Kraft-Heinz deal gets green light
By Daniel Kim
Davenport City Council members voted Wednesday night to give Kraft-Heinz special incentives to move to the Eastern Iowa Industrial center.That’s just West of the Davenport Municipal Airport.
The current Kraft-Heinz building has been sitting on West 2nd street for about seven decades.
But the company says they want to expand.
The Kraft-Heinz company says the new state of the art, food manufacturing facility is a project that costs more than $200 million.
Under the contract the company says they will keep at least 475 full-time positions.
While that’s only half of the jobs there now Alderman Bill Boom says it’s still a good deal for the city.
“We almost lost the plant,” said Bill Boom, third ward alderman.
Boom says Kraft-Heinz is downsizing across the country.
“The odds of us losing completely you know, losing all 1,200 jobs was out there,” said Boom.
Wednesday night, all council members present voted to enter into an economic development agreement with Kraft-Heinz.
Under the contract, the city will give the company back 75 percent of the property taxes.
That could be as much as $10 million over the next 15 years.
Alderman Ray Ambrose says the company has been a part of Davenport for more than 70 years and has been loyal to the city.
“They’ve paid billion dollars in taxes not only to the city of Davenport but to the state of Iowa and the economic impact that plant has had is almost immeasurable. It’s in the many, many billion dollars so we can give back,” said Ray Ambrose, fourth ward alderman.
The contract also states that the city will be responsible building a new road to the facility and making improvements to Slopertown road and Enterprise way.
Those infrastructure projects will cost the city more than $5 million.
Through the Iowa Department of Transportation grant known as R.I.S.E the state will pay for majority of that.
That means the city will have to pay about $1 million through tax increment financing funds.
“In the greater picture that street will be a catalyst to incredible future growth in that industrial area and Kraft is the economic engine that will drive that growth,” said Ambrose.
Alderman Bill Boom says it will take at least two years to build the new facility.
As for what will happen to the old plant, Boom says that’s up to Kraft-Heinz because they own the land.
Boom says he hopes the old factory will be torn down, so the area can be made into commercial space.
