The City of Stuart is working with a local manufacturing company to potentially build their new headquarters north of Interstate 80.

DICA CEO Kris Koberg presented to the City Council at a special meeting Wednesday night a proposal to build an estimated 25,000 square-foot facility west of Karl Chevrolet, moving from their current 13,500 square-foot headquarter facility in Guthrie Center. The over 30-year-old company has 16 full-time employees and are actively seeking to hire three people currently, with an expectation to have at least 20 full-time employees within five years, “Our objective is to create a facility that supports our culture, to become a sales showpiece, to really improve our manufacturing and our shipping, and to allow for growth and expansion. And then re-centralize our employees, so we’re not going to get everybody back all at once, but all new hires will all be in our new facility. So we won’t be hiring, our intention was not to hire anybody remote.”

Koberg said they are in a preliminary agreement to purchase 4.35 acres from Marks Development, and he expects to invest $3 million into the new building. Stuart’s Financial Advisor Chip Schultz says the assessed value of the property including the improvements needs to be determined by Adair County before they can formulate a tax increment financing rebate. Schultz gave the Council three scenarios to choose from in order to move forward on the venture. The Council approved Scenario A which assumed the lowest valuation total at $1,885,000. They also approved for Dorsey and Whitney law firm to draft an agreement with the City of Guthrie Center to allow the TIF rebate.