Penford plan looks like a win-win

Gazette Editorial Board

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Penford Products bounced back from the flood of 2008, which inflicted more than $50 million in damage on the plant. Now the company wants to expand its operations. But it's landlocked at the First Street SW location in Cedar Rapids.

So, the company has a proposal for the city: Let us buy the nearby 11.2-acre Riverside Park and we'll build a better skate park to replace it.

This plan looks like a winner for the community and the company.

Penford is a longtime industry operating on the west side of the Cedar River, a bit downriver from downtown. Its 227 employees produce starch for the paper industry, ethanol and biomaterial. Penford wants to expand its corn wet-milling operation to produce more of the biomaterials that many companies can use to replace those that are petroleum-based.

Penford's investment would be as much as $100 million and add up to 50 full-time jobs.

Company President Tim Kortemeyer told The Gazette that concerns about lighting, noise, odor and appearance would be addressed. “We're part of the downtown and we're going to be here for a long time. And we want to be something that doesn't distract or detract from the downtown.”

This project would add jobs, grow the property tax base and strengthen a solid company. Penford promises to do it in a way that respects the neighborhood. The city gets a new, more challenging skate park - something users began calling for not long after it opened in 1999. And the relocated park likely would be in the new greenway area along the river, still close to the core neighborhoods the city is rebuilding.

City Council will hold a public hearing in January. Unless a major drawback surfaces, the council should put this proposal on a fast track.

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