowa Women Lead<br />
Change 10th anniversary dinner.<br />
PAGE 7<br />
Automation analysis<br />
New study lays ou the risks of automation<br />
by industry, with several of the state's<br />
biggest sectors in the crosshairs.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Lesaffre<br />
rising<br />
New<br />
leaders<br />
Jennifer Daly, Doug<br />
Neumann tapped<br />
to lead economic<br />
development orgs.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
areas,” Ms. Daly said in an interview<br />
with the <strong>CBJ</strong>. “The people who grew up<br />
in a community are the most likely to<br />
stay in a community or move back to<br />
that community to find a career.”<br />
The joint venture had<br />
been without a permanent<br />
leader since plans were announced<br />
in January 2015<br />
and a nonprofit entity, the Iowa’s<br />
Creative Corridor Economic<br />
Development Corp.,<br />
was launched Jan. 1, 2016.<br />
Mr. Neumann assumed the<br />
interim CEO position with<br />
the Economic Alliance in<br />
April 2016 following the resignation<br />
of Dee Baird.<br />
“We are thrilled to be<br />
able to relaunch and move<br />
the strategic direction forward<br />
for the joint venture,”<br />
said Tom Goedken, who<br />
co-chairs the joint venture<br />
board with Lydia Brown. “A<br />
lot of hard work has gone<br />
into creating this entity, and<br />
we have now found the right<br />
person to lead it into its next<br />
successful phase.”<br />
Mr. Neumann said he<br />
had the opportunity to meet with Ms.<br />
Daly during the hiring process. He was<br />
impressed by her expertise in workforce<br />
development, and her experience managing<br />
change in Peoria.<br />
“The model of how they restructured<br />
economic development there [in<br />
Peoria] is what we want to do here,” Mr.<br />
Neumann said, referring to that area’s<br />
regional approach.<br />
Ms. Daly said her work with the<br />
Greater Peoria Economic Development<br />
Council included building an organization<br />
from three regional economic development-related<br />
organizations after a<br />
period of upheaval in regional development<br />
efforts. The organization now has<br />
a full-time staff<br />
of eight.<br />
“Regional<br />
economic development,<br />
first<br />
and foremost,<br />
Jennifer Daly<br />
Doug Neumann<br />
needs to be there to support the efforts<br />
of local economic development officials<br />
and entities,” said Ms. Daly, adding that<br />
the services provided by the Greater<br />
Peoria group include marketing, training<br />
and providing resources<br />
such as market and labor<br />
force data.<br />
Both Ms. Daly and Mr.<br />
Neumann bring a wealth<br />
of familiarity with the Corridor<br />
in addition to their<br />
professional experience to<br />
the positions.<br />
Mr. Neumann has more<br />
than 10 years experience at<br />
the Economic Alliance and<br />
its predecessor organizations,<br />
serving as executive<br />
vice president for about five<br />
years and leading the organization’s<br />
Downtown District<br />
efforts. He also served<br />
as opinion page editor and<br />
a reporter at The Gazette in<br />
Cedar Rapids.<br />
Ms. Daly, a University<br />
of Iowa psychology graduate<br />
and former Coralville<br />
resident, is a co-founder<br />
and the former executive<br />
director of programs for the Iowa Children’s<br />
Museum. She served as executive<br />
director of the Mount Pleasant Area<br />
Chamber of Commerce and Area Development<br />
Commission before moving<br />
to Illinois, where she also served as executive<br />
director of the Morton Economic<br />
Development Council and Morton<br />
Chamber of Commerce.<br />
With the reallocation of some roles<br />
to the joint venture, the Economic Alliance<br />
remains focused on its roles as<br />
an advocate for businesses in public<br />
policy, in providing member services<br />
and in supporting the downtown area,<br />
among others.<br />
Being promoted from interim CEO<br />
to regular executive director “makes<br />
this a very immediate and natural transition,”<br />
Mr. Neumann said. With that<br />
transition, he said he’ll be able to focus<br />
more on long-term goals, strategies and<br />
vision. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
UPDATE<br />
Daly set to<br />
move the ball<br />
Now that she’s met just about everyone<br />
who’s anyone, Jennifer Daly,<br />
the new CEO of the Corridor’s new<br />
joint venture, said she is ready to<br />
make things happen.<br />
“It’s feeling really good after a<br />
couple of months in here,” said Ms.<br />
Daly, who is finalizing strategies<br />
aimed at addressing both sides of<br />
the economic development equation:<br />
attracting new businesses to<br />
the Corridor and recruiting and retaining<br />
workers to staff them.<br />
On the business attraction side,<br />
Ms. Daly said she and her staff have<br />
identified industry clusters they<br />
plan to target, “and we’re moving<br />
forward with a robust schedule<br />
of trade shows and marketing in<br />
<strong>2018</strong>.” Brian Crowe, who already<br />
serves as economic development<br />
strategist for the Cedar Rapids Metro<br />
Economic Alliance, has signed on<br />
as the group’s director of business<br />
attraction. Tom Banta, ICAD’s director<br />
of strategic growth, will also<br />
assist with that effort.<br />
On the workforce development<br />
side, Ms. Daly said DaLayne Williamson<br />
of ICAD Group will serve<br />
as the venture’s director of workforce<br />
solutions.<br />
“The focus there is on talent and<br />
retention strategy and we have a<br />
draft [plan] in the process of being<br />
finalized,” she said. “One important<br />
piece of that will be working with<br />
students in schools and hopefully<br />
building that pipeline of talent.”<br />
Other upcoming projects include<br />
updating the creativecorridor.co<br />
website to align with the Corridor’s<br />
new economic development goals<br />
and launching a marketing campaign<br />
showcasing the seven-country<br />
region. Ms. Daly said she hopes<br />
the campaign will debut in the first<br />
quarter of <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
“It’s been a wonderful four<br />
months,” she said. “Very, very busy,<br />
but I think we’ve made a great deal<br />
of progress.”<br />
—Katharine Carlon<br />
PAGE 5<br />
Employee-owners a the Crystal Group configure network servers to custome requirements on the fina<br />
ny's Hiawatha facility on May 1. The company plans to expand its p
Creating home...<br />
Our Home:<br />
254 Employees<br />
370 Residents<br />
Sharing our passions and having fun<br />
Proud to receive the <strong>CBJ</strong>’s<br />
2017 Coolest of The Cool Award<br />
An Active LifeCare Community Since 1966<br />
Steve Roe, Executive Director<br />
Founded in 1966 Oaknoll Court, Iowa City 319-351-1720 www.oaknoll.com
their career choices, and what would keep them in the Corridor,<br />
where their talents are sorely needed.<br />
jobs, and they wan the kind of life-work balance that won’t leave<br />
them scrambling to find another job in a year.<br />
Kevin Techau, of Scheldrup<br />
Blades Law Firm, discusses<br />
DEVELOPMENT<br />
GEICO planning to open<br />
office in North Liberty<br />
By Adam Moore<br />
adam@corridorbusiness.com<br />
In May, the <strong>CBJ</strong> was the first to report that insurance<br />
company GEICO was finalizing plans to open<br />
a new office located in North Liberty, according to<br />
multiple sources familiar with the deal.<br />
Land at the targeted site is owned by A&M Development,<br />
a group of investors led by Mike Hahn,<br />
co-owner of McComas-Lacina Construction in<br />
Iowa City. A&M had a purchase agreement for the<br />
land in place with Bourn Companies of Tucson,<br />
A rendering of the new GEICO building coming to North Liberty in<br />
<strong>2018</strong>. IMAGE A&M DEVELOPMENT<br />
Arizona, which is representing GEICO in the deal.<br />
The agreement, which was in the due diligence<br />
phase when first reported, called for the purchase of<br />
about 5 acres of property just east of Interstate 380,<br />
less than half a mile south of the Penn Street exit,<br />
and near the Corridor Business Journal and University<br />
of Iowa Community Credit Union headquarters.<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
5.15.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I MAY 15 - 21, 2017<br />
The Corridor’s<br />
next generation<br />
The deal valued the land around $4.50 per<br />
square foot, with an estimated total value of more<br />
than $1 million.<br />
GEICO representatives declined to comment on<br />
any details of the project, including the timeline or<br />
how the new office will impact the company’s existing<br />
Midwest regional office in Coralville.<br />
According to the company’s website, GEICO<br />
opened its Coralville office in 1997. The office employs<br />
about 450 people, primarily in sales and customer<br />
service, and announced as recently as 2015<br />
plans to hire additional managers and customer<br />
service representatives.<br />
In July, plans for the company’s new<br />
customer service center in North Liberty<br />
went up for review, impressing planning<br />
officials as large, but also keeping<br />
with the city’s design standards.<br />
In a memo, City Planner Dean Wheatley<br />
said A & M was proposing a 227-footlong<br />
building - nearly a block long. He<br />
said the structure and parking would<br />
span nearly the entire site from setback<br />
line to setback line. He is recommending<br />
approval of the request, saying the project,<br />
with its high masonry and glass content,<br />
“will be a positive design influence<br />
for the office park and the city.”<br />
City officials said they planned to<br />
seek state funding to improve vehicular<br />
traffic flow to the area by paving the<br />
current gravel section of Kansas Avenue south from<br />
its paved portion to Forevergreen Road, where a<br />
new I-380 interchange is being built.<br />
Among the positive attributes Mr. Wheatley<br />
cited were favorable traffic circulation, fire access,<br />
and an outside dining area connected to the break<br />
room and vending area of the facility. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Powering startups<br />
A new GoDaddy-backed program aims to<br />
help entrepreneurs hurdle economic and<br />
social barriers in Cedar Rapids.<br />
PAGE 5<br />
EntreFEST<br />
returns<br />
Statewide festival<br />
draws hundreds of<br />
innovators to Iowa<br />
City.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
TrueNorth<br />
We’re happy to welcome<br />
GEICO to North Liberty’s<br />
family of businesses.<br />
UPDATE<br />
- Terry Donahue<br />
North Liberty Mayor<br />
Improvements ahead<br />
Early site work is underway at the site of GEICO’s<br />
new 50,000-square-foot facility, and thanks to an<br />
assist from the Iowa Department of Transportation,<br />
improved road access won’t be far behind.<br />
In late summer, the state gave the nod to more<br />
than $3 million in Revitalize Iowa’s Sound Economy,<br />
or RISE, funding for North Liberty to pave a<br />
5,200-foot gravel stretch of Kansas Avenue south to<br />
Forevergreen Road, where a new I-380 interchange<br />
is under construction.<br />
According to a DOT news release, the $3.07 million<br />
in funding will also assist in reconstruction of<br />
a roundabout at Kansas Avenue and St. Andrews<br />
Drive. The road upgrades are necessary, state officials<br />
said, “to provide improved access to the proposed<br />
site of GEICO’s national auto insurance<br />
claims processing facility to support the creation of<br />
307 new full-time jobs and $11,939,340 in associated<br />
capital investment.”<br />
The GEICO facility is expected to open in summer<br />
<strong>2018</strong>, bringing about 400 workers currently<br />
based in Coralville to North Liberty, with room for<br />
upwards of 300 more. The road improvements are<br />
set for completion by December <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
“We’re happy to welcome GEICO to North Liberty’s<br />
family of businesses,” said North Liberty Mayor<br />
Terry Donahue in a statement. “More and more people<br />
are realizing that North Liberty is a great place to<br />
live and work, and this new facility will allow them<br />
to attract an even larger pool of talent.”<br />
- Katharine Carlon<br />
18 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Six graduates offer<br />
thoughts on what the class<br />
of 2017 really wants<br />
Coe College graduate McKenna Heisler sits in the co lege's Stewart Memorial Library on a recent morning. PHOTO ADAM MOORE<br />
They’re taking that big walk across the stage to receive their co lege<br />
diploma, but the biggest question of a l will be where they walk next.<br />
Six graduating seniors took time out of their busy schedules<br />
to answer the <strong>CBJ</strong>’s questions about what’s next, what will guide<br />
opportunities for growth and development, and give back to their<br />
communities. They want to be able to make a difference in their<br />
Book Club<br />
This week's Book<br />
Club reviews<br />
a new memoir/<br />
advice guide from political veteran in a<br />
demanding job.<br />
PAGE 17<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
Succession<br />
planning<br />
exemplified in<br />
father-son CEO<br />
transition.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
There's certainly some common ground among these bright<br />
young professionals. They are looking for employers that offer<br />
transitioning to<br />
private practice.<br />
Of course, not everyone’s on the same path. Some are headed<br />
home, while others are looking for that one big opportunity. We<br />
hope you’ll find some insights – and maybe your next star employee<br />
– as you read thi special roundup. > PAGE 10<br />
PAGE 22
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The 43-year-old company makes plans<br />
for a new $13 million, LEED-certified<br />
headquarters off I-380.<br />
EXPANSIONS<br />
Lil’ Drug Store building on success<br />
Corridor<br />
distributor<br />
capitalizing on<br />
growth trends in<br />
C-store sector<br />
Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Lil’ Drug Store Products may<br />
be hitting middle age, but the<br />
consumer products distributor<br />
sees a lot of room to run<br />
in a retail sector that remains<br />
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The 43-year-old company<br />
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President and CEO Chris<br />
Chris DeWolf, president<br />
and CEO of Lil' Drug Store<br />
Products, shows one of<br />
the newer additions in the<br />
company's Cedar Rapids<br />
distribution facility: Popchips<br />
brand potato and corn snacks.<br />
PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE<br />
DeWolf says it’s all about growth – both in Lil’ Drug Store,<br />
and in the channel it supplies.<br />
