Less than two months after celebrating the grand opening of its new worldwide headquarters, Kemin Industries Inc. is preparing for future expansion, with plans to buy nearly 23.6 acres of land north and east of its recently completed headquarters from the city of Des Moines. According to a staff report to the City Council, Kemin has no immediate plans for development of the combined properties — located north and south of East Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near the Kemin complex at 1900 Scott Ave. — but envisions possible manufacturing and warehousing operations. The City Council will be asked today to approve a preliminary development agreement under which Kemin would pay a total of $440,195 for 2109 E. Market St., located north of East Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway; and additional parcels and rights of way in an area bounded by a Union Pacific Railroad Co. right of way on the west, Southeast 23rd Street on the east, East Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway on the north and Maury Street on the south. Three of the parcels were purchased with the help of federal funds for the extension Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Kemin would pay $140,495 for those parcels, with the proceeds going to the city’s Southeast Connector fund. Kemin would pay $299,700 for the remaining parcels, with the revenues from those sales funding a five-year forgivable loan at 0 percent interest. That loan would be part of an economic development package for Kemin under which the company also would qualify for five-year, graduated scale industrial tax abatement on the value of improvements in the expansion area. Read more about Kemin’s recently completed expansion of its eastside campus.