Minutes Enterprise Zone C 4 25ENTERPRISE ZONE COMMISSION
City of Dubuque, Iowa
MINUTES
DATE: April 25, 2002
TIME: 7:30 A.M.
PLACE: Conference Room B, City Hall
50 West 13th Street, Dubuque, Iowa 52001
COMMISSION: Present: Doug Buswell, Doug Stillings, Dan LoBianco, Andrea Muntz,
Rick Stein, Mike Van Milligen and Dan White
Absent: Dave Baker
STAFF: Bill Baum, Pamela Myhre
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. by Commission Chair Rick Stein. Staff certified
that the meeting was being held in compliance with the Iowa Open Meetings Law.
MINUTES
Stillings moved and LoBianco seconded a motion to approve the minutes of March 15, 2002.
Motion passed unanimously.
BUSINESS
DB&T/Heartland Financial USA Application
Baum provided background information regarding the "unique" application for a Development
Business. He stated that State law was changed last year to allow a developer to renovate a
building and benefit from EZ incentives without the requirement for jobs or employee benefits.
He indicated that the rush to approve the DB&T application was due to new changes to State
law which will go into effect April 30, 2002 that now require that the developer and the business
leasing space in the renovated building not be under common ownership or management.
Unfortunately, that would impact the DB&T/Heartland Financial USA project. He indicated that
IDED staff had notified the City regarding the upcoming changes in State law in order to
expedite the current application.
Stein referenced the eligibility checklist that indicated that the application did meet all
requirements for a Development Business.
Baum reviewed the application, noting that the company will be creating 45 new jobs within the
next 5 years. He then introduced John Schmidt and Nelson Klavitter from DB&T. Both thanked
the Commission and staff for assistance with the project. Rick Dickinson, GDDC Executive
Director, was also thanked for his encouragement to select the downtown site instead of
locating at the Technology Park. Klavitter described the project using a poster board illustration
of the building renovation. He indicated that the project would also be applying for historic tax
credits. Schmidt explained the commitment to the downtown site was at a cost that exceeded
by $1 million the cost to develop a new building in the Technology Park. That cost difference
made receiving the EZ incentives crucial to the success of the project.
Buswell asked for an explanation of the relationship between DB&T and Heartland Financial
USA as owner versus tenant. He stated that it was great to see continued downtown
development.
Van Milligen stated that the City was very excited by the project, especially as it sits across the
street from City Hall and will be a wonderful improvement to the immediate neighborhood.
LoBianco congratulated the company for going above and beyond the basics of building
renovation. He said the project would support the redevelopment of the Upper Main District,
providing one of the new "bookends" to the district--with the newly renovated Iowa Inn being
the other.
Stillings noted that while he must abstain from voting on the project due to his connection to
DB&T, he wanted to say that he has heard much enthusiasm and excitement about the project
in the neighborhood. As a representative from the downtown census tracts, he said that the
project is being discussed very positively at various venues in the neighborhood.
Stein noted that Heartland Financial USA impacts the community by creating spin-off jobs in
other non-banking sectors of the local economy in addition to the new expansion.
Public input was solicited by the Chair. Rick Dickinson thanked DB&T for their commitment to
the project and downtown and also thanked the City for providing options for the business when
it was making its decision on a new expansion location. The project, he stated, was great news
for Dubuque.
Motion by LoBianco, seconded by both Buswell and Van Milligen, to approve the application.
The following vote was taken:
Nay:
Abstain:
Buswell, LoBianco, Muntz, Stein, Van Milligen and White
None
Stillings
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 a.m.
Approved
F:\USERS\Prnyh re\WPDOCS\EZ~MIN4-25-02.dOC
Chairperson