MUSCATINE, Iowa — Driving into Muscatine, chances are, you'll see a truck, with the letters H-O-N on it. HON is the one of the brands, and the largest operating company, under the HNI Corporation, a global leader in office furniture manufacturing. The world headquarters of HNI is located in downtown Muscatine, Iowa.
That's where a $50 million dollar investment is in the latter phase of construction.
"We started this project in 2012, and the driving force was we needed to update our manufacturing facilities for our laminate products, so we built a brand new manufacturing plant," said Gary Carson, Vice President, Member and Community Relations for the HNI Corporation, which employs nearly 4,000 people in Muscatine, population 23,968.
"As we exited the old manufacturing facilities, we decided to renovate one of the buildings," said Carlson. The renovated building will be used for new product development and administrative offices.
The project was slated to take three years. When HNI moves into the new building in November, the project will have taken four years.
A unique feature of the new construction is what looks like a glass skywalk above one of the main streets in downtown Muscatine. Inside the skywalk, is a conveyor belt that transports office furniture product from the manufacturing plant to a distribution center.
"In the future that will also be where people will walk back and forth between the product development center, which is the building that we are revitalizing, to the HON headquarters building," said Carlson.
The investment in downtown is enough to receive praises from the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"If you look at the buildings [HNI Corporation] have repainted in the downtown, the conveyor that they've put up in the last couple of months, how that beautifies the entry into our community, it's wonderful. It just really changes the complexion of coming into the downtown of Muscatine," said Greg Jenkins, President and CEO of the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Jenkins says HNI is a vital part of the community and when its business trajectory is good, Muscatine benefits.
"For us, when you see a company that's one of the backbone businesses of the community making those sort of investments in the community, you're thankful," said Jenkins.
For the HNI Corporation, the expansion won't create many more jobs, because of increased efficiency with the manufacturing facility. Carlson says it's the type of jobs that change.
"We are continuing to grow in engineering, in product development roles, but a lot of [the construction] has to do with the stability of jobs for the future. When you make this type of investment into your operations, it's really there for the next generation," said Carlson.