Harvest Biofuels, LLC, Proposes Regional Headquarters

An informal presentation was held at the Kossuth County Economic Development office on Monday, Feb. 5.

Terry Allers, president of Allers Associates Architects, presented a proposed development of an office building on land owned by developer Don Tietz just south of the Kossuth County fairgrounds. Attending the meeting were Don Tietz, Darren Tietz of Barco Development, surveyor Tom Edgerton, Algona City Administrator Cole O’Donnell and Kossuth County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Maureen Elbert.
The office building would house a proposed regional headquarters for Harvest Biofuels LLC, the subsidiary of Kensington Industries and Investments which is building three ethanol plants in the area. The proposed building would be built into the landscape, using large windows and an open atrium to frame the view to the river. A total of seven acres of the 44 acres owned by Don Tietz along Highway 169 would be developed for the office facility.

“KI&I and Harvest are currently contemplating the creation of a centralized office in Algona, which would be used by both construction and centralized operations management for these plants. The companies are very pleased to have received from Don Tietz a design and proposal to build this dedicated office space. We expect a decision will be made on this proposal in the near future,” stated Bob Payne, CEO of Harvest Biofuels.
Barco Development will be asking the city of Algona for a voluntary annexation of the property in order to be able to use city water and sewer utilities. There are three lots located between the corporate boundaries of Algona and the proposed annexation area. The three lots, which equal approximately 3.75 acres, would need to join the annexation request.

If the owners of the lots do not wish to be annexed, Barco Development would need to request annexation of a great deal more than the needed seven acres in order to force an annexation. State code states that owners of 80 percent of the total amount of land being annexed would need to request voluntary annexation. Discussion between O’Donnell and Don Tietz included the possibility of including all 44 acres in the annexation request with only the seven acres of development being involved in any enterprise zone requests.

According to Iowa state code, in a voluntary annexation the cost of the annexation, including sewer and water line installation costs, would be borne by the annexed properties.

Darren Tietz stated he would draft a letter formally requesting annexation, which will be presented to the Algona City Council and the planning and zoning board.