Iowa City gets $1 million for rail in new industrial park

A rail grant awarded by the state today will provide Iowa City with one of the final pieces of the funding puzzle for its new Wind Energy Supply Chain Industrial Park.

The $1,056,200 grant was awarded today by the Iowa Transportation Commission. It was one of four grants awarded using $7.5 million appropriated by the Iowa General Assembly in 2010 for rail projects.

Iowa City will use the grant to build a 3,000-foot-long north-south spur line from the Iowa Interstate Railroad according to Wendy Ford, city economic development coordinator.

The 173-acre industrial park is being developed in southeastern Iowa City. It will have a 3,000-foot-long rail spur and a parallel siding for rail car storage.

"That's one more piece of getting getting that land shovel-ready," Ford said, noting that the city plans to have the lots certified as ready-to-build under a certification program being created by Iowa City Area Development Group.

The industrial park is being marketed  mainly to companies that supply components to the wind power industry.

Iowa City Planning and Development Director Jeff Davidson said targeting the industrial park as one of the nation's first wind energy supply chain campuses has given it a higher national profile than it would otherwise receive. Two major wind turbine assembly plants are located in the Corridor, and Iowa City hopes to attract manufacturers that supply them with components. They are the Acciona Windpower plant in West Branch and the Clipper Windpower plant in Cedar Rapids.

The slow economy has stunted growth in the wind power industry making it a challenge to recruit wind suppliers, Davidson said, but other types of industries could also locate in the park if they need land first.

The City of Iowa City has approved a 50 percent local match needed to obtain the state grant, according to John Yapp, executive director of the Johnson County Council of Governments.

Yapp said work on the project should begin this spring.

"These funds made that happen," Yapp said.

Access to the industrial park will be via a reconstructed section of 420th Street, a county road that has been upgraded to industrial traffic standards. The street and a water line to the industrial park are largely complete, Davidson said, and the remaining utility work is slated for completion in Spring 2011.

The Iowa Transportation Commission approved one other rail grant for a wind energy facility on Tuesday. The Manly Terminal Wind Rail Port in Worth County was awarded a $3 million grant. The other rail grants approved were $3 million to the Southbridge Rail Yard in Sioux City and $443,800 to the Lincoln Way Rail Port in Clinton.

Separately, the commission approved four grants under the Railroad Revolving Loan and Grant Program that are expected to support the creation and retention of more than 300 jobs over the next two years. They were: A $2 million rail grant ot the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center in Davenport, a $879,461 grant to the Adams County Rail Project in Corning, a $122,839 grail loan and $51,183 rail grant to the Nypro Kanaak project in Mount Pleasant, and a $110,848 rail grant to the Lomont Molding Inc. project in Mount Pleasant.