The Business Record’s Power Breakfast on the Cultivation Corridor on Wednesday brought together four development heavyweights who are fully versed in collaboration, working on a regional scale and promoting an area.

All four said the fledgling Cultivation Corridor – Central Iowa’s answer to the California’s Silicon Valley and North Carolina’s Research Triangle – will be a success. It will take time, they all stressed, but they expect Central Iowa to see expansions and new businesses in the agricultural biosciences arena within a couple of decades, and broader success in less than the 50 years the Research Triangle took to develop.

The idea is to focus on the ag biosciences, both expanding Central Iowa businesses and luring new ones.

The panel, which drew a sold-out crowd of 200 at the Des Moines Embassy Club, included Jay Byers, CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership; Iowa State University President Steven Leath; Belin McCormick P.C. shareholder Steven Zumbach; and Dee Baird, president and CEO of Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.

The speakers traced the history of the Cultivation Corridor, including the key roles Leath and Zumbach played as co-chairs of the relevant committee of Capital Crossroads, the Central Iowa visioning effort.

“I have no doubt we are going to get where we need to go,” Leath said.

Zumbach agreed. “This is going to take some time, and I ask you to be patient,” he said. “I am going to make one parallel. My wife and I moved to this town 40 years ago, in 1975, and the leaders of this community at that time were talking about revitalization of downtown. It took almost three decades for that to start bearing fruit. Good ideas, long-term thinking, great strategies take time. We spent a lot of time getting it right. I really think within 10 or 20 years – it won’t take 30 for this one — this idea (Cultivation Corridor) will bring great outcomes for Central Iowa and Des Moines.”

Byers said there already has been $1.8 billion in economic activity since the Cultivation Corridor was launched in April. Included in those projects were:

• Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. announced a $22 million research facility at the ISU Research Park in Ames, and up to $100 million in work at its Fort Dodge plant.
• The second phase of the ISU Biorenewables Complex was completed, part of a $125 million project. The facility also houses the National Science Foundation Center for Biorenewable Chemicals.
• DuPont Pioneer announced plans for a new seed treatment center as part of a $50 million expansion.
• Kemin Industries Inc. broke ground on a $125 million headquarters and research and development expansion.
• Vermeer Corp., Calcium Products Inc. and Hagie Manufacturing Co. all announced expansions in the ISU Research Park. The park also began construction on a $12 million economic development hub facility.
• See a Cultivation Corridor infographic highlighting the region’s strengths