Richard Ferguson

Three Corridor business leaders will be recognized for their outstanding achievements in the community at the 11th annual Junior Achievement of East Central Iowa Business Hall of Fame dinner on Sept. 16.

Richard Ferguson of ACT Inc. in Iowa City, Dwight Hughes Jr. of Hughes Landscaping and Nursery in Cedar Rapids and Scott McIntyre Jr. of United Fire & Casualty will be inducted as laureates into the J/A Business Hall of Fame. McIntyre, chairman of United Fire when he died in October, will be inducted posthumously.

Dwight Hughes Jr.

Nominated by community members, Ferguson, Hughes and McIntyre were selected by an independent committee. 

All three laureates epitomize four key standards of excellence, including their impact on their industry or organization, their integrity as a business leader, their commitment to bettering the community as a whole, and their leadership qualities that allow them to be exemplary role models.

Scott McIntyre Jr.

Ferguson, Hughes and McIntyre will be inducted at a black tie dinner at the Cedar Rapids Marriott held in their honor.  Highlights of the evening will include video biographies of each laureate and students will reinforce the purpose of the event — to inspire children to visualize success.  

Students from local schools will serve as hosts, escorts, and masters of ceremony.

A new layoff notification law taking effect this month in Iowa will require smaller employers to give a 30-day notice of many planned layoffs.

The new lay passed during the 2010 session of the Iowa General Assembly requires 30 days advance notice of a layoff or closure affecting 25 or more employees.

The law applies to companies with 25 or more employees. Violations can result in fines of $100 per day.

The Iowa law was designed to supplement a federal law that has at times been criticized as toothless and ineffective, partly because it does not apply in many layoff situations.

The federal WARN Act affects applies to companies with 100 or more employees, when they plan to lay off 50 or more employees during a 30-day period in a closing situation, or that plan to temporarily lay off ether 500 employees, or 33 percent of their work force, in a 30-day period.

“Federal requirements regarding notification of layoffs are targeted to large companies and have little impact on Iowa’s businesses that typically have fewer than 100 employees, stated Iowa Workforce Development Director Elisabeth Buck. “The new Iowa Layoff Notification Law will allow Iowa Workforce Development the opportunity to connect with dislocated workers early on in the process, leading to a more efficient delivery of workforce services.”

The new law is expected to make it much easier for the state to reach affected employees with services for dislocated workers. Some employers in the past have not notified the state of impending layoffs, making it much more difficult for the affected workers to be notified of available programs to assist them.

Rockwell Colliins and China Electronics Technology Avionics Co. Ltd. have signed a memorandum of agreement to establish a China-based joint venture to supply electronics to a China-based airline.
The joint venture will supply communication and navigation solutions for the new C919 family of single-aisle aircraft from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd.
The joint venture is expected to be located in Chengdu, located in China’s Sichuan province.

The best place to live in America is Eden Prairie this year, but three Iowa towns make Money magazine’s annual top 100 list of Best Places to Live.

Ames was ranked No. 9 in a list dominated by suburbs of major cities.

“If the people who live here get bored, they have only themselves to blame,” the magazine wrote. “Besides Iowa State’s cultural and athletic offerings, Ames boasts 36 parks, a bustling shopping district, and a new aquatic center.”

The rankings also praised Ames’ low 4.3 percent unemployment rate.

Iowa City was ranked No. 68, getting a much shorter blurb from the magazine. It referenced the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, the Iowa city Jazz Festival, the Iowa City’s designation by UNESCO as a City of Literature.

Money ranked West Des Moines at 75, and even included a rendering of its Holiday Park Aquatic Center.

“Whether you’re into shopping at farmer’s markets, checking out car shows, or combing through antiques, there’s something here for almost everyone,” Money wrote of the Des Moines suburb.

A Chicago company is taking over the management and leasing of Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids.

Jones Lang LaSalle will operate the 854,000-square-foot mall after acquiring management and leasing responsibilities for 18 properties that General Growth Properties does not own in its third-party management division.

Approximately 200 employees who comprise the management teams at Westdale and the other 17 properties plus 30 corporate employees who provide services to the properties will become Jones Lang LaSalle employees.

Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which owns Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, took over the management of Westdale Mall in December 2006. It has leased the former Steve & Barry’s anchor store to Linn County as temporary office space since the flood of June 2008 and picked up some smaller tenants displaced from Lindale Mall.

The portfolio of 18 regional shopping malls and community centers in Iowa and 10 other states adds more than 11 million square feet to Jones Lang LaSalle’s retail portfolio of 84 million square feet in the Americas and 265 million square feet worldwide. The publicly-traded company has the largest third-party retail portfolio in the country. 

Jones Lang LaSalle’s more than 300 regional malls, strip centers, power centers, lifestyle centers, development projects, mixed-use centers, transportation terminals and over 6,000 retail ATMs and bank branches are located across 49 states.

In addition to announcing the deal with Jones Lang LaSalle, General Growth Properties on Monday said it is getting a $500 million infusion from a Texas teachers pension fund as it attempts to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, manager of one of the largest and most successful U.S. pension funds, has entered into a definitive agreement to invest $500 million  in exchange for shares of the reorganized General Growth Properties stock at $10.25 per share.

The investment is subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court.

Check back for more on this story as it develops.

A hostile takeover bid for Casey’s General Stores Inc. was extended Monday, July, 12, by Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. after an insufficient number of Casey’s shareholders accepted the company’s initial offer.

Couche-Tard took its bid for Casey’s directly to shareholders on June 2 after the Casey’s board of directors rejected overtures for a negotiated purchase. on Monday, Couche-Tard extended the offer, which expired at midnight Friday, until 5 pm. August 6.

Canada-based Couche-Tard did not, however, raise its offer for the Ankeny-based convenience store operator. Only 9,792,196 shares of Casey’s common stock, or 19.2 percent of all outstanding shares, were tendered in response to Couche-Tard’s initial offer.

That brought a quick response from Casey’s General Stores.

“The low number of shares tendered reflects what Casey’s has heard from many shareholders – that this hostile, highly conditional offer is inadequate,” Casey’s said in a statement released to the media.

“The response of our shareholders to Couche-Tard’s tender offer speaks for itself. We believe that our shareholders recognize Casey’s industry-leading performance and superior value potential.”

Shares of Casey’s stock appeared to be relatively unswayed by the news in Monday’s trading, which left Casey’s shares in the same $36 range as before Couche-Tard extended the offer.