The company distributes to more than 125,000 convenience<br />
stores, and sold more than 145 million items last year – 10 times<br />
more than in 2000. It has become the largest convenience store<br />
distributor of over-the-counter drugs and personal care products<br />
in the U.S., and is a big supplier of automotive products,<br />
sensible snacks and other merchandise.<br />
“There are a lot of examples of our products being more<br />
than convenience and impulse purchases,” Mr. DeWolf said.<br />
The company’s expansion meshes well with a trend in the<br />
convenience store industry of becoming more of a destination,<br />
rather than simply a place to pick up a few items when stopping<br />
for gas, he added. Many new convenience stores are larger and<br />
carry many basic household items needed for daily living.<br />
Last year’s sales data suggests one possible reason for the trend.<br />
Sales industry-wide declined 4.3 percent, to about $550 billion,<br />
according to the National Association of Convenience Stores. But<br />
that decline was entirely due to lower gas prices, which brought<br />
fuel sales down 9.2 percent. If sales of items inside the store, such<br />
as those Lil’ Drug Store Products supplies, had not increased by<br />
3.2 percent, the decline would have been even larger.<br />
Consumer product companies often seek out Lil’ Drug Store<br />
to get their products into the convenience store channel, Mr.<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
6.5.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 5 - 11, 2017<br />
The Branstad effect<br />
Lil' Drug Store<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
Betsy McCloskey,<br />
Principal with Plaid Swan<br />
Inc., talks about why<br />
she opened an<br />
office in Cedar<br />
Rapids.<br />
PAGE 17<br />
DeWolf said. It can be a hard<br />
channel to open, he noted, because<br />
shelf space is tight and the<br />
industry still has many competitors<br />
with 10 stores or less.<br />
“We really consider ourselves<br />
an access point for products<br />
and trends that want to be<br />
in the convenience store channel,”<br />
Mr. DeWolf said.<br />
A good example of that came<br />
this spring with an exclusive<br />
convenience store marketing<br />
agreement between Lil’ Drug<br />
Store and two manufacturers<br />
of healthier snack foods. While<br />
mainstream grocery and convenience<br />
stores both get a comparable<br />
percentage of their revenue<br />
from meat snacks like beef<br />
jerky, sales of healthy snacks in<br />
convenience stores didn’t come<br />
close to the percentage in mainstream<br />
groceries.<br />
Lil’ Drug Stores added the<br />
Sensible Foods Crunch Dried Fruit line and the Popchips line of<br />
healthy grain snacks on the expectation that convenience stores<br />
will benefit from the growing popularity of those categories.<br />
Mr. DeWolf said he also expects to see growth in services<br />
at convenience stores. Lil’ Drug Store has acquired a 20 percent<br />
stake in a Minnesota company that supplies tire filling and<br />
auto vacuum equipment with the expectation that it can grow<br />
its convenience market presence.<br />
With its decades of experience in studying the convenience<br />
store market, Lil’ Drug Store has also built a consulting and<br />
analytics business. More than 45,000 convenience stores use<br />
the company’s services to help determine the optimal mix of<br />
product and pricing for profitability.<br />
Lil’ Drug Store is owned by husband-and-wife Chris and<br />
Suzy DeWolf, who acquired it from Ms. DeWolf’s parents, Dennis<br />
and Donna Oldorf, in 2005. The company operates with<br />
a lean local staff of about 50 at 1201 Continental Place NE, a<br />
100,000-square-foot location it has leased since the mid-1990s.<br />
Mr. DeWolf said the company had became serious about<br />
building at a new location about one year ago, both to position<br />
the company for growth and offer a more attractive workplace<br />
for employees. With input from its department heads, it<br />
worked with developer-builder Hunter Companies and Aspect<br />
Architecture to come up with a facility to suit its needs.<br />
The main location choices were along I-380 at the north<br />
and south ends of the Cedar Rapids metro area. Mr. DeWolf<br />
said the southern location is close to the FedEx air freight<br />
hub at Eastern Iowa Airport, provides easy in and out access<br />
for truckload carriers, and will be convenient for visiting<br />
customers. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
UPDATE<br />
Lil’ Drug finds<br />
growth in<br />
private label<br />
Growth remained strong for Lil’<br />
Drug Store as work on its new headquarters<br />
along I-380 in Cedar Rapids<br />
progressed throughout 2017.<br />
“It has been a sweet year for Lil’<br />
Drug Store,” said Director of Marketing<br />
Doug Marquardt.<br />
Driving Lil’ Drug Store’s results<br />
were growth in the company’s private-label<br />
brand, its category management<br />
business for convenience<br />
store chains, and overall improvement<br />
in its core health and beauty<br />
care business, Mr. Marquardt said.<br />
One trend that has been driving<br />
sales is a growing consumer<br />
preference for private-label products,<br />
which typically sell for much<br />
less than national brands. A line of<br />
private-label Lil’ Drug Store health<br />
and beauty products offers lower<br />
prices than the brand names and<br />
has been a success for Lil’ Drug<br />
Store and its retailer clients.<br />
The percentage of convenience<br />
store sales coming from private label<br />
products has doubled from 3 to 6<br />
percent from 2014 to 2017.<br />
Lil’ Drug Store acquired rights to<br />
bring new products to market under<br />
the No-Doz brand this year. No-<br />
Doz is the leading over-the-counter<br />
product for mental alertness, Mr.<br />
Marquardt said. The products are in<br />
Walmarts, Walgreens and grocery<br />
stores, and Lil’ Drug Store Products<br />
planned to bring them to market in<br />
the convenience store channel in<br />
November.<br />
The foundation of the new $13<br />
million headquarters was complete<br />
and the structure was going up in<br />
November.<br />
“The project is on track and we’re<br />
one year from the projected movein,”<br />
said Lil’ Drug Store President<br />
and CEO Chris DeWolf.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
PAGE 3<br />
20 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Folience's<br />
new CEO<br />
Daniel Goldstein<br />
discusses The<br />
Gazette Co.'s<br />
rebranding.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
Prospects for improved trade<br />
with China rise with<br />
ambassador appointment<br />
China's then-Vice President Xi Jinping is welcomed on stage by Gov. Terry Branstad on Feb. 15, 2012, a the<br />
Mr. Branstad toasted Mr. Xi and the long-lasting friendship between Iowa a<br />
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<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 21
Companies are leveraging mobile devices and apps in<br />
increasingly creative ways to keep customers engaged by<br />
pushing out information about new products or services,<br />
making shopping easier and tempting them with deals.<br />
less and use the internet for more purchases.<br />
Leadership trio at Central State Bank<br />
brings an entrepreneurial approach to the<br />
Corridor’s banking scene.<br />
By Adam Moore<br />
adam@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Guaranty Bank & Trust, one of the Corridor’s<br />
oldest banking brands, is joining<br />
one of its newest as part of a $44.2<br />
million deal announced June 9.<br />
QCR Holdings, the Moline-based<br />
parent company of Cedar Rapids Bank<br />
& Trust (CRBT), has agreed to purchase<br />
all of Guaranty Bankshares’ stock and<br />
assets, and will merge Guaranty Bank<br />
into CRBT’s operations once the transaction<br />
closes later this year.<br />
No decisions have yet been made on<br />
the banks’ offices or staffing, leaders<br />
said. Guaranty has five offices, including<br />
its headquarters at Third Street and<br />
Third Avenue; CRBT counts two offices<br />
in Cedar Rapids. Its headquarters is located<br />
at 500 First Ave. NE, three blocks<br />
away from Guaranty’s main office.<br />
The sale brings an end to the 83-yearold<br />
Guaranty brand, but leaders framed<br />
the deal as an opportunity to build<br />
scale and expand their footprint with a<br />
like-minded partner.<br />
“Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust has a local<br />
board, their leadership is very local.<br />
They make the decisions here as far as<br />
what loans to make and what community<br />
activities to be involved in,” said<br />
Chris Lindell, president and CEO of<br />
Guaranty Bank. “Being a local, community<br />
bank and being involved – we want<br />
that to continue on.”<br />
Larry Helling, president and CEO of<br />
CRBT, recalled that he met the bank’s<br />
then-owner, Harold Becker, and his<br />
son, Robert, around 25 years ago in<br />
Omaha at a bar mitzvah for Harold’s<br />
grandson. The leaders maintained that<br />
relationship over the years, opening the<br />
door to talks after Harold’s death last<br />
May and Robert’s move to chairman of<br />
the board.<br />
“That’s the way a lot of business<br />
deals come together – you build a relationship,”<br />
Mr. Helling said. “I knew<br />
M&A<br />
CRBT acquires Guaranty Bank<br />
in $44M deal<br />
Merger forms second-largest bank in CR market<br />
Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust's headquarters at 500 First Ave. NE in Cedar Rapids shown in<br />
an undated photo. PHOTO POINT BUILDERS<br />
[the Becker family] on a different level,<br />
and because of that, it was a natural<br />
fit for us.”<br />
The acquisition will make CRBT the<br />
largest community bank chartered in<br />
Linn County, with the banks reporting<br />
combined assets of almost $1.2 billion<br />
as of March 31. It will also make CRBT<br />
the second-largest in deposit share in<br />
the county, behind U.S. Bank, with the<br />
banks reporting $946 million in deposits<br />
that same month.<br />
That increased size will help CRBT<br />
compete in an industry where “scale<br />
matters,” Mr. Helling said, allowing it<br />
to offer more services and cope with<br />
the nation’s current period of “long,<br />
low, protracted” interest rates. It will<br />
also give the bank more resources to<br />
deal with the complex regulatory environment<br />
and develop more technologies<br />
for customers, who are demanding<br />
them from banks of all sizes.<br />
“As a community<br />
bank, at our size, it’s really<br />
hard. Today, we’re<br />
fine, but in 10 years<br />
from now?” Mr. Lindell<br />
said. “This gets it to the<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
6.19.17<br />
right scale, where it needs to be.”<br />
CRBT’s acquisition will also allow it<br />
to better serve “the entire marketplace”<br />
through an expanded branch network,<br />
Mr. Helling said. The deal will double<br />
the size of CRBT’s retail business, while<br />
also bringing a book of “meaningful<br />
commercial business” to its folio.<br />
The acquisition is the latest for QCR<br />
Holdings, which owns Quad Cities<br />
Bank & Trust, and last May purchased<br />
Community State Bank, based in Ankeny.<br />
That bank was bought from Van<br />
Dienst Investment Co. for $80 million.<br />
Guaranty Bank & Trust was organized<br />
and founded in 1934 by Van<br />
Vechten Shaffer. Robert Becker’s grandfather,<br />
Orrie Becker, was a founding<br />
shareholder, and Harold Becker purchased<br />
control of the bank from Mr.<br />
Shaffer in 1969. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 19 - 25, 2017<br />
FUTURE OF RETAIL<br />
Swipe for speed<br />
& savings<br />
Bankers Trust hits 100<br />
As the state's largest community bank<br />
marks its centennial year this month, it’s<br />
celebrating more than just longevity.<br />
Guaranty to CRBT<br />
PAGE 3<br />
UPDATE<br />
CRBT makes<br />
it official<br />
It’s been a few months of change for<br />
customers of Cedar Rapids-based<br />
Guaranty Bank.<br />
Customers received letters explaining<br />
the merger and switchover<br />
to Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT)<br />
in November, said President and<br />
CEO Larry Helling, and the banks’<br />
data processing systems were officially<br />
merged on Dec. 4. CRBT signage<br />
also went up on former Guaranty<br />
branches in early December.<br />
Mr. Helling said he expected the<br />
transition to have a minimal impact<br />
on client service. While two former<br />
Guaranty locations were closed in<br />
the merger – the bank’s headquarters<br />
at the corner of Third Street and<br />
Third Avenue in downtown Cedar<br />
Rapids and a branch location on<br />
42nd Street NE – those employees<br />
were moved to nearby branches,<br />
ensuring that customers will continue<br />
to see “the same faces,” Mr.<br />
Helling said. No other significant<br />
staff changes are expected.<br />
The next decision to be made<br />
will center around the former Guaranty<br />
headquarters building, which<br />
is situated on a prime corner downtown.<br />
Mr. Helling said the bank<br />
is working with the city of Cedar<br />
Rapids to “identify appropriate developers<br />
who will hopefully turn<br />
that into something very nice for<br />
the city,” but added “it won’t be us,<br />
we’re not developers.”<br />
CRBT surpassed the $1 billion<br />
asset mark in September, making it<br />
the second largest bank in the Cedar<br />
Rapids market and the largest<br />
community bank headquartered in<br />
Linn County. The bank’s newfound<br />
scale will allow it to offer additional<br />
account products and make larger<br />
loans, Mr. Helling said, adding “as<br />
clients grow, we’ll be able to grow<br />
with them.”<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
Retailers turning to mobile apps<br />
Guaranty Bank ends its 83-yea run<br />
fo lowing its $44 mi lion sale to Cedar<br />
to lure and keep customers<br />
Rapids Bank & Trust.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
22 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Ed. note: This is the last part in the <strong>CBJ</strong>’s series on the Future of<br />
Retail. Find our past installments at h tp://bit.ly/<strong>CBJ</strong>FutureofRetail.<br />
The smartphone is increasingly the tie that binds consumers<br />
to their favorite retailers.<br />
Startup banking<br />
It’s a strategy driven by necessity, as consumers get out<br />
PAGE 8<br />
“Three years ago, we started to invest in all things mobile,”<br />
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said during the<br />
company’s Investor Day presenta<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q
A Stronger, Combined<br />
Community Bank.<br />
Visit www.crbt.com for our new locations and teams<br />
Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender
Who's the Best of the<br />
