Business Notes for Aug. 4, 2024

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor.

Information and photos can be submitted to Business Notes by email to businessnotes@thegazette.com, or on our site at thegazette.com/businessnotes.

Appointments

Four people have joined the board of Eastern Iowa Health Center for 2024-25. They are Dennis Goettel, community volunteer; Amy Grunewaldt, director at Linn County Early Childhood Iowa; Tim Klima, attorney at Shuttleworth & Ingersoll; and Jen Welton, vice president of business development at Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust.

Other news

Stamats sells Meetings Today: Stamats Communications of Cedar Rapids has announced the sale of its group meetings and events media brand, Meetings Today, to Trade Press Media Group in Milwaukee, Wis., which operates 16 business-to-business media brands.

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Peter Stamats, Stamats president and CEO, said Meetings Today rebounded after the pandemic to surpass its 2019 results.

The sales price was not announced, but Stamats said the capital will be used to grow the company’s core marketing services in the higher education and health care sectors.

“This transaction will position the brand for continued growth in a highly competitive industry,” he said.

MERGE coworking ribbon-cutting: Greater Iowa City Inc. said renovations at MERGE, the coworking space it manages and operates, are now complete. The renovated space has improved accessibility and a new Business Resource Center. A ribbon-cutting, with tours, will be held 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the space, 136 S. Dubuque St.

Honkamp acquisition: Honkamp, a CPA and business advisory group with headquarters in Dubuque, has added The Brems Group, a firm with about 20 employees in Cedar Rapids and Coralville. The merger, Honkamp’s fifth acquisition in three years, was effective Aug. 1. Honkamp has nine other offices in Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Riverside Casino employees cited: Volunteer Iowa gave one of its top awards in its Give Back Iowa Challenge to Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Riverside. The annual statewide event, which ran April 1 to May 31, encouraged businesses to encourage their employees to volunteer and log their hours.

Small business of the week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, last week named L.R. Falk Construction Co. of Mitchell County as her small business of the week.

LaVerne Falk founded L.R. Falk Construction Co. in 1922 as a hauling business in St. Ansgar in northeast Iowa, gradually expanding from hauling vegetables in a Ford Model T to a multipurpose company operating its first quarry by the 1930s. Under the leadership of LaVerne’s son, David Falk, and grandson, Lindsey Falk, the company grew to employ more than 60 full-time employees, operating from nine quarries and three sand pits.

Ernst, the ranking member on the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming one exceptional small business of the week in each of Iowa’s counties during this congressional session.