DuPont Pioneer to occupy Cedar Rapids warehouse

Du Pont Industrial Biosciences - ICR Iowa - Food and Bio-Processing

Seed company DuPont Pioneer will be the sole tenant of a new, 200,000-square-foot warehouse in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Local real estate company GLD Commercial has been building the warehouse for Pioneer at 600 49th Ave. Dr. SW. It also would serve as a distribution center for the Johnston, Iowa.-based company, according to city documents.

The Cedar Rapids City Council will review a development agreement with GLD and Pioneer Tuesday. The agreement would have the city provide a 10-year, 50 percent reimbursement of the new taxes generated by the warehouse back to GLD and Pioneer.

The incentives were valued at around $1.1 million during a City Council meeting last November, but the tenant was not disclosed at that time.

In exchange, Pioneer would have to create and retain 10 or more jobs that pay at least $20.76 an hour.

A spokesman for Pioneer could not be reached for comment Monday. Construction of the $10 million warehouse is expected to be complete in September.

Pioneer is a subsidiary of DowDuPont, the giant chemical and agriculture company formed by the merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont. DowDuPont plans to split into three independent companies next year, which will result in Pioneer becoming a part of the newly formed Corteva Agriscience, based in Wilmington, Del.

DuPont also has a manufacturing plant for its industrial biosciences business in southwest Cedar Rapids.

DuPont Industrial Biosciences is a part of DowDuPont’s specialty products division, which will be named DuPont once the company splits.