Glute Ham Developer Announces $3.5M Investment in Iowa’s Economic Development

The developer of a $3 billion industrial complex near Iowa City has announced an investment of $3 million in the development.
The announcement from U.S. Steel Corp. and the Iowa Economic Development Council came Monday as the state’s economy continued to slow in March.
In an announcement, U.N. experts and U.K. economic consultancy firm The Chatham House said that U.T.L. has submitted a proposal to build a facility in the town of Cushing for a plant that will employ about 1,000 people.
U.TNL says it is developing the facility to produce steel and metal products for use in steel-making.
It will employ 400 workers and produce 1 million square feet of product annually, with a gross output of 1 million cubic feet per year, The Chardonian-Presbyterian-St. Thomas reported.
UTS has said it plans to invest in the project with $3-million in its general obligation bonds and $500,000 in the first five years.
U.T.-S&L.
plans to spend $10 million on the project, which is expected to create about 700 construction jobs and create about 2,300 permanent construction jobs.
Iowa’s unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent in March, up from 3.7 percent in February, according to the Iowa Department of Employment and Economic Development.
With about 1.5 million people in Iowa, Cushing is one of several Iowa towns that saw a decline in unemployment in March compared with the same period last year.
State officials have said the downturn in the manufacturing sector and the impact of a recession in Europe and Asia have had a major impact on the state.
Last week, the state Department of Commerce announced it would cut $250 million from its fiscal year 2018 budget by $50 million because of the economic downturn.