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Possible buyer seen for Simply Essentials property in Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Good news and potential good news on a variety of economic development fronts highlighted a meeting of the Charles City Area Development Corp. Wednesday afternoon.

CCADC Executive Director Tim Fox said there is activity on finding a buyer for the closed Simply Essentials chicken processing plant in Charles City and there is interest in the Avenue of the Saints Development Park that received state certification in January, among other projects.

“Prospect activity is very high,” Fox said. “It’s the highest it’s been since I’ve been here, which is 21½ years. Which is really good.”

He said there is at least one company interested in the Simply Essentials property, which ended operations in August 2019, and he has heard there may be others.

“One I know about. I know the people. I’m working with them,” he said. “The other group I don’t.”

He said the prospect was another ag-related use of the facility, but he couldn’t go into more details.

One positive note is that the property taxes on the former Simply Essentials property at 901 N. Main St. have been kept current, he said.

Floyd County records show the property’s second-half tax installment due in March, for $19,276, was paid on Feb. 3. The first-half installment for the same amount had been paid on Sept. 2, 2019, almost a month after the plant had closed.

Charles City Administrator Steve Diers said at the meeting that the city’s recent purchase of the Cal’s Auto property at 808 N. Main St. could make expansion of the former Simply Essentials property possible if a new owner needs that now or in the future.

“With railroads on two sides there’s only one way to go,” Diers said. “If we need to have additional space to expand out into Main Street we’ll have to redo it, and so the front side of Cal’s Auto might come into play. The city now owns that, so that’ll make that easier.”

Fox said he was under three non-disclosure agreements regarding interest in area projects.

“So if I don’t screw it up, hopefully something good will happen,” he joked.

Among the developments that were discussed or had action taken at the meeting:

• Diers said the process to sell the McQuillen Place property, which is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, is proceeding.

“The bankruptcy trustee and the city and Iowa Economic Development Authority have put together a package to get that project sold and see its completion,” he said. “IEDA is putting another million dollars into the project, for a successful bidder.”

Diers said he’s had three phone calls from potential developers and has given tours of the unfinished residential and commercial property on Charles City’s Main Street to three different individuals.

The bankruptcy trustee said during a tour of the building last month that he has had inquiries from about half a dozen interested developers.

The bids are due March 9, and on March 12 a meeting with the bankruptcy trustee will be held at the Iowa Economic Development Authority offices in Des Moines to pick a bidder to purchase the property and complete the project.

“We’ve very encouraged with something actually happening there,” Diers said.

• A low interest loan from the CCADC revolving loan fund was approved for the Main Street Drug Inc. pharmacy which is being located on Main Street in the building that formerly housed the Lidd and Cordray Ltd. clothing store.

The CCADC board approved a $25,000 loan, with a six-month no interest, no payment grace period, then payments at 3% interest for five years.

• Fox noted that the former Hydrotile facility in Nashua, which closed in 1991 and has had various other businesses occupy it since then, was purchased by Core Plastech International Inc., which has headquarters in Illinois.

Fox said the company, which bought the building in October, hopes to hire 70 employees initially and 200 after a couple of years.

• Fox said that the development corporation is now the owner of the state-certified Avenue of the Saints Development Park, and he will be getting together with the CCADC’s marketing committee to discuss ways in which to market it.

There has already been interest in the site, Fox said.

Real estate agent Connie Parson, who helped with the selection and purchase of the 75-acre property at the intersection of South Grand Avenue and Highway 27, has called the property one of the most attractive development sites in the state.

Fox recognized Parson’s help and work on the project at the meeting Wednesday, although she was not present.

• Diers said he attended the MidAmerican Energy Economic Advantage Partner Summit in Des Moines last week and suggested that the electrical utility company, which recently announced it will be installing nine high-energy electric car charging facilities in Iowa cities, should consider Charles City as a location.

“The closest ones to us are going to be Hampton and Waterloo,” Diers said. “I said since we’re on the northeastern frontier of their service territory we’d be a good place to have one, and they agreed. So maybe we’ll get in on the second round of that.”

Also at the meeting, the CCADC board heard an update from Diers and Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews on the city’s fiber-to-the-home broadband utility’s progress, discussed a possible electrical power transmission project called SOO Green that would go through the area on railroad right of way, and heard an update from FOX on the furnace replacement project that the CCADC manages.

Fox said a discrepancy in the way he had been figuring family household income will result in him going through some training with the North Iowa Council of Governments (NIACOG), which administers funding for the program.

He said the program had replaced 37 furnaces in low and moderate income households in the last year, at an average cost of $3,246.

In the 14 years that Fox has been managing the Floyd County and Nashua program it has replaced almost 500 furnaces, he said.

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