Corridor? Grab the n<br />
How Our Obsessions Are<br />
Changing What We Buy<br />
MID-YEAR ECONOMIC REVIEW<br />
Corridor’s biggest business<br />
stories of 2017 (so far)<br />
A SEASON for mergers<br />
Rockwell primed the Corridor’s recent M&A storm<br />
by completing its $8.3 billion acquisition of North<br />
Carolina-based B/E Aerospace on April 13. Then<br />
in June, in rapid fire, John Deere announced its<br />
$5.2 billion purchase of global road construction<br />
equipment maker Wirtgen Group, Cedar Rapids<br />
Bank & Trust bought Guaranty Bank for $44 million,<br />
and publicly-traded tech company Trimble<br />
acquired Innovative Software Engineering (ISE)<br />
for an undisclosed amount.<br />
Headquarters rising<br />
Hawkeye Hotels last week officially opened the<br />
doors on its new headquarters in Coralville,<br />
while both Crystal Group in Hiawatha and Lil’<br />
Drug Store Products in Cedar Rapids recently announced<br />
big-dollar headquarter expansions and<br />
construction. The new Watts Group headquarters<br />
on Coralville’s Oakdale Boulevard also opened in<br />
April.<br />
Talent in development<br />
A key regional leadership position was filled in<br />
May when the Cedar Rapids<br />
Metro Economic Alliance<br />
and ICAD Group<br />
announced Jennifer<br />
Daly will be the first<br />
CEO of their new<br />
workforce and economic<br />
development<br />
joint venture. She will<br />
arrive this month from<br />
her post as CEO of the<br />
Greater Peoria Economic<br />
Development Council in<br />
Kim Casko<br />
Peoria, Illinois. Simultaneously,<br />
the Alliance announced that interim CEO<br />
Doug Neumann will serve as the organization’s<br />
executive director. Kim Casko, president and CEO<br />
of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce,<br />
meanwhile, settled into her role after arriving in<br />
September 2016 from ACT.<br />
Compiled by Dave DeWitte and Adam Moore<br />
news@corridorbusiness.com<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
7.3.17<br />
C-suite changes<br />
CRST and Bankers Trust<br />
both announced big<br />
C-suite changes earlier<br />
this year, with Group<br />
President and COO<br />
Hugh Eckberg slated<br />
to take over for CEO<br />
Dave Rusch at CRST,<br />
and Des Moines President<br />
Don Coffin to<br />
follow CEO Suku Radia<br />
at Bankers Trust Company.<br />
Iowa City’s MetaCommunications<br />
named former Nautilus<br />
chief executive Gregg Hammann president<br />
and CEO in April, closing a period of uncertainty<br />
following Bob Long’s departure last October.<br />
Startup scene<br />
The Cedar Rapids startup Acre Broadband<br />
launched fundraising this spring for the first phase<br />
of a large project to create a statewide wireless mesh<br />
network to offer rural residents high-speed Internet,<br />
as well as voice and navigation services. At the<br />
Iowa Startup Accelerator in Cedar Rapids, the first<br />
two startup teams were announced in March under<br />
a longer, but less intense, one-year program format<br />
that will help participants who want to maintain<br />
their student or employment status while completing<br />
the program. And in Iowa City, the new<br />
MERGE space opened at 136 S. Dubuque St. to<br />
offer entrepreneurs and startups resources, space<br />
and a network to help them launch successfully in<br />
June with support from ICAD Group and the UI’s<br />
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and Office<br />
of Research and Economic Development.<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JULY 3 - 9, 2017<br />
Mid-Year 2017<br />
Reviewing the first six months<br />
and looking ahead<br />
Despite all of this year’s<br />
political drama, in many<br />
ways the story remains the<br />
same for business:<br />
Labor remains tight, taxes<br />
and health care are status<br />
quo, and growth comes at a<br />
premium. But there are also<br />
reasons to be optimistic,<br />
as consumers continue<br />
to spend, energy prices<br />
stay low and deregulation<br />
Gregg Hammann<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
Robin Therme, president of CIVCO,<br />
discusses the changes in the medical<br />
device market.<br />
PAGE 22<br />
RSM economist<br />
Keynote speaker Joseph Brusuelas, chief<br />
economist of RSM US LLP, kicked o f the<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> Mid-Year Economic Review.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Big stories<br />
Five of the Corridor's<br />
biggest business<br />
stories of 2017 (so far).<br />
PAGE 6<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> Book Club<br />
UPDATE<br />
Mergers, leadership<br />
changes continue<br />
Two of the Corridor’s biggest story threads at the midpoint<br />
of the year continued to develop through the fall.<br />
The <strong>CBJ</strong> reported on no less than 16 corporate deals between<br />
July and November, including United Fire Group’s<br />
sale of its United Life division for (see page 32) and United<br />
Technologies’ $30 billion bid for Rockwell Collins (page<br />
30). Other notable acquisitions included Heartland Express’<br />
$113 million deal to purchase Interstate Distributors<br />
Co. in July; food giant Cargill’s deal to buy Cedar<br />
Rapids-based Diamond V; and Motion Industries’ deal to<br />
acquire Cedar Rapids-based Apache Inc.<br />
When it comes to leadership changes, MetaCommunications<br />
set the pace this summer, hiring Patrick Tierney<br />
as chief financial officer, Vanessa McDonald as chief development<br />
officer and promoting Ali Ahmad to chief operating<br />
officer.<br />
Urbana-based e-commerce company Clickstop<br />
launched a shared-services model in August that included<br />
the creation of a new leadership team. Members included<br />
Tom Altman, chief technology officer; Tammy Karr,<br />
president of the Clickstop Accelerator team; Todd Kuennen,<br />
chief intelligence officer and executive vice president;<br />
Monica Steffeck, chief talent enrichment officer; Chad<br />
Brandmeyer, chief financial officer; and Phil Akin, chief<br />
marketing officer. August also saw the promotion of Tad<br />
Cooper to president and chief operating officer of Acterra<br />
Group, a full-service energy services and development<br />
firm based in Marion.<br />
In September, Aaron Horn was named the new chief<br />
operating officer of NewBoCo, the Cedar Rapids-based<br />
innovation and entrepreneurial hub, while Dennis Murdock,<br />
executive vice president and CEO with Central Iowa<br />
Power Cooperative (CIPCO), retired after nearly three decades<br />
in his role.<br />
In October, the University of Iowa named J. Brooks<br />
Jackson to lead UI Health Care, which includes the Roy J.<br />
and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, the UI Hospitals<br />
and Clinics and UI Physicians. Dr. Jackson comes from the<br />
University of Minnesota, where he served as the vice president<br />
for health sciences and dean of the medical school.<br />
In November, Kimberly Maes was named to lead CRST<br />
Logistics Inc., one of CRST International’s eight operating<br />
companies, after most recently serving as president of<br />
Swift Logistics LLC.<br />
Local leaders moving on or retiring include Lee Belfield,<br />
the general manager of The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Iowa’s<br />
only teaching hotel, and Syniverse President and CEO<br />
Steve Gray, who announced that he will retire from the Orlando-based<br />
telecommunications tech company in February<br />
<strong>2018</strong>. Mr. Gray, of Cedar Rapids, has invested in and led<br />
a series of successful startups in the Corridor through his<br />
venture firm, Gray Venture Partners.<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
accelerates.<br />
Review of "Superfandom:<br />
INSIDE: Analysis and expert<br />
and Who We Are."<br />
24 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
opinion on the challenges<br />
and opportunities ahead.<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWS QUIZ<br />
PAGE 21<br />
Test your comprehension with the<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> News Quiz, compiled from stories<br />
appearing over the last month. How<br />
we l have you been fo lowing the news?<br />
PAGE 23<br />
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IOWA CITY—Grubhub, the mobile food<br />
ordering and delivery giant, has been gobbling<br />
up the competition in recent months,<br />
leaving some restaurateurs wondering<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
The decision, announced last week, to<br />
phase out the full-time MBA program<br />
that the University of Iowa’s Tippie<br />
College of business had offered for 56<br />
years made big headlines, and it wasn’t<br />
an easy one, Tippie Dean Sarah Fisher<br />
Gardial said.<br />
Nevertheless, the day after the Aug.<br />
22 announcement, Ms. Gardial’s inbox<br />
received a stream of emails from other<br />
deans and academic professionals,<br />
many of them praising the UI for making<br />
a tough but smart move.<br />
Academic leaders have seen full-time<br />
MBA enrollment slipping for years, Ms.<br />
Gardial said, but have been reluctant<br />
to drop the programs because they are<br />
highly visible in national rankings of<br />
business schools by publications such<br />
as U.S. News & World Report and the<br />
Princeton Review.<br />
“We have finally decided the trends<br />
are undeniable, and rather than continue<br />
to put resources into a program<br />
that’s in decline, we need to prepare for<br />
the future,” Ms. Gardial said.<br />
The UI’s full-time MBA program enrollment<br />
has fallen from 140 in 2010<br />
to 100 in 2017, and makes up only<br />
one-eleventh of this year’s record MBA<br />
enrollment of 1,101. The remaining<br />
students are in evening and weekend<br />
programs like the growing Professional<br />
MBA and Executive MBA, which are designed<br />
to enable students to complete<br />
their studies while they continue working<br />
full-time.<br />
“The market’s not demanding less<br />
MBAs, especially for people who want<br />
to ascend to the top ranks of leadership,”<br />
Ms. Gardial noted. “What has<br />
changed is the demand on the part of<br />
students and the workplace.”<br />
EDUCATION<br />
MBA phaseout<br />
a tough call for UI<br />
Those pursuing MBAs are increasingly<br />
taking evening and weekend programs<br />
because they don’t want to put their careers<br />
on pause or run up as much college<br />
debt, said Ms. Gardial,<br />
who arrived at the UI five<br />
years ago. The UI and other<br />
universities have also seen a<br />
weakening in full-time MBA<br />
applications from international<br />
students – a trend<br />
some attribute to the Trump<br />
administration’s tougher<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
8.28.17<br />
stance on immigration.<br />
“You could call it the<br />
Trump effect or the Brexit<br />
effect,” Ms. Gardial said,<br />
noting that she first experienced<br />
it during a visit to England<br />
after its vote to leave<br />
the European Union. Soon<br />
after the vote, she said it became clear<br />
to business colleges in England that foreign<br />
interest in attendance was waning,<br />
apparently due to concerns about how<br />
welcoming the country would be to foreign<br />
nationals.<br />
Ms. Gardial said the constraints of<br />
state education funding in Iowa – a decades-long<br />
trend that has led to sizable<br />
tuition hikes – were one of the factors<br />
in the decision, but noted that discontinuation<br />
of the program had been<br />
discussed even before her arrival, and<br />
long before current university funding<br />
shortfalls. If it appeared that the fulltime<br />
MBA program was worth saving,<br />
she said she was willing to go the fundraising<br />
route to help sustain it.<br />
The UI will instead redeploy faculty<br />
and staff associated with the full-time<br />
program to its Professional MBA and<br />
Executive MBA programs,<br />
and to specialized offerings<br />
like a new master’s<br />
degree in finance that will<br />
be launched in the fall of<br />
<strong>2018</strong>. No faculty or staff<br />
layoffs will result, Ms. Gardial<br />
said.<br />
The UI offers MBA courses<br />
not only on campus, but<br />
in Davenport, Cedar Rapids<br />
and Des Moines. It also<br />
Sarah Fisher offers international MBA<br />
Gardial programs in Hong Kong<br />
UI Tippie Dean and Italy.<br />
If the Iowa Board of Regents<br />
concurs after a presentation<br />
on the decision scheduled for<br />
Sept. 6, the UI’s last full-time MBA students<br />
will graduate in May 2019.<br />
If the Tippie College of Business’<br />
reputation does suffer from the move,<br />
it may be because it will no longer<br />
appear in some rankings of MBA programs.<br />
Ms. Gardial said the UI’s MBA<br />
programs have typically scored best in<br />
measures of value to students, which<br />
compare the gain in salaries before and<br />
after graduation.<br />
Still, she said most publications now<br />
rank business colleges on a variety of<br />
degree programs, not just full-time<br />
MBAs, ensuring the UI won’t be overlooked.<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong><br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I AUG. 28 - SEPT. 3, 2017<br />
Eating the competition<br />
Cargofy hits the road<br />
Iowa Startup Accelerator participants Stakh<br />
and Natal ia Vozniak look to launch their<br />
promising logistics app in the U.S. market.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
MBA<br />
phaseout<br />
Announced last<br />
week, to phase out<br />
the full-time MBA<br />
program tha the<br />
University of Iowa’s<br />
Tippie Co lege of<br />
business.<br />
PAGE 6<br />
UPDATE<br />
Tippie leads<br />
the way<br />
The decision by UI’s Tippie College<br />
of Business to end its full-time MBA<br />
program turned out to be in the vanguard<br />
of a trend that in October saw<br />
King’s College in London become<br />
the first leading British university<br />
to open a business school not offering<br />
the degree and the University of<br />
Wisconsin’s briefly consider closing<br />
its own full-time program.<br />
UW leaders reversed their proposal<br />
to temporarily stop admissions<br />
into the program for a review<br />
less than a week after it became<br />
public, following complaints from<br />
students and alumni, according to<br />
a news report.<br />
The question facing business<br />
schools is, “do we stay in a shrinking<br />
market with ever-decreasing<br />
payouts, or do we move out to areas<br />
that represent growth?” Tippie<br />
Dean Sarah Fisher Gardial asked in<br />
a conference call with reporters earlier<br />
this year.<br />
Students, and schools like Iowa,<br />
Wake Forest University, Virginia<br />
Tech and Simmons College, are increasingly<br />
answering that question<br />
“no.” According to a report by the<br />
General Management Admissions<br />
Council (GMAC), only 40 percent<br />
