The Convergence of our Beliefs

Jun 27

HOW INCENTIVES, INNOVATION, AND PARTNERSHIP REVITALIZE RURAL COMMUNITIES

What happens when sustainability, economic opportunity, and strategic public‑private partnership are at the center of incentives projects? These forces converge to become catalysts for industry reinvention and shared prosperity.

The Edible Garden project in Webster City, Iowa, is a powerful example of this convergence in action.

Reviving a Rural Manufacturing Legacy

Webster City is a community shaped by generations of manufacturing strength. For decades, a purveyor of major and small home appliances, floor care products, and professional-grade foodservice equipment was the community’s beacon of local pride, skills, and economic stability. When production ceased, the community was left with a familiar Rust Belt challenge: a massive, purpose-built industrial asset standing idle, and a workforce eager for opportunity but uncertain about what would come next.

Rather than allowing that chapter to define Webster City’s future, local and state leaders focused on what incentives can do at their best: create the conditions for reinvention. Strategic public investment signaled that the community was still open for business, still competitive, and still capable of supporting modern manufacturing. Incentives helped bridge the gap between the site’s past and its next life, lowering barriers to reuse while honoring the legacy of production that once sustained the region.

That foundation made it possible for a new generation of industry to take root. Edible Garden AG Incorporated, a national leader in controlled environment agriculture and sustainable food production, saw this historic narrative as the founding infrastructure needed for their facility and workforce expansion. Their vision was to transform the underutilized 400,000‑square‑foot facility into a high‑capacity, technology‑driven ready‑to‑drink (RTD) protein beverage production plant, capable of producing more than 100 million units annually for a major global retailer. This was a complete industrial reinvention, blending advanced food science, automation, and sustainability into a modern manufacturing platform.

By pairing adaptive reuse with forward-looking incentives, Webster City transformed a symbol of industrial decline into a platform for renewed economic vitality and demonstrated how the right incentives can help communities reclaim their identity and momentum.

Where Incentives Become Impact

The magnitude of this project, both in physical scale and long-term impacts, required strategic partnership between Edible Garden, Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), Webster City, and Steadfast City. Together, we structured an incentive strategy that supports:

Adaptive reuse of a major industrial asset creating a value-added agricultural hub within Iowa
Job creation - 42 new jobs within three years
Long-term tax base expansion, generating more than $1 billion in economic output in its first five years
Sustainable production aligned with Edible Garden’s Zero-Waste Inspired® model

Steadfast City helped the company evaluate the location, structure the incentive strategy, and ultimately secure $9.27M in state and local incentives to accelerate the facility’s development.

As Margaret Riter, Managing Principal at Steadfast City and lead on this transformational project, shared, “This initiative represents an opportunity to align sustainable food production with regional economic growth. Our focus is on ensuring the platform is positioned for long-term scalability while delivering meaningful impact at the local level.”

This is what we mean by the Convergence of Our Beliefs: sustainable industry, strong communities, and thoughtful incentives are not separate goals. They are mutually reinforcing pillars of long-term prosperity.

Partnership as a Regional Strength

The success of this project is a testament to the strength of collaboration across Iowa:

Iowa Economic Development Authority for its strategic investment and commitment to ruralcompetitiveness
Webster City for itsvision, leadership, and readiness to embrace new industry
Edible Garden for its innovation and sustainability-driven growth
Steadfast City for aligning incentives, strategy, and community impact
Ames Alliance coordinated the groups with a deep knowledge of the community, incentives, and stakeholders

When incentives are deployed strategically, and when partners share a common vision, the results speak for themselves.

Steadfast City’s Commitment

We are proud to support Edible Garden, Iowa EDA, and Webster City in bringing this transformative project to life. It embodies everything we believe about economic development: that people, place, and purpose must move together.