Iowa Area Development Group Marks its 25th Anniversary 

Organized in 1985 by Iowa’s electric cooperatives the Iowa Area Development Group (IADG) is recognizing its 25 years of collective economic development success. This business and community development organization was designed to specifically address rural economic development needs and opportunities. IADG was founded and is supported largely by four generation and transmission (G&T) power cooperatives serving the rural electric cooperatives of Iowa. These G&T’s are: Central Iowa Power Cooperative, Cedar Rapids; Corn Belt Power Cooperative, Humboldt; Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, Le Mars; and Northeast Power Cooperative, Palmyra, MO (that serves three distribution cooperatives located in southeast Iowa). In all IADG’s sponsors consist of over 60 rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities in Iowa.
 

Since its inception, the partnerships and economic development efforts of IADG and their sponsoring utilities have helped develop and market 120 industrial parks, build 70 speculative buildings for industries, generate over $5.6 billion dollars of capital investment, and create or retain over 38,000 jobs for Iowa.