of full-time, two-year MBA programs<br />
in the U.S. reported receiving<br />
an increase in applications in 2016;<br />
48 percent reported a decline. And<br />
an October Fortune Magazine article,<br />
“What’s Killing U.S. Business<br />
Schools?” argues that trend is likely<br />
to continue<br />
Tippie, which moved up two<br />
spots in the U.S. News and World<br />
Report ranking of business schools<br />
to No. 31 this fall, has shifted its<br />
focus to specialized master’s programs,<br />
like its new master of science<br />
in business analytics, and plans to<br />
increase investment in its MBA programs<br />
for working professionals,<br />
according to a recent press release.<br />
- Katharine Carlon<br />
26 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Grubhub’s purchase of OrderUp leaving<br />
some IC businesses with a bad taste<br />
By Steve Gravelle<br />
Running the Roost<br />
The Tin Roost opened this month on one of<br />
North Liberty’s busiest roads, and promises<br />
to have enough room for the whole gang.<br />
PAGE 5<br />
where they fit in the company’s strategy.<br />
On Aug. 1, Chicago-based Grubhub<br />
served by Groupon subsidiary OrderUp,<br />
which arrived in Iowa City in the summer<br />
of 2015. Three days later, Grubhub bought<br />
Eat24, Yelp’s food-delivery service.<br />
When Grubhub announced the OrderUp<br />
acquisition, a company spokeswoman<br />
said OrderUp’s brand would be phased<br />
out. The company's Iowa City webpage is<br />
rants in Iowa City under the Grubhub brand<br />
and are working with Groupon to transition<br />
a l of the restaurants over to our ecosystem<br />
in the coming months,” Grubhub spokeswoman<br />
Katie Norris wrote in an email. “OrderUp<br />
diners will also join the Grubhub<br />
platform and be able to order from new and<br />
Taste of Iowa City<br />
completed a deal to acquire all 27 markets<br />
still active, although that will change.<br />
“We intend<br />
existing Grubhub restaurants.”<br />
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<strong>CBJ</strong><br />
of business at Mount<br />
Mercy University,<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
The retirement of the baby boom generation<br />
is playing out in various ways<br />
in the Corridor, but none more visible<br />
than the current surge in senior living<br />
developments.<br />
More than a half-dozen senior living<br />
projects totaling more than $55 million<br />
in investment have been completed in<br />
the past year, and nearly a dozen more<br />
are in progress. When those additional<br />
projects are completed over the next two<br />
years, the total investment will approach<br />
a quarter of a billion dollars.<br />
The projects will bring at least 1,359<br />
new living units onto the market by the<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong>’s count, producing ripple effects in<br />
everything from demand for workers<br />
and development services to municipal<br />
property taxes.<br />
As one project after another unfolded<br />
in 2016, it began to seem like overbuilding<br />
was imminent. But experts say that<br />
virtually every project has been based<br />
on careful market analysis, and that even<br />
more development could be coming.<br />
“This is historic in nature – there’s<br />
never been anything close to this,” said<br />
Scott Olson of Skogman Commercial,<br />
who has served as a real estate advisor<br />
to about half of the new senior living<br />
projects under development in the Cedar<br />
Rapids metro.<br />
The reasons include a demographic<br />
shift with the retirement of the huge<br />
baby boom generation (see page 4), and<br />
the strong financial returns being generated<br />
by senior living facilities built in<br />
recent years.<br />
Iowa’s senior population is forecast<br />
to grow by 26 percent, or 218,000<br />
people, from 2010-2020, according to<br />
a 2012 study conducted for the Iowa<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
9.4.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 4 - 10, 2017<br />
Senior Lifestyles<br />
A golden<br />
opportunity<br />
Inside the Corridor’s senior housing boom<br />
Senior Lifestyles<br />
A golden opportunity<br />
Inside the Corridor’s senior housing boom<br />
28 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Seniors leave The Gardens, a new senior living facility at 5710 Dean Road SW, Cedar Rapids,<br />
after touring the facility during an Aug. 10 grand opening event. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE<br />
Finance Authority. Seniors between the<br />
ages of 65-75 are forecast to comprise 88<br />
percent of that growth.<br />
The report projects 27,000 additional<br />
housing units will be needed over that<br />
time period, with demand in the East<br />
Central region – encompassing much of<br />
the Corridor – expected to average 410<br />
units annually.<br />
The boom in senior housing is happening<br />
in all parts of the country. In<br />
the second quarter of 2017, 6,600 new<br />
senior housing units hit the market, according<br />
to the NIC MAP Data Service,<br />
the largest number since it began tracking<br />
the market in 2006.<br />
Development projects include both<br />
profit and nonprofit ventures; many involve<br />
partnerships between senior living<br />
operators and real estate developers. They<br />
are backed by senior living chains, local<br />
investors and seasoned real estate investors,<br />
and sometimes receive gap financing<br />
assistance from local governments<br />
and federal loan guarantees.<br />
Projects include<br />
a broad range of<br />
facility types, from<br />
New ISA teams<br />
Startups focused on easing some of life's<br />
less-enjoyable decisions are joining the<br />
Iowa Startup Accelerator.<br />
PAGE 12<br />
NewBoCo<br />
hires COO<br />
Aaron Horn to step<br />
into newly created<br />
role as NewBoCo<br />
gears up for next<br />
stage of growth.<br />
PAGE 8<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
Nathan Klein,<br />
associate professor<br />
affordable senior living apartments to independent<br />
living, assisted living, skilled<br />
care, and continuum of care communities.<br />
One of the most telling signs regarding<br />
the momentum in the Corridor’s<br />
senior housing market is that some of<br />
the area’s oldest and most established<br />
communities are still expanding. The<br />
Oaknoll Retirement Community, one of<br />
the largest in the Corridor, completed its<br />
70-unit Spring Street Addition in 2015.<br />
In Cedar Rapids, Meth-Wick Community,<br />
one of the state’s oldest and largest<br />
senior communities, will complete the<br />
addition of 18 large independent living<br />
units this fall.<br />
“This is a little unique for the whole<br />
Corridor,” Meth-Wick CEO Robin Mixdorf<br />
said. “There’s been a real uptick in<br />
new construction, which leads you to<br />
believe that these developers have identified<br />
a demand for senior housing. This<br />
is probably the largest uptick I’ve seen in<br />
my [18-year] time at Meth-Wick.”<br />
Developers like Ewing Development<br />
of Pella are scouting sites, and city planners<br />
in several Corridor communities said<br />
they’ve fielded inquiries from others.<br />
SENIOR PAGE 46<br />
UPDATE<br />
The boom<br />
continues<br />
The largest senior housing buildout<br />
in the history of the Corridor<br />
rolled on as 2017 came to a close,<br />
with an assortment of large projects<br />
under way, one starting and<br />
one more reaching completion.<br />
Meth-Wick Community announced<br />
in October it had completed<br />
construction of Oakwood,<br />
its newest condominium offering<br />
in the 68-acre Cedar Rapids<br />
senior living community.<br />
The three-story building has six<br />
condominiums on each floor,<br />
ranging in size from 1,116-1,822<br />
square feet.<br />
The high-end condominiums<br />
offer as much space as many<br />
single-family homes and afford<br />
a higher degree of privacy than<br />
most senior living alternatives,<br />
Meth-Wick President Robin Mixdorf<br />
said, but also offer access to<br />
on-campus dining, programs and<br />
services.<br />
A groundbreaking was held<br />
Nov. 17 for Stoney Point Meadows,<br />
a 95-unit, $19 million assisted<br />
living and memory care facility<br />
at 16th Avenue and Stoney<br />
Point Road SW in Cedar Rapids<br />
developed by Bob Samples with<br />
a large group of local investors.<br />
Construction on the facility,<br />
which will include a mix of 67 assisted<br />
living and 28 memory care<br />
units, is expected to be complete<br />
in November <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
Major continuing care communities<br />
under development<br />
through the winter months will<br />
include Grand Living at Bridgewater<br />
in Coralville, Grand Living<br />
at Indian Creek in Cedar Rapids,<br />
and two projects in Marion: Terrace<br />
Glen Village and The Views<br />
Senior Living of Marion.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
talks leadership and<br />
world travel.<br />
PAGE 26
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attention of the media and analysts.<br />
than it was worth<br />
United Technologies (UTC)<br />
agreed to pay $30 billion for<br />
Rockwell Collins, the global avionics<br />
manufacturer based in Cedar Rapids,<br />
earning it the title of the largest aerospace acquisition<br />
in history by the Wall Street Journal.<br />
The offer of $140 per share for Rockwell was an 18 percent premium<br />
over the company’s trading price before news of the deal broke in<br />
Dana Larson, executive director of<br />
communications and marketing a the<br />
University of Iowa Foundation, talks about<br />
the power of giving back.<br />
A new kind of competition in Iowa City<br />
is aiming to explore the intersection of<br />
technology and fashion.<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
United Technologies (UTC) agreed to<br />
pay $30 billion for Rockwell Collins,<br />
the global avionics manufacturer based<br />
in Cedar Rapids, earning it the title of<br />
the largest aerospace acquisition<br />
in history by the Wall<br />
Street Journal.<br />
The offer of $140 per<br />
share for Rockwell was an<br />
18 percent premium over<br />
the company’s trading price<br />
before news of the deal<br />
broke in August, and drew<br />
criticism from some analysts<br />
that UTC was overpaying.<br />
The Connecticut-based<br />
conglomerate expects to<br />
borrow about $15 billion of<br />
the purchase price, possibly paying off<br />
the debt by selling off other business<br />
units, and earned some minor credit<br />
rating downgrades as a result.<br />
For Rockwell shareholders – most<br />
of them large institutional investors – it<br />
felt more like Christmas. They would<br />
be able to sell their stock for 67.7 percent<br />
more than it was worth on Oct.<br />
24, 2016, right after Rockwell Collins<br />
announced its own $8.6 billion acquisition<br />
of B/E Aerospace.<br />
UTC CEO and Chairman Greg Hayes<br />
said the strategic benefits Rockwell Collins<br />
could bring made the price worth it.<br />
“When you’re buying beachfront<br />
property, I think it’s a pretty good deal,”<br />
Mr. Hayes said on CNBC’s “Squawk on<br />
the Street.”<br />
Another number may be more important<br />
to Rockwell Collins employees<br />
and shareholders in the Corridor,<br />
however: $500 million. That’s UTC’s<br />
estimate of the cost synergies expected<br />
to result from the merger in the fourth<br />
year after it is finalized, and Rockwell<br />
M&A<br />
The $500M question in<br />
UTC’s Rockwell deal<br />
As Wall Street digested the deal announced Sept. 4 for United<br />
Technologies Corp. to buy Rockwell Collins, one number in particular<br />
grabbed the attention of the media and analysts.<br />
Kelly Ortberg<br />
Collins is reorganized into a new Collins<br />
Aerospace Systems business unit, to<br />
be run by Rockwell Chairman and CEO<br />
Kelly Ortberg.<br />
Cost synergies are the gravy that Wall<br />
Street analysts savor from big mergers,<br />
and can come from things like combining<br />
headquarters, closing<br />
or selling excess factory<br />
space and trimming sales<br />
forces. But a number of academic<br />
studies find that big<br />
mergers usually fail to deliver<br />
the benefits promised to<br />
shareholders through higher<br />
earnings and stock price performance.<br />
“The question is, are the<br />
synergies great enough to<br />
justify the price being paid?”<br />
said Amrita Nain, a University<br />
of Iowa associate professor of finance<br />
who has reviewed the literature and published<br />
some of her own studies on the<br />
outcomes of acquisitions and mergers.<br />
Ms. Nain said acquisition synergies<br />
include both cost synergies and revenue<br />
synergies. She described the latter as “2<br />
+ 2 = 5” enhancements that can come<br />
from things like cross-selling products,<br />
or innovations that combine the advantages<br />
of products from both companies.<br />
Those synergies tend to be more difficult<br />
to quantify and achieve, Ms. Nain<br />
said. In fact, UTC did not try to quantify<br />
them in announcing the merger.<br />
In such large company mergers, Ms.<br />
Nain said most do not produce the<br />
big shareholder advantages promised.<br />
Roughly 20 percent are significantly<br />
harmful to shareholder value, and<br />
about 60 percent result<br />
in no significant<br />
change, despite the<br />
oft-promised improvements.<br />
When they fail<br />
to boost shareholder<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
9.11.17<br />
value as promised, she said, it’s usually<br />
because the synergies they expected<br />
weren’t realized.<br />
A synergy shortfall could affect<br />
Rockwell Collins shareholders because<br />
one-third of their payment for the deal<br />
will be in UTC stock, Ms. Nain said. It<br />
could become an issue for employees<br />
if the synergies in expected areas don’t<br />
materialize, forcing UTC to look for<br />
other ways to reduce costs.<br />
In a conference call with analysts on<br />
Sept. 5, Mr. Hayes expressed confidence<br />
UTC can achieve its synergy target<br />
through a reduction in public company<br />
and SG&A (selling, general and administrative)<br />
costs, greater efficiencies in<br />
procurement and increased productivity<br />
in factories.<br />
The acquisition “is not about closing<br />
a lot of factories,” Mr. Hayes said during<br />
the CNBC interview – a theme reflected<br />
in a statement that came directly from<br />
Rockwell Collins.<br />
“United Technologies’ announced<br />
acquisition of Rockwell Collins is expected<br />
to have minimal impact on the<br />
company’s overall presence in Iowa,”<br />
read the statement, released through<br />
spokesman Josh Baynes. “The majority<br />
of jobs in the state are driven by design,<br />
engineering and manufacturing of<br />
our products and systems, and there is<br />
