HUSCO moving to new location

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By Sheri Melvold | Tuesday, July 1, 2008 12:11 AM CDT | () comments

MAQUOKETA, Iowa — Jackson County’s newest industry has not opened, but already has moved its location.

Jackson County supervisors said Monday that HUSCO will not be buying the county’s building on West Summit to move into in August, but plans to lease 70,000 square feet in the Generac Building at the south edge of Maquoketa.

Stacy Driscoll, city economic development director, said Generac contacted HUSCO after their March announcement that they were opening a plant in Maquoketa. HUSCO announced it would buy the former S&H Fabricating plant at 1201 E. Summit St. in March to build hydraulic and electro-hydraulic controls for use with mobile equipment.

Driscoll said HUSCO told her they saw the Generac facility as a place for potential growth and “it would better meet their needs.” The S&H building is 53,100 square feet and HUSCO had said it would build an addition to make it 80,000 square feet .

Plans still call for the plant to open in August at the Generac site with 50 to 100 people with a promise of 200 jobs over three years.

Generac has not announced whether it will remain operating in the other 70,000 square feet of the building. Efforts to reach HUSCO and Generac officials Monday were not successful.

“HUSCO will be rescinding their offer to purchase the S&H Building so you can get the building back on the market,” Driscoll said. “HUSCO has been hiring people and they still plan to open in August. They will be moving into space Generac was not utilizing.“

Supervisor Chairman Larry “Buck” Koos said the development agreement with HUSCO still requires any grants to be tied to number of jobs and wage scales.

“We wanted to get HUSCO to Maquoketa and Jackson County to get the jobs,” Koos said Monday. “They will be held to stringent guidelines in their investments and job creations. We liked them in our building, but that doesn’t work best for HUSCO.”

Supervisors approved a resolution Monday for the state of Iowa to issue $800,000 in CDBG set-aside funds for the HUSCO project to help pay for machinery. It’s the same offer made by the state when the company planned to move into the county building. The only difference is the county is now required to pay $80,000 in cash as its 10 percent match instead of lowering the cost of the S&H Fabricating building for the new industry.

“The enterprise zone offer which worked at the Summit Street location is no longer available to them,” Driscoll said. “The resolution has to be re-done.”

The resolution calls for the county to pay $20,000 by June 2009 and $30,000 for each of the next two years. Supervisor Steve Flynn said the money will likely come from the county’s share of back taxes which will be owed by Generac.

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