Ambitious Small Town Looks To Lure Biofuels Plant

TEMPLETON — The Templeton Area Development Corp. (TADC) has inked a deal for an option of 114 acres outside of the community that it hopes to market for value-added, industrial or other business use.

The land, which the Carroll Area Development Corp., and Western Iowa Advantage will help promote, is located ½ mile west of U.S. 71 on the Templeton blacktop with access to the Burlington Northern Railroad line that runs between Coon Rapids and Manning.

Templeton is a town of about 350 people in southern Carroll County.

The TADC and Harriet Miller family signed an exclusive option agreement for the land. The paperwork on the arrangement was filed Wednesday with the Carroll County Recorder’s Office.

Any development likely would involve another 6 acres of railroad right of way.

“This site will allow us to be more competitive when looking for locations this large,” said Jim Gossett, executive director of the Carroll Area Development Corp.



Larry “Doc” Sporrer, treasurer of the TADC, said the land likely will be marketed at $10,000 an acre to potential developers.
Sporrer said Templeton hopes to lure a “value-added” company, possibly in the biofuels industry, but that the door is open to any number of possibilities.

He said the TADC doesn’t have any desire to subdivide the land.

For his part, Gossett said the CADC has had four requests in the last 18 months for availability of sites at more than 100 acres.

The option deal will allow Carroll County development officials to show businesses that the area is ready for new sitings with much of the location and legal work already complete.

“You can’t just point to a farm field and say I know a guy who knows a guy who might sell you that land,” Gossett said.
Specifically, Gossett said the Templeton site would be marketed at www.carrollareadev.com, and www.westerniowaadvantage.com.

Gossett said he regularly receives requests for available sites from the business development arms of utilities, the Iowa Department of Economic Development and individual companies.

The CADC’s industrial site locations committee is now eyeing other potential spots in the area for similar option deals with the intent of marketing them to business and industry as well.

Meanwhile, Sporrer said, the TADC is planning another 10-acre expansion to the business park on the eastern side of Templeton, where Templeton Rye Spirits is located.