The Des Moines City Council on Monday approved discounted parking rates for Cognizant Technology Solutions, as part of an incentive package for its expansion downtown. The agreement approved by the City Council provides a 20 percent discount on parking rates for the company worth $64,400. The money will come from the downtown tax increment financing district to meet the city’s required 20 percent community match. The Iowa Economic Development Authority in May approved an incentive package that included $322,000 — $7,000 for each of 46 qualifying jobs that are part of 116 jobs that meet the state’s High Quality Jobs wage requirement of $26.72 per hour. Cognizant plans to spend more than $14 million to lease 50,000 square feet of office space in Two Ruan Center, and in a second phase, to build two 54,000-square-foot  office buildings at Gray’s Landing south of downtown. The company plans to hire 1,000 additional workers over the next five years. 

 Read an article about the project on BusinessRecord.com.