virtually no overlap between our work<br />
done in Iowa and UTC’s portfolios.”<br />
The overlap is “only a couple hundred<br />
million dollars” of product sales,<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 11 - 17, 2017<br />
The $500 million question in<br />
UTC’s Rockwell Collins deal<br />
By Dave DeWitte | dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
As Wall Street digested the deal announced Sept.<br />
4 for United Technologies Corp. to buy Rockwell<br />
Collins, one number in particular grabbed the<br />
ROCKWELL PAGE 43<br />
Cutting costs<br />
Former Marine Capt. Aaron Serrano<br />
discusses the growth of Military Cost<br />
Cu ters and its recent move.<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q<br />
PAGE 3<br />
UPDATE<br />
Uncertain<br />
future ahead<br />
United Technologies Corp. (UTC)<br />
remains on track to close its acquisition<br />
of Rockwell Collins in the third<br />
quarter of fiscal <strong>2018</strong>, with plans to<br />
create a new Collins Aerospace Systems<br />
business folding in its Aerospace<br />
Systems businesses, including<br />
components suppliers Goodrich<br />
and Hamilton Sundstrand.<br />
The next hurdle is a vote by Rockwell’s<br />
shareholders, expected in February.<br />
At least five lawsuits seeking<br />
class-action status have been filed<br />
against the merger in U.S. district<br />
court – a common occurrence in<br />
most corporate transactions – although<br />
share-price moves since the<br />
deal’s announcement suggest that a<br />
majority of shareholders expect the<br />
deal to pass as planned. No vote is<br />
required of UTC’s shareholders.<br />
The bigger challenge could be securing<br />
regulatory approvals in timely<br />
matter. UTC and Rockwell will need<br />
17 different approvals from global<br />
regulators, including China and the<br />
European Union, and some analysts<br />
have suggested that the company’s<br />
final size – at an estimated $68 billion<br />
in annual sales – could make<br />
it a target for regulators concerned<br />
about the accelerating pace of consolidation<br />
in the aerospace industry.<br />
While corporate leaders have emphasized<br />
the fact that there will be little<br />
product overlap between Rockwell<br />
and UTC, EU regulators are expected<br />
to raise concerns over the combined<br />
company’s overall size and its ability<br />
to apply leverage on suppliers. That<br />
argument was used to scuttle GE’s<br />
proposed purchase of Honeywell in<br />
2001, Reuters reported.<br />
“If there is an issue, we expect<br />
it would be in Europe and/or China,<br />
because scope, rather than just<br />
scale, matters,” Sanford C. Bernstein<br />
& Co. analyst Doug Harned told the<br />
Journal.<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
PAGE 22<br />
30 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
Fashion Lab<br />
August, and drew criticism from some analysts that UTC was overpaying.<br />
The Connecticut-based conglomerate expects to borrow about $15 billion of<br />
the purchase price, possibly paying off the debt by selling off other business units,<br />
PAGE 9<br />
and earned some minor credit rating downgrades as a result.<br />
For Rockwell shareholders – most of them large institutional investors – it felt<br />
more like Christmas. They would be able to sell thei
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and seats of any airport in the region.<br />
TAMPA/<br />
ST. PETERSBURG<br />
(PIE)<br />
PUNTA GORDA/<br />
FT. MYERS<br />
(PGD)<br />
ORLANDO<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
AIRPORT<br />
(MCO)
By Dave DeWitte | dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
dealerships, and many others like it, they’re invaluable.<br />
Recent public filings reveal what Rockwe l<br />
Co lins leaders are being told abou the<br />
$30 bi lion deal to sell their company.<br />
INSURANCE<br />
UFG sells United Life<br />
for $280 million<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Spending $280 million to acquire the life insurance business<br />
of Cedar Rapids-based United Fire Group is part of a Chicago<br />
startup’s ambitious growth plans.<br />
United Fire Group (UFG) and Kuvare US Holdings announced<br />
on Sept. 19 that Kuvare will buy United Life Insurance<br />
Company next year for $280 million. UFG,<br />
which started the life insurance business in 1955,<br />
will sharpen its focus on its core property and<br />
casualty business, using the big capital infusion<br />
for share repurchases, shareholder dividends and<br />
potentially acquisitions.<br />
Spurring Kuvare’s interest in the deal is a vast<br />
opportunity to deliver more annuity and complex<br />
life insurance products to retiring baby boomers<br />
and other middle-market consumers, CEO Dhiren<br />
Jhaveri told the <strong>CBJ</strong> after the announcement.<br />
“What we like about United Life is that it enables<br />
us to deliver solutions throughout our customer’s<br />
life cycle,” Mr. Jhaveri said. “Particularly<br />
when you’re younger and just starting a family,<br />
you tend to look at protective products like the<br />
fantastic life insurance products United Life offers. As you get<br />
older, you look at more accumulation-oriented products, like<br />
annuities and more sophisticated life insurance policies.”<br />
Kuvare offers the latter kinds of products through Guaranty<br />
Income Life Insurance Co. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,<br />
which it acquired six months ago.<br />
As baby boomers stop earning a steady paycheck at retirement,<br />
Kuvare sees opportunities to sell them annuities<br />
that can provide a stream of predictable income from their<br />
retirement savings. Beyond that, Kuvare sees opportunities<br />
to sell them insurance products that will provide tax and<br />
convenience benefits for transferring wealth.<br />
The acquisition will bring “great cross-pollination from<br />
a product standpoint,” Mr. Jhaveri said, along with distribution<br />
synergies. United Life is sold exclusively through a<br />
network of independent insurance agents and brokers, while<br />
Guaranty Income Life is sold through community banks<br />
and independent marketing agencies. Kuvare’s ownership<br />
will allow both insurance companies’ sales channels to sell<br />
all of its products.<br />
Carlos Sierra, chief operating officer of Kuvare, will be<br />
a key architect of the integration of Guaranty Income Life,<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
9.25.17<br />
Randy Ramlo<br />
President and CEO<br />
of UFG<br />
United Life and a third Kuvare company, Kuvare Life Re,<br />
based in Bermuda. Although the United Life acquisition<br />
isn’t expected to close until the first half of <strong>2018</strong>, Mr. Sierra<br />
said the work is already beginning on how best to tap the<br />
synergies of the companies.<br />
About 46 employees of United Life, most of them working<br />
in Cedar Rapids, will be offered employment with Kuvare<br />
with no change in positions or salaries. Kuvare will sign a<br />
short-term lease agreement with UFG to enable<br />
them to remain in Cedar Rapids for a time, after<br />
which Mr. Jhaveri and Mr. Sierra said the company<br />
is committed to keeping a Cedar Rapids metro<br />
area presence.<br />
The 46 employees represent a small percentage<br />
of United Life’s 1,000-plus employees nationwide,<br />
of which more than 600 are in Cedar Rapids.<br />
Mr. Jhaveri said he’d been studying United Life<br />
over the past two years, becoming an admirer of its<br />
products and independent agent network. His interest<br />
in acquiring United Life aligned with UFG’s<br />
organizational plans, he said, and they worked<br />
through their respective advisors to develop a deal.<br />
The purchase works out to a roughly 20 percent<br />
premium over United Life’s book value, and<br />
will be paid in cash. The terms restrict UFG from reentering<br />
the life insurance business or soliciting any of its United Life<br />
employees for employment for two years after it is concluded,<br />
according to an SEC filing.<br />
UFG President and CEO Randy Ramlo said in a press release<br />
that the deal “establishes a solid future for our life insurance<br />
employees, insurance agents and customers, while<br />
allowing us to continue to build on the success of our property<br />
and casualty operations.” He said UFG plans to reinvest<br />
in its property and casualty business and surety operations,<br />
with initiatives such as a new technology platform to enhance<br />
underwriting decisions and productivity.<br />
The deal comes as UFG expands its downtown Cedar<br />
Rapids campus, a project including the construction of a<br />
new tower next to the American Building on First Avenue SE,<br />
and copes with a wave of property insurance claims resulting<br />
from hurricanes Harvey and Katrina.<br />
Mr. Jhaveri said the growth strategy of Kumare calls for<br />
both organic growth and more acquisitions that will add to its<br />
scale, but the company has no plans at present to go public.<br />
UFG shares rose on the deal, gaining nearly 3.5 percent before<br />
giving up some of the gains over the next two days. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I SEPT. 25 - OCT. 1, 2017<br />
Calling all customers<br />
Innovation EXPO<br />
If there’s waning interest in startups,<br />
you wouldn’t have guessed i touring the<br />
seventh-annual event.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
UPDATE<br />
On track for<br />
a <strong>2018</strong> close<br />
The $280 million acquisition of<br />
United Life by Kuvare US Holdings<br />
from United Fire Group (UFG) was<br />
on pace to be completed in the<br />
second quarter of <strong>2018</strong> as the year<br />
came to a close.<br />
“We’re working very closely with<br />
the leaders and management team<br />
on the transition plan that we will<br />
complete over the next two years,”<br />
CEO Dhiren Jhaveri said.<br />
Kuvare had completed its regulatory<br />
filings in connection with the<br />
acquisition at the end of October,<br />
Mr. Jhaveri said, and is awaiting<br />
regulatory approvals that could run<br />
into <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
No decisions were finalized regarding<br />
a separate office location<br />
for the employees of UFG in Cedar<br />
Rapids that will join Kuvare.<br />
Regardless of where the office is<br />
located, Mr. Jhaveri reinforced that<br />
“we expect to be a vibrant member<br />
of this community” and maintain a<br />
strong local presence.<br />
Chicago-based Kuvare US Holding<br />
continues to actively look at<br />
possible transactions that could<br />
add value and complement its existing<br />
businesses, Mr. Jhaveri said.<br />
UFG ended its third fiscal quarter<br />
with a loss of $17.9 million, or<br />
72 cents per share, but not due to<br />
its life insurance business. UFG incurred<br />
catastrophe losses of $30.7<br />
million resulting primarily from<br />
hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria,<br />
and said it experienced continued<br />
deterioration in its core loss<br />
ratio due to the increased severity<br />
of commercial auto losses. CEO<br />
Randy Ramlo said UFG is taking<br />
aggressive measures to bring those<br />
losses under control.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
32 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
They’ve become a predictable part of purchases – those<br />
reminders via email, sales receipt or the voice of a friendly cashier<br />
to fill out an online survey. They’re called Voice of the Customer<br />
(VOC) surveys, and to the largest Corridor-based chain of auto<br />
Ortberg on UTC<br />
PAGE 5<br />
UFG deal<br />
A Chicago startup<br />
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<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 33
Companies are leveraging mobile devices and apps in<br />
increasingly creative ways to keep customers engaged by<br />
pushing out information about new products or services,<br />
making shopping easier and tempting them with deals.<br />
less and use the internet for more purchases.<br />
Leadership trio at Central State Bank<br />
brings an entrepreneurial approach to the<br />
Corridor’s banking scene.<br />
EXPANSIONS<br />
Cardella & Associates plans<br />
largest expansion yet<br />
UPDATE<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Cedar Rapids-based Thomas L. Cardella<br />
& Associates (TLC) plans to add four new<br />
call centers and expand an Iowa call center<br />
in the next six months, marking the<br />
largest expansion in history for one of the<br />
Corridor’s fastest-growing companies.<br />
Founder and President Tom Cardella<br />
said the expansions will add 800 employees,<br />
most of them in the southwest,<br />
as the company increases capacity for<br />
about six new clients.<br />
TLC & Associates Founder Thomas Cardella, shown<br />
earlier this year. PHOTO DAVE DEWITTE<br />
“All these locations are already sold<br />
out,” Mr. Cardella said, adding that the<br />
company has its eye on one other expansion<br />
location in El Paso, Texas.<br />
The expansions currently planned are:<br />
• 75 additional employees and a<br />
4,000-square-foot building expansion<br />
at an existing call center in Keokuk. It<br />
will open in November.<br />
• A new contact center in eastern El<br />
Paso, with 150 employees. The center<br />
will complement an existing center in<br />
central El Paso and open in December.<br />
• A new contact center in Las Cruces,<br />
New Mexico, with 350 additional<br />
employees. It will open January <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
• A new call center in Marshalltown<br />
with 75 employees. It will open February<br />
<strong>2018</strong>.<br />
• A new call center at<br />
a soon-to-be-announced<br />
location in the southwestern<br />
United States with 150<br />
employees. It will open in<br />
March.<br />
The company provides<br />
a full range of customer<br />
contact services, including<br />
inbound calls, outbound<br />
calls, chat, email, business<br />
process outsourcing and<br />
fulfillment. It employs<br />
more than 1,500 at seven<br />
existing call centers in<br />
Iowa, Texas, Florida and<br />
the Dominican Republic.<br />
Mr. Cardella said the<br />
company gained new contracts<br />
partly by expanding<br />
its sales team late last year<br />
with some experienced<br />
talent, and partly because<br />
consolidation in the contact<br />
center industry has<br />
created opportunities to<br />
meet the needs of dissatisfied<br />
customers.<br />
The call center TLC will be opening<br />
in Las Cruces is in a former location of<br />
a Sitel call center that went dark after its<br />
operations were moved offshore to the<br />
Philippines, Mr. Cardella said. TLC is already<br />
receiving interest in jobs from former<br />
Sitel employees, he said, and is refurbishing<br />
the call center to its standards.<br />
Although much of the company’s<br />
past expansion has been in Iowa, Mr.<br />
