Leaders of an Italian-based manufacturer had three key requirements for their first manufacturing facility in the U.S.: It needed to be close to customers; construction had to start quickly; and the area had to offer a good quality of life, especially for employees relocating from outside the country.

Officials from ADR Axles USA Inc., an affiliate of Milan, Italy-based ADR S.p.A., visited possible development sites in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, all of which are near facilities of major customers including John Deere and Kinze Manufacturing. Officials decided to build the $14.3-million North American headquarters and production facility on a certified site in the Perry Industrial Park.

“We knew that once we decided on a site that we wanted to be able to develop it fast,” said Chiara Radizzani, vice president of ADR Group. “We wanted as short of [a] turnaround time as possible. This land was shovel ready. It already had utilities. … So much work was already done that it saved us several months.”

Making sure sites are ready to develop on has been a critical element of Iowa Economic Development Authority’s strategy to attract manufacturing companies and other businesses to the state. Debi Durham, the state agency’s leader since January 2011, frequently has shared that early in her tenure, Iowa lost a development deal to Nebraska for reasons related to the availability of land.

That loss prompted the creation of the Iowa Certified Site Program in May 2012. The project-ready sites, which are certified by a third-party firm, meet national certification standards including accessibility to major thoroughfares and either are served or have the ability to be served by utilities.

Iowa currently has 24 certified sites that range in size from 65 acres to 1,650 acres, according to the agency’s website. Since its inception, the program has attracted more than $2.2 billion in capital investment in Iowa including from Michael Foods, which opened a facility on a certified site in Norwalk in 2019. Precooked egg products are made at the facility, which has nearly doubled in size since it opened.

“What we are being told today is that if the site you want to show us isn’t certified, we don’t want to see it,” said Durham, now director of the Iowa Finance and Iowa Economic Development authorities. Companies looking to build a new facility “don’t have time to negotiate with a landowner. They don’t have time to make sure that the site is truly ready to move dirt.”

“Our certified sites tell [potential developers] that all of the due diligence on the site is done,” she said.

ADR, which makes axles, braking systems and suspensions for agricultural and industrial machinery, began operating in the U.S. about seven years ago. The 71-year-old company, with 14 locations around the world, opened a warehouse in Atlanta but found its customer base was not growing, Radizzani said.

“We are importing our product to the United States and it can take up to six months or more to get it to our customers,” she said. “The customer is not willing to wait six months. We want to get our product to our [U.S.] customers faster, so we decided to open our manufacturing site.”

Once the decision was made to build a manufacturing facility in the U.S., ADR wanted to quickly move to constructing it. Finding a site that was ready to build on helped ADR meet that goal, Radizzani said. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for Oct. 23. The 54,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin production in the first quarter of 2027.

Building the facility in an area with an available workforce and quality-of-life amenities was also important, Radizzani said.

In June 2024, Tyson Foods closed its facility in Perry, resulting in the loss of 1,276 jobs. Many of the workers still live in and around Perry and have skills necessary to work in another manufacturing plant.

Also, Des Moines Area Community College, which has a campus in Perry, offers courses that teach students how to use automated manufacturing equipment controlled by pre-programmed computer software to make materials into specific shapes.

“We are very happy to employ students that have some knowledge of how our machines work,” Radizzani said. ADR expects to employ at least 35 people in Perry when the facility opens. In about five years, officials will evaluate whether to expand the facility, a move that could mean more jobs, she said.

ADR also will relocate some of its managers from other plants to the Perry facility, Radizzani said. It was important that the area the facility was built in offered amenities such as good schools and outdoor activities as well as entertainment opportunities such as restaurants, theaters and event centers.

Perry, which is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, checked those boxes, Radizzani said. “If life is fine, then people work better.”