HomeMy WebLinkAboutA006 - Letter from Hawkeye Renewables Hawke e
RENEWABLES
September 21, 2006
Honorable Mayor of Ames,
And the Ames City Council
Hawkeye Renewables is currently the third largest producer of ethanol in the United
States with production facilities in Iowa Falls and Fairbank Iowa. As we look to add
additional production facilities in Iowa in order to maintain a leading position in the
emerging renewable fuels industry, we have made plans to establish a corporate office in
Ames. We believe Ames will provide us with many advantages including the ability to
develop a close working relationship with various departments of Iowa State University
and their involvement in the renewable fuels industry. We also are in the process of
adding 10-15 new senior management level positions at the corporate level and believe
Ames is a very attractive community to recruit people to live and work. Additionally,
Ames will provide Hawkeye with a geographical center to our additional production
facilities planned in Iowa.
Due to our growth plans, we have rented temporary office space in Ames in order to
facilitate the process of getting new staff hired and current corporate functions moved to
Ames. In anticipation of a new corporate headquarters being completed early in 2007, we
have invested significant time and energy in working with Story Construction to
accelerate construction plans as quickly as possible on land purchased in the Ames
Community Development Park on South Bell Avenue. This timeline has been interrupted
with the discovery of a city ordinance creating minimum requirements for the size of
office buildings in areas zoned as general industrial which threatens to delay or prevent
our construction schedule. This ordinance effectively prohibits companies like ours from
building office space in the area we have chosen despite the fact that numerous other
previously existing businesses in the area are primarily office space and have buildings
that would be very similar to what we propose to build. Our view is that the original size
and platting of the lots that are still available in the Ames Community Development Park
are more appropriately suited for uses such as ours as compared to an industrial use that
would be better located in other new areas of the city that are targeting that kind of
growth. We believe that the addition of our facility as well as that of Todd & Sargent
that is also being planned in the Ames Community Development Park would continue to
enhance the aesthetic appearance of the area and continue to create a very positive image
for Ames along the I-35 frontage.
Other professional service providers associated with Hawkeye and Todd & Sargent will
be providing you additional technical information relative to our projects. We appreciate
your time in reviewing this information and look forward to working together with you
and the staff of the City of Ames to make decisions that will allow our projects to move
ahead in an expedient manner.
Sincerely,
.D. Schlieman
President