GoDaddy still plans to expand

GoDaddy will proceed with its building and employee expansion in Hiawatha despite not being approved for additional state tax breaks.

The Scottsdale, Ariz., company, which was approved for $135,000 of tax breaks in August 2015 for a $6 million expansion of its Hiawatha customer care facility, is planning to spend as much as $9 million to hire additional employees.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board on Tuesday approved GoDaddy's request to amend its existing agreement to allow for a second location, but denied the company's request for $96,089 in additional sales and use tax refunds.

With the additional $3 million of capital investment and pledge of 209 new customer care hires, GoDaddy believed it qualified for the additional incentives. The company plans to retain 491 customer care jobs in Hiawatha.

'Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha have been great partners,” said Calvin Crowder, GoDaddy director of global real estate, on Thursday. 'We look forward to the completion of renovations at our Hiawatha facility this year.

'We're really looking at a presence in Iowa over the long term and making this investment in our employees and facilities. We are bringing a world-class workspace to Iowa.”

Crowder said GoDaddy moved 125 engineering and development jobs in August 2015 from Hiawatha to the Armstrong Centre in downtown Cedar Rapids to accommodate additional customer care jobs.

'From an operations perspective, this provides the greatest benefit to GoDaddy and allows us to add even greater numbers of new jobs to the area,” Crowder said. 'We are thrilled with our experience of doing business in Iowa and specifically the greater Cedar Rapids area.

'I get back to Cedar Rapids about every couple of weeks and continue to hear positive comments from our employees in Cedar Rapids. They really enjoy working downtown.”

With the new and existing customer care positions, GoDaddy, a Web hosting and domain name registrar, will employ a total of 825 people in the two communities by 2018.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the city continued to keep the lines of communication open with GoDaddy after the company moved its local operations from Cedar Rapids to Hiawatha in the summer of 2010.

'GoDaddy was looking at temporary space in downtown Cedar Rapids while it remodeled its building in Hiawatha,” Corbett said. 'When they had a chance to come and experience the downtown, I think the employees really made the difference as far as whether those jobs would permanently stay in downtown Cedar Rapids.

'I'm thrilled that they are going to be here for many years to come.”