Greene County Development Corporation (GCDC) held an Annual Event Monday evening at the Greene Room Events Center at Wild Rose in Jefferson.

The program highlighted three areas including the city of Jefferson being designated as an Iowa Thriving Community, the Multicultural Family Resource Center Initiative and a large-scale rental housing project with Kading Properties. Jefferson City Administrator Scott Peterson talked about the Iowa Thriving Community and how that helps the city to receive bonus points toward Iowa Workforce Housing Tax Credits and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for housing projects. Peterson mentioned that as part of their presentation the city gave at the recently held Housing Iowa Conference, that there has been over $128 million of investment within the last decade made toward projects such as building a new casino and the expansion of the Greene County School District, among others.

Chuck Offenburger is the chair of the steering committee for the new Multicultural Family Resource Center. He said they are wanting to attract entire families to move and work in Greene County and to help with those transitions, a director will be hired. Offenburger pointed out a US Department of Agriculture Rural Development Grant of just under $100,000 has funded the initiative for the first year and they are wanting to secure funding for the second through fourth years. He noted that about one-third of their goal of $300,000 has been raised by businesses and individuals so far. 

Kading Properties CEO Karie Ramsey then gave an update on their rental housing project that is being looked at in the GCDC East Business Park on south Highway 30 along Gallup Road. She said they serve the “missing middle” of the population within their 26 community areas and that their own study produced that 60-percent of respondents said there wasn’t enough available housing in Greene County. Once their housing project is completed, Ramsey said Kading would have invested over $20 million into the project.

Jones talked about what he’s hopeful for the community members that came to hear about these updates.

“That people start to believe. And I think they have to believe that change is here, that our Caucasian population is not going to fill the void and the employment needs of the industries we already have in Greene County, and we are so blessed to have what we have. And it’s going to require diversity. And we have to open our arms and learn how to be that welcoming community. That’s where the solution is going to come from.”     

The event finished with GCDC Executive Director Ken Paxton reviewing 12 new businesses that started in Greene County in the last year, and the announcement from Offenburger about the new GCDC Entrepreneur of the Year that went to Andy Rowland and Rowland Construction Company. Offerburger said Rowland built a dozen rental units and two single family homes within the first two years he was in Jefferson and is now developing 12 townhomes and eight single family homes near the water tower.

New businesses mentioned at GCDC Annual Event:

• Murphy’s Meats
• Chirp
• Warm Wishes
• Midwest Missions
• Re/Max Legacy
• Midwest Behavioral Health Services
• Legacy Events
• Vive Chiropractic
• Elliott Art Studio
• Churdan Apartment Development
• Dollar Tree 
• 144 Corridor Housing Initiative