Hauschilt was back in town last week, this time driving a minibus lettered “Hometown Tour.”

Leaving the Iowa Central Community College Webster City campus, the tour drove along South Willson Avenue to showcase the large repaving project now under way, proceeded west along Boone Street, which has been extensively surfaced under the city’s HMA paving program, then drove past Sunset Elementary School and Webster City Daycare. It then proceeded past Webster City High School, Riverview Daycare, and the recently-upgraded facilities of Nokomis Park before touring Fuller Hall and Seneca Foundry. Lunch was served at the Briggs Woods Conference Center.

The tour continued after lunch with tours of Van Diest Medical Center, the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, and finished with a downtown walking tour of public art, several businesses and the renovated Webster Theater.

City officials and local business leaders were on the bus, but they’ve already seen the schools, daycares, and street repairs on the itinerary. The real purpose of the tour was to give Kading’s top executives time for some due diligence. The company is planning to spend $28 million in Webster City, so you can understand why.

-Photo courtesy of Kading Properties
Kading Properties Chief Executive Officer Karrie Kading Ramsey, far left, listens intently as Lori Mason, far right, gives a tour of Seneca Foundry, one stop on the “Hometown Tour” of Webster City.

According to Kading, “The tours help us select our next workforce housing community and allow Iowa hometowns to show us what makes them special.”

Kading Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Kading Ramsey told the group at a lunch, “Normally we run tours before we make commitments, but I’ve been talking about Webster City for a long time.”

How long? At least since fall 2020, when Kading planned to build a similar housing project on the same land.

The word apartment doesn’t accurately describe what Kading builds, and the term developer doesn’t accurately describe Kading itself. Company founder Rick Kading never wanted to build ordinary apartments. Iowans, he reasoned, didn’t think “home” was a place people lived above or below you, or down the hall. They wanted their own front door and attached garage, their own washer and dryer; something more like a single-family home.

Kading gave it to them, and continues to do so today in 26 developments it owns and runs across Iowa. The company calls it “workforce housing,” and it’s all Kading builds at present.

-Messenger photo by Robert E. Oliver
Officials of Kading Properties prepare to board their “Hometown Tours” minibus after a tour of Van Diest Medical Center on June 19. Webster City Mayor John Hawkins, center in light grey shirt, and Ariel Bertran, Webster City’s community development director, in red at right, served as hosts.

To keep rents lower requires a new definition of “land use,” and here, Kading rewrote the book. It controls costs by building narrower streets, minimal lawns, short driveways, and less street parking than in traditional neighborhoods.

Wilson Estates is Kading’s name for the new development. The majority of units will be one-story four- and six-plex buildings, with a few two-story six-plexes, and 24 semi-detached homes.

Another thing that sets family-owned Kading apart is its desire to be responsible for every aspect of its projects.

“We have land development, construction and property management companies,” Ramsey said.

In practice, Kading doesn’t sell its apartment communities; it owns and manages them for the long-term. Bottom line? When Kading comes to town, they plan to stay.

What about “affordable” vs. “workforce” housing?

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development defines “affordable” as housing with monthly costs that don’t exceed 30% of a family’s monthly income. “Workforce housing” is built for essential and middle-income workers: the teachers, nurses and firefighters who earn from 60 to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI). The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis calculates Hamilton County’s family AMI in 2023 to be $71,750.

Hauschilt said last week, “We want to come in at about 80% of AMI,” so, in theory, the new apartments are targeted to families earning about $57,400. At that level, tenants don’t qualify for housing subsidies, and that’s typical for tenants in Kading developments.

Kading’s 1,008-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath, one-car attached garage units rent for $920 in Perry; $995 in Storm Lake; $1,045 in Boone; and $1,150 on Des Moines’ east side.

At present, Webster City has a shortage of housing and a declining population. The City Council of Webster City and city management want to solve both problems, so they’ve worked closely with Kading to encourage the project. As was reported by the Daily Freeman-Journal on January 21, 2025, the city has offered up to a $1.2 million grant as an incentive to Kading to proceed with its project.

The city plans to spend up to $5,741,303 in improvements related to the project. The largest cost, an estimated $2,214,475, would pay for two new streets in the development: Tulip Trail and West Heart Street. Another $1,429,831 would go for improvements to Wall Street, and a further $571,558 for Lynx Avenue upgrades. Much of the rest would be spent on extending water, wastewater and electric utilities to the apartments.

Kading’s market is central Iowa and, in the last dozen years or so, it’s increasingly built in smaller cities on the outskirts of Des Moines.

Now, with recent projects in Storm Lake, Charles City and Knoxville, Kading is moving further afield. With that as a framework, Webster City seems to make a lot of sense as the site for Kading’s next hometown.