Fort Dodge’s loss is St Joe’s gain, as Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) expands its operations here. Iowa will see the loss of about forty jobs, but the job gains in Missouri will be much greater than that.
The company will consolidate its international packaging and distribution processes at a new facility to be located at the Eastowne Business Park along the east side of Riverside Road south of Pickett Road.
Executive Director of the BIVI U.S. Supply Chain Steve Muenks says the company plans to consolidate operations from two existing St Joseph plants, along with one in Fort Dodge, Iowa, at the new building on St Joe’s east side.
Muenks said BIVI chose St Joseph for the expansion and consolidation effort, despite its recent acquisition of a lot of real estate and plants in Fort Dodge. Moving the St Joseph operations to Iowa would have cost the city about sixty jobs.
BIVI will also expand manufacturing capabilities at its Gene Field Road facility, which will create more than 80 jobs by the end of 2015.
The company will get some extensive tax breaks, including abatements on $11 million worth of machinery, equipment and other capital assets. The center will also have real property tax abatement of 95% over ten years on the estimated $28.7 million facility.
“Incentives were important for this project because we were competing with the state in which BIVI already owned property,” said R. T. Rutner, Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner. “These incentives not only saved jobs, but created many new ones with the expansion of the Gene Field site.”
The negotiations for this project have been going since last September, involving officials from the City of St Joseph, Buchanan County, the State of Missouri, the St Joseph Metro Chamber of Commerce, Summers Realtors and BIVI. Heading up the economic development project is Steve Hamilton, senior vice-president for economic development for the Chamber. Hamilton called it a great day for St Joseph.
“We’re talking about saving 60 jobs, adding 25 jobs now and then another 88 jobs between now and 2015,” Hamilton said. But he says more jobs could be on the line. “This is going to be their main distribution center. That means we have a much better shot at attracting additional Boehringer growth to St Joseph than we would have had if that main distribution center had gone to Iowa.”
BIVI is the U.S. subsidiary of one of the leading animal health companies in the world. Chamber officials are confident that the announcement marks a golden opportunity for future growth in St Joseph for the company.
“This is a very rapidly growing company. We expect that we will continue to have a relationship with them for many years to come, and there will many more jobs to come to St Joseph,” Hamilton said.
The property is currently owned by the St Joseph Business Park Corporation. Negotiations are underway to sell the real estate to a group of local investors headed up by Adam Stein of Summers Realtors. They have hired E. L Crawford Construction as the general contractor to construct the 260 thousand square foot building. Officials expect the construction workforce to be largely local.
The state of Missouri has approved a Build Bond of $2 million to jump start construction. That funding is repaid through future withholding taxes from the new jobs being created.
The site will require a lot of improvements, including a large amount of land grading. That work will be performed with in-kind contributions from the city and county. City Manager Bruce Woody says they have the equipment, and will arrange for city employees to do the work. Presiding Commissioner Turner says the county will kick in the only out-of-pocket expense, the fuel, from its Economic Development Fund. All told, those in-kind contributions would be worth about $400 thousand.