Attracting Foreign Investment
All of these efforts attracted foreign investment throughout the region. New developments included:
- Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries invested $71 million to build a 154,000-square-foot facility in Overland Park, Kansas, with 400 employees initially and another 200 slated for future growth.
- Canada-based Bombardier Learjet announced a $52.7 million expansion of its Wichita, Kansas, facilities, with 450 jobs being added. The project includes the Bombardier Flight Test Center, the establishment of Bombardier Centers of Excellence for Engineering and Information Technology, new facilities for paint and production flight-testing, as well as a new delivery center.
- The French company Bel Brands provided the major boost to South Dakota’s generally stable economy over the past year. A manufacturer of brands including Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges, the company is building a $120 million facility in the city of Brookings that is expected to employ a minimum of 400 people. Pat Costello, commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, says the state offered property tax abatement and a tax increment financing deal to help attract the project — along with some work force incentives and a sales tax rebate.
- Denmark-based biotech company Novozymes made a $160 million investment in its Blair, Nebraska campus, adding 100 new jobs. The Nebraska Novozymes facility is the largest plant dedicated to biofuels in the United States; it specializes in making enzymes to serve as a key technology component for the existing and advanced biofuel markets.
- Japan-based Marubeni acquired Omaha, Nebraska-based grain supplier Gavilon for $5.6 billion, retaining 350 jobs and establishing a new headquarters in downtown Omaha.
In addition, the state of Nebraska announced the expansion of the Nebraska Innovation Campus, a public/private sustainable research campus that aims to capitalize on research by faculty at the University of Nebraska Lincoln to strengthen the state’s economic growth potential. The expansion includes an $80 million investment four new or renovated buildings. Going forward, the state sees information technology as a strong potential driver of growth and has created a $35 million venture fund for IT companies.
Meanwhile, a variety of corporate expansions in North Dakota have boosted employment without any one project being held up as having made the difference. Among the expanding companies over the past year have been Caterpillar (250 new jobs), Monsanto (20), Phoenix International (60), and Amazon (200).
Microsoft, while not adding new jobs over the past year, has just completed an 185,000-square-foot expansion of operations in North Dakota, and Paul Lucy, director of Economic Development and Finance for the state’s Department of Commerce, says he expects the company will be adding people shortly to fill out that space.
The widespread business expansion, according to Lucy, results from several factors: “Besides the high-level productivity that people get out of North Dakota, it also is the result of a financially stable state that has a significant billion-dollar-plus budget surplus and has reduced taxes both for individuals and corporations to the tune of over $1 billion over the last three legislative sessions, so our companies have confidence while they’re doing their expansions that their tax liabilities are not going to go up.”
Railroads’ Economic Contribution
Additionally, the railroad industry has made a very significant impact on growth in the Plains States. BNSF Railway Company announced plans to invest $202 million on maintenance and rail capacity improvement, including a second-mile line track in the Grand Island, Nebraska, area, and a replacement for BNSF’s bridge over the Missouri River at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, plus an expansion of its locomotive shop and car shop in Lincoln.
At the same time, Union Pacific announced an investment of $1 billion in Nebraska to be expended over the next several years, including an expansion of its North Platte rail yard, new crew change buildings, and a bridge over the Elkhorn River.
