Shannon, speaking for the Hastings Economic Development Corporation (HEDC), presented the HEDC’s annual report, highlighting recent business retention and expansion work, housing study updates, site readiness efforts and revolving loan activity.
HEDC reported targeted employer work this year and cited projects including Breckman Rubber expansions, a Texas-based PACHA soap operation, and investments by CPI Paperworks. HEDC said three pending CDBG-assisted expansions are expected to create more than 70 positions when complete.
On site and industry work, HEDC said it has about 517,000 square feet of building space on the market and approximately 282 acres of available greenfield land, including city-owned property the HEDC and city have been marketing. HEDC described efforts to complete due diligence steps (phase 1 environmental reviews, geotech, utility capacity assessments) to make sites shovel-ready for large manufacturing or bioeconomy projects.
HEDC continues work on a bioeconomy development opportunity (BDO) study to evaluate local feedstocks (corn stover, woody biomass) and potential eligibility for a USDA-related designation; the presenter said a positive rating on that study could put Hastings on outreach panels for manufacturers investing at scale.
HEDC reported revolving loan activity: the organization had active loans to eight small businesses totaling roughly $675,000; when pending projects (e.g., Breckman Rubber, Western Reserve) meet thresholds, HEDC expects about $850,000 to recycle back into the revolving pool.
On housing, HEDC said it had leveraged more than $65 million of private development with roughly $5 million in grant funds through a rural workforce housing program; HEDC shared preliminary RDG housing-study results that identify a 10-year need of about 900 units (including replacement units) and said a housing-production pace of roughly 90 units per year would meet that projected demand.
HEDC staff urged continued coordination on workforce (intern pipelines, community-college ties), site readiness and potential LB 840-type local tools to support childcare, housing and targeted economic development projects. The presentation drew questions from council about voting membership on HEDC and on the county’s funding contribution; Shannon said the county contribution is $20,000 annually and that council liaisons attend board meetings.
Council did not take formal action on the report; members praised the HEDC’s work, asked for the final housing study report to be posted and suggested a future work session to walk council through project workflows.