Cardella said TLC has been forced to<br />
look elsewhere because the job market<br />
in Iowa has been so strong that the supply<br />
of personnel is now constrained.<br />
“It’s killing us – the unemployment<br />
rate has contracted so much,” Mr. Cardella<br />
said. TLC has been pleased with<br />
the supply of applicants and the work<br />
ethic of workers hired in New Mexico<br />
and Texas, he added.<br />
While expanding its call center capacity,<br />
Mr. Cardella said TLC will be<br />
moving its Cedar Rapids headquarters<br />
to 3735 Queen Court SW from 4515<br />
20th Ave. SW in April <strong>2018</strong> due to considerations<br />
related to a lease expiration.<br />
An announcement of the southwestern<br />
United States call center location<br />
that has not been disclosed is expected<br />
in the next two weeks, he noted.<br />
TLC has been honored multiple times<br />
in the <strong>CBJ</strong>’s annual Fastest Growing<br />
Companies recognition program, and<br />
was recognized this spring as the “fastest<br />
of the fast,” with a 919 percent two-year<br />
growth rate in 2010, during an event celebrating<br />
the program’s first decade.<br />
The company has been ranked as the<br />
ninth-largest integrated contact center<br />
operator in the United States, and Mr.<br />
Cardella said this spring that TLC’s revenues<br />
have grown sixfold since it won<br />
its first Fastest Growing Companies<br />
honor in 2010.<br />
Beyond the possibility of more call<br />
center announcements this year, Mr. Cardella<br />
said TLC is on the lookout for other<br />
call center companies to acquire. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Cardella’s<br />
expansion<br />
gets into gear<br />
Thomas L. Cardella & Associates<br />
held a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 27 for<br />
its new call center in Ottumwa and<br />
is making progress on its planned<br />
expansion of four more.<br />
“Everything’s going great,” said<br />
President Tom Cardella, who attended<br />
the ribbon-cutting with Gov.<br />
Kim Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Adam<br />
Gregg. The new facility will eventually<br />
employ about 150 people.<br />
At the time of this writing, TLC<br />
was on track to open a new call<br />
center every month for the next<br />
four months. November brought<br />
a new 75-employee TLC call center<br />
in Keokuk, while December will<br />
bring a 150-employee call center<br />
in El Paso, Texas. A 350-employee<br />
call center in Las Cruces, New<br />
Mexico, is set to open in January<br />
and a 75-employee call center in<br />
Marshalltown in February.<br />
However, plans for a fifth call<br />
center at an undisclosed location in<br />
March <strong>2018</strong> have not solidified. The<br />
company has a site in mind, Mr.<br />
Cardella said, but has not been able<br />
to come to terms with the building<br />
owner, so the focus may shift to a<br />
different location.<br />
The search for new locations has<br />
been largely outside Iowa and primarily<br />
in the southwest. Iowa’s unemployment<br />
remained at a low 3<br />
percent in September, creating a challenging<br />
hiring environment, he said.<br />
- Dave DeWitte<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
PUBLISHED<br />
10.2.17<br />
$2.00 I A LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY IN IOWA’S CREATIVE CORRIDOR I JUNE 19 - 25, 2017<br />
FUTURE OF RETAIL<br />
Swipe for speed<br />
& savings<br />
Retailers turning to mobile apps<br />
Bankers Trust hits 100<br />
As the state's largest community bank<br />
marks its centennial year this month, it’s<br />
celebrating more than just longevity.<br />
PAGE 3<br />
Guaranty to CRBT<br />
Guaranty Bank ends its 83-yea run<br />
fo lowing its $44 mi lion sale to Cedar<br />
to lure and keep customers<br />
Rapids Bank & Trust.<br />
PAGE 4<br />
34 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017<br />
By Dave DeWitte<br />
dave@corridorbusiness.com<br />
Ed. note: This is the last part in the <strong>CBJ</strong>’s series on the Future of<br />
Retail. Find our past insta lments at h tp://bit.ly/<strong>CBJ</strong>FutureofRetail.<br />
The smartphone is increasingly the tie that binds consumers<br />
to their favorite retailers.<br />
Startup banking<br />
It’s a strategy driven by necessity, as consumers get out<br />
PAGE 8<br />
“Three years ago, we started to invest in all things mobile,”<br />
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said during the<br />
company’s Investor Day presenta<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> 5Q
Celebrating 10 Years<br />
of Growth!<br />
We look forward to expanding two of our facilities<br />
and opening three new centers in <strong>2018</strong>!<br />
At TLC Associates, we offer our clients a unique combination of<br />
talent, experience and expertise in the sales and service environment.<br />
www.tlcassociates.com<br />
4515 20th Avenue, SW | Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 | 319-730-4028
2017<br />
LEADERS<br />
SURVEY<br />
We are excited to unveil the results from the<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong>’s inaugural Leaders Survey, a subscribersand<br />
members-only survey designed to gauge<br />
the sentiment of the Corridor’s business and<br />
community leaders.<br />
Since it’s our first year conducting the survey,<br />
our response numbers are far from a scientific<br />
sample. Nevertheless, we feel it provides<br />
an interesting snapshot of how the region is<br />
faring and what our readers are expecting in the<br />
months ahead. It’s our hope that as the survey<br />
grows, these first results will provide a base<br />
reading from which to observe the Corridor’s<br />
evolution and attitudes in the years to come.<br />
We are offering the overall survey results<br />
here, along with some selected verbatim responses<br />
from those who cared to leave them.<br />
We couldn’t have done this without the<br />
more than 75 leaders who took time to answer<br />
our survey and so we thank you for your input<br />
and time. Now onto the show.<br />
- Adam Moore<br />
How would you rate the Corridor’s business<br />
community and climate?<br />
How optimistic are you about the job market<br />
outlook for your industry?<br />
AVERAGE SCORE:<br />
53%<br />
AVERAGE SCORE:<br />
29%<br />
7.9 7.6<br />
19%<br />
22%<br />
19%<br />
4%<br />
0% 1% 0% 0% 0%<br />
3%<br />
1% 0%<br />
3% 3%<br />
19%<br />
5%<br />
8%<br />
10%<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br />
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders are feeling very good about the region’s current business<br />
climate, with 90 percent of respondents rating it as an 8 or higher. In analyzing the verbatim<br />
responses, most wrote that business opportunities are strong and consumers are<br />
continuing to spend, although there was a lingering feeling that the local economy “could<br />
be stronger.” Many cited workforce challenges as the primary reason for not rating the<br />
region higher.<br />
SUMMARY: Most respondents maintained their optimism of the first question, with 61<br />
percent of respondents rating the job market outlook at an 8 or higher – although not<br />
everyone shared the positivity. Many described the Corridor as a “growing and vibrant<br />
community” with good job opportunities for motivated workers, although 12 percent<br />
ranked the region’s job prospects as a 5 or lower, citing intensifying competitive pressures<br />
and the difficulty of replacing employees who leave.<br />
READER COMMENTS AND RATINGS<br />
Pam Tiedt<br />
Owner, PIP Printing & Marketing<br />
7 – I still think we are recovering from the<br />
recession. It is definitely getting better<br />
but still would like to see an increase in<br />
customer spending. The internet is our<br />
competition and with high property taxes<br />
and wage scale, it is sometimes hard to<br />
compete.<br />
Curt Heideman<br />
Market President, U.S. Bank<br />
8 — Unemployment is low. The economy<br />
has been stable, people are buying<br />
houses, cars, etc.<br />
Linda Kuster<br />
Director of Research Strategies, Vernon<br />
Research Group<br />
8 – We have an ethical, collaborative,<br />
productive and educated workforce, low<br />
property costs, low insurance costs, etc.<br />
Not a 10 because it is still very traditional<br />
in some industries and still not easy for<br />
women or minorities.<br />
READER COMMENTS AND RATINGS<br />
Cathy Johnson<br />
Chief Administrative Officer and CFO,<br />
World Trend Financial/Terry Lockridge &<br />
Dunn<br />
8 – Accounting, business consulting and<br />
wealth management services continue to<br />
be growing segments.<br />
Nate Kass<br />
Branch Manager, Fehr Graham<br />
8 – With a large number of the workforce<br />
near retirement age, there will be a strong<br />
demand to fill those open positions.<br />
Anne Parmley<br />
SVP, Client Services/Iowa General<br />
Manager, Pearson<br />
6 – Pressures on price and margin impact<br />
our industry like so many others. There is<br />
a continuous drive to automate, increase<br />
efficiency and drive out costs. The<br />
pressure on assessments is to reduce the<br />
time spent testing, which puts volume<br />
pressure on our business.<br />
36 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
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2017 LEADERS SURVEY<br />
What’s the biggest issue facing Iowa<br />
businesses right now?<br />
What major business or community story did<br />
you watch the most this year?<br />
60%<br />
Workforce availability/quality<br />
32%<br />
Federal health care/tax reform<br />
25%<br />
Health care costs<br />
31%<br />
UTC-Rockwell Collins merger<br />
9%<br />
Other<br />
18%<br />
Urban redevelopment in CR/IC<br />
4%<br />
Taxes<br />
6%<br />
Continued ag weakness<br />
SUMMARY: Surprise, surprise: Workforce concerns dominated voting, with three out of<br />
five respondents citing “workforce availability/quality” as their biggest issue. Health care<br />
costs came in second, with 25 percent citing the “unsustainable” health care climate that<br />
continues to eat away at profits and employees’ paychecks, and the ongoing confusion<br />
about the Affordable Care Act’s future. “Other” was the surprise third choice, with almost<br />
10 percent selecting it as an opportunity to air their disappointment about the current<br />
political climate and a “lack of leadership from Des Moines” on important business issues.<br />
SUMMARY: <strong>CBJ</strong> readers were virtually tied on the $30 billion Rockwell Collins-United<br />
Technologies merger proposed earlier this fall and the ongoing drama over federal health<br />
care and tax reform. A third of survey respondents cited Rockwell, noting that the deal could<br />
have a “huge impact on the progress of Cedar Rapids as a whole,” while another third noted<br />
that the uncertainty surrounding health care and taxation “has left businesses unsure of<br />
how to plan for the future.” Nearly 20 percent said they are most focused on watching the<br />
ongoing urban redevelopment in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, noting that it serves as a “good<br />
indicator of the overall [economic] climate.”<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
Dana Gratton<br />
Marketing Manager, MediRevv<br />
HEALTH CARE – All of the above, but high<br />
health care costs ring true for many. Many<br />
employers can only offer high-deductible<br />
health care plans, and often the<br />
employees, when they become patients,<br />
struggle to meet those deductibles, which<br />
means health care organizations don’t get<br />
paid for the care they provided.<br />
David Tominsky<br />
ISA Managing Director, NewBoCo<br />
WORKFORCE – We need to be prepared<br />
for a complex future and lead the nation<br />
in areas like technical trade training and<br />
computer science education.<br />
Charlie Funk<br />
President and CEO, MidWestOne Bank<br />
WORKFORCE – Our headquarters are<br />
in Iowa City and it’s fairly easy to attract<br />
good persons to open positions. Outside<br />
of Iowa City, hiring capable persons to fill<br />
positions is extremely difficult.<br />
Gordon Epping<br />
Owner and Principal, Gordon Epping LLC<br />
LEADERSHIP – All you need to is read the<br />
newspaper – our budget is upside down,<br />
our Medicaid system is broke, our tax<br />
system is not working. Poor leadership.<br />
Brad Hart<br />
Attorney/Partner, Bradley & Riley PC<br />
ROCKWELL MERGER – Rockwell is<br />
such an important member of our<br />
community in terms of employment and<br />
its support of so many area nonprofits.<br />
Losing a corporate headquarters could<br />
reduce Rockwell’s ‘contributions’ to our<br />
communities.<br />
Dan Brown<br />
Marketing & Communications Director,<br />
Central State Bank<br />
CR/IC DEVELOPMENT – Iowa City’s urban<br />
redevelopment in the 1970s has carried<br />
an impact for nearly 50 years. What<br />
transpires over the next few years will<br />
change both places in a long-term way.<br />
Doug Neumann<br />
Executive Director, Cedar Rapids Metro<br />
Economic Alliance<br />
HEALTH CARE/TAX REFORM –<br />
Uncertainty hampers business. Issues that<br />
get resolved with certainty can be factored<br />
into business plans. The long-lingering<br />
uncertainty of health care reform and tax<br />
reform has left business unsure of how to<br />
plan for the future.<br />
Steve Fangman<br />
President, Steve’s Roofing<br />
HEALTH CARE/TAX REFORM – The costs<br />
to taxpayers and individuals have just<br />
gotten out of hand.<br />
Take the over or under:<br />
Regulators and shareholders will<br />
approve the $30 billion United<br />
Technologies-Rockwell Collins merger.<br />
SUMMARY: A whopping 94 percent of survey respondents said they expect the<br />
Rockwell Collins-UTC deal to close successfully, citing a minimum of product overlap<br />
between the two companies and the scale it would create in the industry. A small<br />
but passionate group of voters indicated they already believed the deal’s close to<br />
be “baked into the cake” due to the massive amount of money on the line. “What<br />
doesn’t get approved in this day and age?” one respondent asked.<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
UNDER:<br />
OVER: IT WILL HAPPEN<br />
94%<br />
IT WON’T<br />
6%<br />
Darryl High<br />
Owner, High Development Corp.<br />
OVER – Those folks would not bet on a chance.<br />
Bart Floyd<br />
Eastern Iowa President, Great Western Bank<br />
OVER – Based on past precedent, I don’t think<br />
enough of a case can be made against it.<br />
HAPPEN<br />
Jim Tinker<br />
President Emeritus, Mercycare Service Corp.<br />
OVER – Only Europe and the existing<br />
competitors appear to oppose the merger with<br />
UTC. I wish it were otherwise for Cedar Rapids,<br />
but it will be hard to oppose.<br />
38 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
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your mortgage<br />
FASTER with FSB.
