New: Baker Group Expansion Positions Company for Future Growth

Ankeny City Council approves development agreement for Baker Group expansion.

By: Michael Crumb

This article was written by Michael Crumb, and originally published in the Business Record. Republished with permission. Read the original article on Business Record's website.

Baker Group plans to begin construction on a 37,500 square-foot expansion of its campus in Ankeny this summer, a project that will allow the multi-discipline company to continue to create jobs to meet growing client demand.

The Ankeny City Council approved a development agreement for Baker Group’s expansion at its meeting on Monday.

According to the development agreement, Baker will invest about $11 million with the city providing a property tax rebate equal to 90% of the Tax Increment Financing eligible amount of property taxes paid on the value of the improvements, not to exceed $650,000 over 6½ years.

Baker Group also will add 100 jobs that will be paid $48.44 per hour or more.

The expansion will be on the east side of the company’s building at 1600 Corporate Woods Drive. Construction is expected to be complete in 2027.

“We appreciate the Ankeny City Council’s favorable vote and their continued support as we invest in our future here,” said Mark Zimmerman, senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer at Baker, in an email late Monday. “With the development agreement approved, we will now begin working with the core team that helped us develop our headquarters in 2016. They did an outstanding job, and we will continue working with them as we move into this next phase of expansion.”

Earlier, Zimmerman said the expansion “positions us to continue creating career opportunities in Iowa across engineering project management and support roles that our clients demand.”

It will also enhance Baker Group’s ability to train and develop interns, Zimmerman said.

The growth Baker Group is experiencing is coming from all sectors, he said.

Baker Group built its Ankeny campus in 2016. The current building consists of about 60,000 square feet of office space and 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space.

Derek Lord, economic development director for the city of Ankeny, said it’s anticipated Baker will be eligible for some industrial tax credits through Polk County for the project.

“It’s a nice project for the community and it’s great that they had the foresight to acquire additional land when they moved to Ankeny,” Lord said before the meeting. 

Baker Group currently employs more than 1,300 people with 500 employees at its main campus in Ankeny. The company also has offices in Cedar Rapids, Fort Dodge, Davenport, Louisville, Ky., and Kansas City, Mo.

“We’re always competing for capital here in Central Iowa, so we’re just excited that they chose to invest and grow in Ankeny and create these jobs here at home,” Lord said.

The Baker expansion further strengthens Ankeny’s position as a “regional business center,” attracting more employees to the community for jobs than people leaving Ankeny for jobs, he said.

“This expansion gives Ankeny residents more opportunities to both live and work in our community, reduces commute times and enhances quality of life,” Lord said.