2017 LEADERS SURVEY<br />
Take the over or under:<br />
Congress will revisit and pass health<br />
care reform next year.<br />
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders were much less confident about the prospect<br />
of Congress revisiting and passing health care reform in <strong>2018</strong>, with<br />
two-thirds of respondents saying it won’t happen. Respondents cited<br />
“too much divisiveness”, “too much negative publicity” and the coming<br />
<strong>2018</strong> elections as reasons it won’t, although most agreed that health<br />
care is “unsustainable” in its current form and will likely force action in<br />
the years to come. Several saluted “reasonable Republicans” for voting<br />
against prior repeal attempts that could have “hurt real people” and<br />
caused chaos in markets.<br />
UNDER: IT WON’T HAPPEN OVER:<br />
66%<br />
IT WILL HAPPEN 34%<br />
Aaron Warner<br />
CEO, ProCircular<br />
UNDER – There are enough reasonable people left in<br />
the Republican party to keep from passing something<br />
that would impact the people who keep them in office.<br />
Robert Downer<br />
Member, Meardon, Sueppel & Downer PLC<br />
UNDER – They are more concerned with slogans,<br />
e.g. repeal and replace Obamacare, than with<br />
accomplishing something substantive.<br />
Lynn Manternach<br />
Co-Founder and President, MindFire Communications<br />
OVER – This year’s chaos will force our elected<br />
leaders to find a middle ground. Too many Americans<br />
will be negatively impacted if this is not sorted out.<br />
Lee Kreger<br />
Manager (Retired), Intermec Technologies<br />
OVER – Somehow there has to be a compromise that<br />
corrects the faults of Obamacare.<br />
Rate the effectiveness of our political leaders:<br />
5.65<br />
5.38<br />
3.70<br />
3.51<br />
6.78<br />
5.90<br />
Gov. Kim Reynolds<br />
Iowa Legislature<br />
U.S. Congress<br />
President Donald Trump<br />
Corridor City Councils<br />
Corridor Boards of Supervisors<br />
Given the recent cyber attacks on businesses<br />
and individuals, how worried are you about<br />
online data security?<br />
AVERAGE SCORE:<br />
7.96<br />
1% 0% 1%<br />
3%<br />
6% 4%<br />
13%<br />
27% 26%<br />
18%<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br />
SUMMARY: The idiom “local government governs best” proved itself in this year’s survey,<br />
with respondents generally saving their best ratings for city and county governing bodies.<br />
The region’s local leaders were hailed for their “strong interest in working together for<br />
the betterment of the whole Corridor,” although respondents had fewer kind words for<br />
their state legislators and federal representatives. Nearly 40 percent of respondents rated<br />
the Iowa Legislature at a 4 or lower, while two-thirds felt the same away about Congress.<br />
More than half rated President Donald Trump at 2 or lower, although a quarter gave him<br />
marks of 6-8.<br />
GENERAL READER COMMENTS<br />
Kim Lehrman<br />
President, enTouch Wireless<br />
The rhetoric is more important than<br />
the vision and work that needs to be<br />
completed – ridiculous.<br />
Steve Gray<br />
Chairman, ImOn Communications<br />
Locally, leaders are quite good. What has<br />
Governor Kim Reynolds done? What is<br />
going on with the budget?<br />
Grant Westemeier<br />
Branch Sales Manager, Advanced Systems<br />
It seems as though the ‘right’ is way right<br />
and the ‘left’ is way left. I understand we<br />
all have different thoughts and ideas, but<br />
we need to get better at not separating us<br />
but bringing us closer together. It starts at<br />
the top, as always.<br />
SUMMARY: Corridor leaders are very concerned about online data security, it seems,<br />
with nearly half of respondents rating it a 9 or 10. Many now see the risk of cyber theft<br />
as “the new normal,” and expressed concern about the fact that “the good guys can’t<br />
seem to stay ahead of the bad guys.” There was almost a fatalistic sense to the responses,<br />
with one respondent writing “I’m not sure we can stop it from happening in one way or<br />
another.” Others emphasized the importance of personal diligence among employees as<br />
the only way of truly securing business data.<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
John Kenyon<br />
Executive Director, Iowa City UNESCO City<br />
of Literature<br />
9 – When one-third of the country is in<br />
danger of suffering identity theft, there is<br />
much cause for worry.<br />
Chris Hummer<br />
President, Don Hummer Trucking<br />
6 – “This is a hazard of the world that we<br />
live in. There are always things that can<br />
happen. This is no different than storms,<br />
tornadoes or illness.”<br />
Kim Becicka<br />
Vice President, Continuing Education and<br />
Training Services, Kirkwood Community<br />
College<br />
10 – It’s way too prevalent. I’m very<br />
concerned with where we are headed and<br />
the cost to small business.”<br />
40 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
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2017 LEADERS SURVEY<br />
Yes or no:<br />
The creation of a joint regional venture,<br />
and the hiring of Jennifer Daly to lead it,<br />
will lead to improved regional cooperation.<br />
SUMMARY: More than three-quarters of respondents said they expect the Corridor’s<br />
new joint venture to improve regional cooperation – but “maybe” was perhaps the<br />
more accurate thought for many. All seemed to welcome the prospect of greater<br />
regionalism, but many wondered if Ms. Daly and her staff will be able to overcome<br />
the parochialism that continues to slow regional initiatives; others expressed concern<br />
that Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are, to quote one voter, “both terrific, but vastly<br />
different,” making it a challenge to bring the two communities together.<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
Anne Parmley<br />
SVP, Client Services/Iowa<br />
General Manager, Pearson<br />
YES – This is a long time<br />
coming and if influential<br />
people don’t think it will<br />
lead the region in the right<br />
direction at this point in time,<br />
we are in trouble.<br />
YES: 83% NO: 17%<br />
Nancy Young<br />
Workplace Learning<br />
Coordinator, Workplace<br />
Learning Connection<br />
YES – I sure hope so - we<br />
are desperately needing<br />
workforce development<br />
strategies in this laborshed.<br />
There has been too much<br />
territorialism in the past.<br />
Erik Miles<br />
President, Miles Consulting<br />
NO – Regionalism can work<br />
for a while until smaller<br />
players are increasingly<br />
overlooked and begin their<br />
own initiatives out of selfpreservation<br />
or interests. I’ve<br />
seen it before.<br />
How stressed are you<br />
feeling at work?<br />
AVERAGE SCORE:<br />
5.26<br />
14% 14% 14% 14%<br />
9% 9%<br />
6% 6% 6%<br />
5%<br />
Rate the overall quality of the Corridor’s arts,<br />
culture and entertainment scene.<br />
AVERAGE SCORE:<br />
8.12<br />
0% 0% 0% 1%<br />
3%<br />
6%<br />
14%<br />
39%<br />
21%<br />
16%<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br />
SUMMARY: The Corridor appears<br />
relatively distributed when it comes<br />
to stress levels at work, with the<br />
overall average falling just above<br />
the scale’s midpoint. Almost 30 percent<br />
reported light levels of stress<br />
(voting 1-3), while another quarter<br />
reported high levels (voting 8-10).<br />
The rest all fell into the middle,<br />
perhaps best exemplifying Midwesterners’<br />
steady, balanced outlook<br />
on life. “Overall I think life is pretty<br />
good, and some stress is a good<br />
thing,” one voter wrote.<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
Sherri Proud<br />
Director of Parks and Recreation, City of Coralville<br />
7 – We have so many projects and initiatives,<br />
it’s sometimes just hard to keep up, but it’s also<br />
incredibly exciting to have so much going on and<br />
leading us forward.<br />
Dave Storey<br />
Principal, Rainbow Enterprises<br />
5 – It’s better than it was a few years ago for me.<br />
Naftaly Stramer<br />
Co-Founder, Oasis Falafel<br />
6 – Being a business owner is a stressful position,<br />
but very rewarding most of the time.<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br />
SUMMARY: Corridorians are proud of<br />
their arts and cultural institutions, as<br />
evidenced by the solid show of support on<br />
this question. More than three-quarters of<br />
respondents gave the region a score of 8<br />
or higher, and many noted there are many<br />
opportunities “for a group of communities<br />
of our size.” The biggest priority for most<br />
voters was just to “keep doing what we’re<br />
doing” in terms of expanding the area’s diversity<br />
of offerings; others called for better<br />
local visibility for all of the region’s events,<br />
and several called for more mainstream<br />
and popular acts at the revitalized Hancher<br />
Auditorium.<br />
READER COMMENTS<br />
Ruth Paarmann<br />
Owner, Paarlance Creative Writing<br />
Now that Hancher is done, it would<br />
be nice to get the big shows that Des<br />
Moines gets.<br />
Lisa Gleason<br />
Administrative Director, Eastern Iowa<br />
Sleep Center<br />
Keep going! I love the improvements<br />
and culture.<br />
Brad Oppedahl<br />
Realtor, Skogman Realty<br />
Cedar Rapids needs to pay closer<br />
attention to what’s happening in<br />
Coralville and West Des Moines.<br />
42 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
CASINO<br />
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8<br />
said, explaining why he’d rather see that license application<br />
approved than the smaller ones.<br />
But Mr. Corbett said he could support either CRDG<br />
proposal because each brings distinct advantages for the<br />
city. The Cedar Crossing Central proposal would give the<br />
city a large new parking ramp to replace the aging Five<br />
Seasons Parking Ramp, potentially saving the city about<br />
$35 million in borrowing, and would drive business to<br />
the city-owned DoubleTree by Hilton and U.S. Cellular<br />
Center via a connecting sky deck.<br />
The Cedar Crossing on the River proposal would<br />
spark a revitalization of the Kingston area in downtown<br />
Cedar Rapids that still needs investment to recover from<br />
the flood of 2008, and would also add a parking garage<br />
that would help meet the needs of the city-owned outdoor<br />
McGrath Amphitheater.<br />
The city council supported only the CRDG proposals<br />
at its Feb. 14 meeting, extending and expanding exclusive<br />
agreements with CRDG that were set to expire in October<br />
2019 until 2029. Those agreements allow for CRDG to acquire<br />
either of the city-controlled sites for the casino and<br />
provide approvals needed to satisfy license requirements.<br />
CRDG is obligated to make $75,000 annual payments to<br />
the city and satisfy other conditions, including payments<br />
of 1.5 percent of the adjusted gross receipts of the casino<br />
above $50 million.<br />
Beyond the willingness to provide the sites, the city<br />
guarantees it will offer tax increment financing and<br />
other forms of economic assistance typical for large<br />
projects.<br />
Wild Rose Cedar Rapids backers said in their application<br />
for a state license that they have not asked the city<br />
to back out of its exclusive agreements with CRDG. They<br />
said Mr. Gray declined an offer by Wild Rose to work together<br />
on a Linn County project.<br />
City Council Member Scott Overland, who’d received<br />
numerous calls and emails from citizens about the new<br />
proposals, had a message at the Feb. 14 council meeting.<br />
That message was essentially, it’s up to the state gaming<br />
commission, not us.<br />
A rendering of the Wild Rose Cedar Rapids, a “boutique<br />
casino” proposed by Wild Rose Entertainment for First<br />
Avenue in Cedar Rapids. IMAGE WILD ROSE<br />
“Regardless what their decision is, whatever group that<br />
is, we’ll work with whatever group gets the license to get the<br />
best project possible,” Mr. Overland said. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
ROCKWELL<br />
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30<br />
Mr. Hayes told analysts. He compared<br />
that to the $8-10 billion in product overlap<br />
that would have occurred had UTC<br />
had gone through with a merger of Honeywell<br />
International the two companies<br />
discussed last year.<br />
Rockwell Collins said it does expect<br />
some job-related impacts due to it no longer<br />
being a separate public company, but<br />
said the overall impact should be minimal.<br />
History as guide<br />
For an example of what cost synergies<br />
could look like in UTC’s Rockwell deal,<br />
one can look to a similar acquisition it<br />
made five years ago.<br />
In 2012, UTC paid about $18.4 billion<br />
to acquire Charlotte, North Carolina-based<br />
Goodrich, a maker of aerospace<br />
systems such as landing gear, aircraft<br />
wheels and brakes. The company had<br />
27,000 employees, compared to about<br />
30,000 at Rockwell Collins.<br />
UTC initially projected it would harvest<br />
$400 million in synergy savings from<br />
the merger, a target later raised to $500<br />
million and achieved ahead of schedule<br />
by the end of 2015.<br />
Those savings took place over a period<br />
of years and came from many areas of the<br />
business, but some of them resulted from<br />
job and plant reductions, and not all came<br />
from the Goodrich side of the business.<br />
The Hartford Business Journal reported<br />
in August 2012 that UTC planned<br />
to lay off 150 salaried employees in its<br />
newly formed UTC Aerospace Systems<br />
division, following the combination of<br />
its Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary with<br />
Goodrich. About 70 were to come from<br />
the roughly 4,000 positions at a former<br />
Hamilton Sundstrand location in the<br />
Connecticut city of Windsor Locks. The<br />
company also said it was closing an intelligence,<br />
surveillance and reconnaissance<br />
equipment facility in Ithaca, New York,<br />
and moving some of the jobs to a UTC<br />
facility in Danbury, Connecticut.<br />
Some job cuts had already been in the<br />
works at both UTC and Goodrich before<br />
the acquisition, but they weren’t over,<br />
and rippled into succeeding years. A few<br />
were significant enough to make headlines,<br />
and just last year, 150 jobs were<br />
eliminated at a UTC Aerospace Systems<br />
plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico.<br />
UTC did not respond to an interview<br />
request, referring all questions to Rockwell<br />
Collins.<br />
Not all the news was bad for the communities<br />
where Goodrich had operations.<br />
Charlotte landed the new UTC Aerospace<br />
Systems headquarters, and welcomed<br />
about 75 employees from Connecticut,<br />
according to Aerospace Manufacturing &<br />
Design magazine. UTC received an incentive<br />
package that included a $2.5 million<br />
grant from North Carolina, $2.5 million<br />
in local government grants, and up to<br />
$16.5 million in additional state grants<br />
over a 12-year period contingent on job<br />
and investment targets.<br />
Exactly where the Collins Aerospace<br />
Systems headquarters will be located after<br />
the merger of Rockwell Collins with<br />
UTC’s Aerospace Systems division is<br />
undecided, Rockwell Collins said in its<br />
statement, and will be determined over<br />
the next several months.<br />
Ms. Nain said the delivery of the synergies<br />
will be one of the most closely<br />
watched aspects of the UTC-Rockwell<br />
Collins deal, especially given the high<br />
price UTC is paying for the company.<br />
“Synergies for cutting costs are easiest<br />
to put a number on and argue in favor<br />
of,” Ms. Nain said. “If you have two companies<br />
in a very similar market, you might<br />
have a lot of redundancies to eliminate.”<br />
UTC and Rockwell Collins don’t make<br />
the same products, however, making it<br />
less likely that UTC can save a lot of money<br />
by doing things like consolidating production<br />
into fewer factories.<br />
“Clearly, United Technologies has<br />
something else in mind,” Ms. Nain said,<br />
mentioning possibilities like gaining<br />
market clout to get better volume pricing<br />
from suppliers, or to be in a better position<br />
to bargain with big customers like<br />
Boeing and Airbus.<br />
Turbulence ahead<br />
As is often the case, the UTC-Rockwell<br />
Collins merger announcement came out<br />
sounding like a fait accompli, subject<br />
only to regulatory approvals such as antitrust<br />
reviews, and a vote of Rockwell<br />
shareholders.<br />
In reality, the deal could still have to<br />
navigate some turbulent skies before<br />
reaching a safe landing. Some of the very<br />
customers UTC says the deal will help are<br />
not quite convinced, and that could spell<br />
trouble during antitrust reviews.<br />
Boeing, Rockwell’s largest customer,<br />
said it intends to “take a hard look” at the<br />
proposed combination.<br />
“Until we receive more details, we are<br />
skeptical that it would be in the best interest<br />
of – or add value to – our customers<br />
and industry,” Boeing said in a statement<br />
released to the <strong>CBJ</strong>. “Our interests and<br />
those of our customers, employees, other<br />
suppliers and shareholders are in ensuring<br />
the long-term health and competitiveness<br />
of the aerospace industry supply<br />
chain. Should we determine that this deal<br />
is inconsistent with those interests, we<br />
would intend to exercise our contractual<br />
rights and pursue the appropriate regulatory<br />
options to protect our interests.”<br />
Boeing added the first priority of both<br />
UTC and Rockwell Collins “should be<br />
delivering on existing cost, schedule and<br />
quality commitments for their customers<br />
and ours.”<br />
Airbus expressed no particular enthusiasm<br />
for the merger in a statement, but<br />
wasn’t outwardly skeptical, either.<br />
“Today, our total focus is on delivering<br />
planes and we hope that this M&A would<br />
not distract UTC from their top operational<br />
priority,” said an Airbus statement. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
Senior Business Reporter Dave DeWitte has<br />
previously provided contractual services for<br />
Rockwell Collins.<br />
<strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017 43
Top Deals and Projects of 2017<br />
(ranked by deal/project value)<br />
RANK DEAL DEAL/PROJECT VALUE LOCAL ORGANIZATION DEAL/PROJECT DESCRIPTION<br />
1 UTC-Rockwell Collins deal $30 billion Rockwell Collins<br />
400 Collins Road NE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52498<br />
(319) 263-7460<br />
www.rockwellcollins.com<br />
2 Rockwell Collins acquires B/E Aerospace $6.4 billion Rockwell Collins<br />
400 Collins Road NE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52498<br />
(319) 263-7460<br />
www.rockwellcollins.com<br />
3 Deere acquires Wirtgen Group $5.2 billion Deere & Co.<br />
One John Deere Place<br />
Moline, IL 61265<br />
(866) 993-3373<br />
www.deere.com<br />
4 MidAmerican Energy makes major wind investment $3.6 billion MidAmerican Energy<br />
666 Grand Ave.<br />
Des Moines, IA 50309<br />
(888) 427-5632<br />
midamericanenergy.com<br />
5 Alliant proposes major wind investments $890 million Alliant Energy<br />
200 First St. SE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401<br />
1 (800) ALLIANT<br />
alliantenergy.com<br />
6 Deere acquires Blue River Technology $305 million Deere & Co.<br />
One John Deere Place<br />
Moline, IL 61265<br />
(866) 993-3373<br />
www.deere.com<br />
7 UFG sells United Life for $280M $280 million United Fire Group<br />
118 Second Ave. SE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52407<br />
(800) 332-7977<br />
www.ufginsurance.com<br />
8 Heartland Express acquires Interstate Distributors Co. $113 million Heartland Express<br />
901 Kansas Ave.<br />
North Liberty, IA 52317<br />
(319) 626-3600<br />
www.heartlandexpress.com<br />
9 RISE at Riverfront Crossings project in Iowa City $102.5 million CA Ventures<br />
130 Randolph St.<br />
Chicago, IL 60601<br />
(312) 994-1880<br />
ca-ventures.com<br />
10 Millennium Housing project in Coralville $68 million Build to Suit<br />
2451 Oakdale Blvd., Ste. 201<br />
Coralville, IA 52241<br />
(319) 512-2322<br />
www.buildtosuitinc.com<br />
Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. in September made its bid to acquire<br />
Rockwell Collins and roll it into a new Collins Aerospace Systems business unit.<br />
Rockwell Collins in April closed on its purchase of B/E Aerospace, a leading supplier of<br />
aircraft seating and cabin systems, rolling it into a new Interior Systems business unit.<br />
Deere & Co. in December completed its acquisition of Wirtgen, the Germany-based world<br />
leader in road construction equipment.<br />
MidAmerican announced the location of its 170-turbine North English Wind Farm, the third<br />
and final wind farm in its massive Wind XI project.<br />
Alliant is seeking state approval to add another 500 megawatts of wind generation on top of<br />
the 500 megawatts announced in 2016 for its Whispering Willow Wind Farm.<br />
Deere & Co. acquired Blue River Technologies, a leader in applying machine learning<br />
technology, to expand its driverless and precision ag initiatives.<br />
UFG agreed to sell its United Life subsidiary to the Chicago-based life insurance startup<br />
Kuvare Holdings, which will keep its offices located in Cedar Rapids.<br />
Heartland Express acquired Interstate Distributor Co., a truckload carrier based in Tacoma,<br />
Washington, from Saltchuk Resources.<br />
Construction of the 15-story residential building and 13-story hotel/office tower continued<br />
this year, with completion expected next summer.<br />
Work began this year on this 483,000-square-foot, mixed-use development proposed in<br />
Iowa River Landing by Build to Suit LLC.<br />
11 Squaw Creek Crossing project in Marion $50 million 13 & 151 LLC<br />
www.squawcreekcrossing.com<br />
Work began on this major mixed-use development in east Marion, with a credit union under<br />
way, and a convenience mart and hotel to be announced.<br />
12 The Chauncey in Iowa City $49 million Moen Group<br />
105 E. College St.<br />
Iowa City, IA 52240<br />
(319) 351-3900<br />
www.moengroup.com<br />
13 CRBT acquires Guaranty Bank $44 million Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust<br />
500 First Ave. NE, Ste. 100<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401<br />
(319) 862-2728<br />
www.crbt.bank<br />
14 Hieronymus Square mixed-use development in IC $41 million Hieronymi Partners<br />
152 E. Court St.<br />
Iowa City, IA 52240<br />
(319) 338-1294<br />
15 Grand Living at Bridgewater senior living development $40 million Grand Living<br />
7825 Washington Ave. S., Ste. 810<br />
Minneapolis, MN 55439<br />
grandliving.com<br />
Work continued on this 15-story mixed-use tower at College and Gilbert Streets that will<br />
include a hotel, bowling alley, office space, condominiums and movie theater.<br />
QCR Holdings, the Moline-based parent of Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT), struck a<br />
deal to merge Cedar Rapids-based Guaranty Bank into CRBT’s operations, creating the<br />
largest community bank headquartered in Linn County.<br />
Iowa City approved an incentive package for this long-simmering mixed-use project at the<br />
corners of Clinton and Burlington streets. It will feature two seven-story towers connected<br />
by a vestibule.<br />
Ryan Companies and Grand Living are constructing this 170-unit senior living community off<br />
of First Avenue in Coralville.<br />
Noteworthy Unranked Deals of 2017<br />
Cargill buys Diamond V ND Diamond V<br />
2525 60th Ave. SW<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404<br />
(319) 366-0745<br />
www.diamondv.com<br />
Motion Industries buys Apache Inc. ND Apache Inc.<br />
4805 Bowling St. SW<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404<br />
(319) 365-0471<br />
www.apache-inc.com<br />
TrueNorth acquires DM-based insurance groups ND TrueNorth Companies<br />
500 First St. SE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401<br />
(800) 798-4080<br />
www.truenorthcompanies.com<br />
Cargill reached a deal to buy Diamond V, the Cedar Rapids-based maker of animal nutrition<br />
supplements, to meet growing market demand for healthy food ingredients.<br />
Genuine Parts, through its Motion Industries subsidiary, acquired Cedar Rapids-based<br />
Apache Inc. to broaden its line of belt and hose products for industry.<br />
CSB Insurance Group and Rowles Hayes Carney (RHC) were acquired by TrueNorth<br />
Companies, expanding its presence in the Des Moines area.<br />
44 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
PHELAN’S INTERIORS<br />
728 3 RD AVE SE<br />
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA 52401<br />
WORKSHOP . FOCUS . COLLABORATION
CRYSTAL<br />
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14<br />
Crystal Group chose Primus Construction in part for<br />
its design-build capabilities. Design-build compresses a<br />
project’s timeframe by allowing design and construction<br />
to occur simultaneously. Crystal Group leaders worked<br />
with both Primus and lean consultants to maximize the<br />
efficiency and workflow of the building design.<br />
The company’s current headquarters was designed<br />
with windows in executive offices, but Mr. Kruger said<br />
the new design “flip-flopped” the lighting scenario to<br />
provide maximum daylight to the most employees. Executive<br />
offices will be in the interior of the building, and<br />
won’t have windows.<br />
An architect's rendering shows Crystal Group's planned<br />
headquarters plant.<br />
A total of 45 employees will be added once the new<br />
building is complete, including a mixture of sales and<br />
engineering staff. Crystal Group plans to keep its existing<br />
Kacena Drive facility and a smaller 10,000-square-foot<br />
CNC milling plant nearby.<br />
The Hiawatha City Council “did everything they could<br />
to keep us in Hiawatha,” Mr. Kruger said. He also credited<br />
Iowa Economic Authority Director Debi Durham and<br />
Jon Dusek of Armstrong Development for working closely<br />
with the company to make the project possible.<br />
Even more growth could be on the horizon for Crystal<br />
Group if the expansion project opens up new opportunities<br />
as is expected. Mr. Kruger said the new building is<br />
specifically designed to be extended by another 35,000<br />
square feet when needed.<br />
Although the process has gone well, Mr. Kruger said<br />
his advice to other manufacturers planning an expansion<br />
is “you can’t start too early.” He said a project manager<br />
has been hired to oversee the new facility’s completion,<br />
allowing him to stay focused on quality and<br />
production issues. <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
SENIOR<br />
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28<br />
“The baby boomer market is just so<br />
big right now, and they’re constantly<br />
looking for a newer style of living than<br />
just a rental or a condo, we believe,” said<br />
Nick Crall, project analyst for Ewing.<br />
He noted the company’s 60-unit Vintage<br />
Cooperative senior living community<br />
that opened in June 2016 in Coralville<br />
is full, but added that Ewing has additional<br />
plans for a Vintage Cooperative in<br />
Iowa City – and possibly North Liberty<br />
and Cedar Rapids.<br />
Cedar Rapids got its first big taste of<br />
the senior housing surge in July, when<br />
The Gardens, a $15 million project undertaken<br />
by five local investors, opened<br />
its doors. With 40 beds, The Gardens<br />
represented the first new skilled nursing<br />
facility in Cedar Rapids in 21 years. It also<br />
has 30 assisted living units, 12 assisted<br />
living memory care units and physical<br />
therapy services, making it a continuum<br />
of care facility.<br />
Spokeswoman Angie McClure said<br />
the southwest location was chosen partly<br />
because that area of Cedar Rapids had<br />
no continuum of care facility, and partly<br />
because it’s easily accessible to smaller<br />
communities south and west of Cedar<br />
Rapids such as Fairfax, Walford, Newhall,<br />
Atkins and Norway, which don’t<br />
have such living options.<br />
Mr. Olson, who serves on the Cedar<br />
Rapids City Council and the Meth-Wick<br />
board of directors, said he’s not concerned<br />
about overbuilding. He cited data<br />
from Maxfield Research Inc. of Minneapolis<br />
that keeps tabs on housing market<br />
demand, noting that city officials also use<br />
the data to evaluate their investments.<br />
“Right now, there’s about 600 units of<br />
demand in our area, and though we’ve<br />
got a lot of construction, we’re not there<br />
yet,” he said.<br />
Ripple effects<br />
Many of the broader economic effects<br />
from the senior housing surge have not<br />
hit the market, but could become more<br />
apparent in the coming years. Ms. Mixdorf<br />
sees a variety of dynamics in play,<br />
including a strong housing market and<br />
more competition for nurses and certified<br />
nurse assistants (CNAs).<br />
“When the economic downturn happened<br />
[in 2008], we did see people stay<br />
in their houses longer,” Ms. Mixdorf said.<br />
“Now the housing prices have gone up, and<br />
they feel like they’re getting the real value of<br />
their home out of the real estate market.”<br />
The sales generated by seniors leaving<br />
their homes to move into senior living<br />
communities is expected to provide a<br />
much-needed boost to the tight inventory<br />
of existing homes available for sale in<br />
the Corridor.<br />
At the same time, Meth-Wick is finding<br />
itself competing for the same pool of nursing<br />
talent as large hospitals in Cedar Rapids,<br />
Iowa City and even Waterloo, as Iowa’s<br />
unemployment rate – 3.2 percent as of July<br />
– remains well below the national average.<br />
“We haven’t seen anyone leave yet<br />
[for the new senior living facilities], but<br />
there’s an awareness that these communities<br />
are going to come on, and they’re<br />
going to try to hire who we have,” Ms.<br />
Mixdorf said.<br />
The new communities and expansion<br />
projects in the Corridor will employ well<br />
over 500, with only four of the projects<br />
accounting for 310 of that amount.<br />
Grand Living will have more than 100<br />
employees each at the two continuum of<br />
care communities it is developing with<br />
Ryan Companies: Grand Living at Bridgeview<br />
in Coralville and Grand Living<br />
at Indian Creek in Cedar Rapids. Stoney<br />
Point Meadows has indicated it will employ<br />
at least 60 at its new facility in Cedar<br />
Rapids, and the Views Development has<br />
said it will employ 50 with a $2.8 million<br />
annual payroll when its new 104-bed<br />
continuum of care community opens on<br />
the south side of Marion.<br />
Finding construction talent to build<br />
so many senior living facilities has put a<br />
strain on contractors, although builders<br />
haven’t reached a crisis point yet.<br />
Members of Carpenters Local 308<br />
based in Cedar Rapids have been working<br />
on one of the largest senior living projects<br />
in development: the 170-unit Grand<br />
Living at Bridgewater project, located just<br />
north of I-80.<br />
“We’ve got pretty much full employment,”<br />
said Pat Loeffler, a Carpenters<br />
Union leader who is also president of<br />
the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building<br />
Trades Council.<br />
Although his local members are pretty<br />
much all employed, Mr. Loeffler said the<br />
union can send out calls to other union<br />
locals outside the area if contractors need<br />
more skilled labor.<br />
“The economics of these retirement<br />
communities are vast and very much unsung,”<br />
said Ed Raber, director of the Washington<br />
Economic Development Group.<br />
Mr. Raber said retirees almost always<br />
buy new furniture when they move into<br />
an independent living facility like Halcyon<br />
House in Washington, providing a<br />
boost to local businesses like Marshall’s<br />
Furniture. Seniors moving from outside<br />
the county almost always move their<br />
bank accounts, he added, and some create<br />
new relationships within the county<br />
for services such as insurance.<br />
Peer pressures<br />
David Heusinkveld is administrator of the<br />
Pleasantview Home in Kalona, which was<br />
organized by Amish and Mennonite ministers<br />
in 1957. He says the growing number<br />
of senior facilities, many of them under<br />
for-profit ownership, puts pressure on<br />
existing facilities to upgrade and compete.<br />
Skilled nursing facilities have to get a<br />
state certificate of need to open in Iowa,<br />
he noted, but for independent living facilities,<br />
“it’s whatever the market can bear.”<br />
“All these places are competing for<br />
staff, for nurses,” Mr. Heusinkveld said.<br />
“I honestly want everyone that is in this<br />
business to do well, because if they don’t,<br />
the quality of care goes down and the residents<br />
are the ones who suffer.”<br />
Developer Fred Timko of Cedar Rapids<br />
also has a mixed view of the new arrivals.<br />
He developed the Bridges Senior Lifestyle<br />
independent living facility, which opened<br />
in Waterloo in a former Holiday Inn well<br />
before the current housing boom.<br />
“It’s a tough market,” Mr. Timko said.<br />
“There are a lot of them out there.”<br />
He suggested that the success of the<br />
new senior developments could depend<br />
on their marketing skill.<br />
Still, Mr. Timko said he views senior<br />
living facilities as a good long-term investment<br />
once they are close to full occupancy,<br />
especially in a place like Iowa. Among<br />
all the states, Iowa has one of the highest<br />
percentages of its population over 65.<br />
“It [the senior housing market] should<br />
be getting better and better,” Mr. Timko<br />
said. “Iowa’s getting older and older.” <strong>CBJ</strong><br />
46 <strong>CBJ</strong> NEWSMAKERS DEC. 25 - 31, 2017
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