In June, the new Calhoun County Business Park project broke ground just north of the U.S. Highway 20 and Highway 4 junction.

Borrowing from another familiar Iowa project, Calhoun County Supervisor Carl Legore declared, “If you build it, they will come,” to a group gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony.

The “it” being the new business park, and the “they” being new industries and businesses to the region.

The Calhoun County Business Park will be a 115-acre business and industrial park with a total of 19 lots once it is fully built. The June groundbreaking kicked off the first phase, which will be building 232nd Street and setting up three lots and one outlot.

It is the first rural business park located right on four-lane U.S. Highway 20. The site is located in a federally designated Opportunity Zone and in a locally designated urban renewal area.

The land for the business park was purchased in May 2020 from Babbitt Family Farms LLC for $448,922, according to records from the Calhoun County Assessor’s Office.

A RISE Grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation will help fund the construction of the new road that will lead into the business park.

“This business park shows how public, private and government entities can work together for the betterment of the community,” Legore said. “Hard work and persistence … took what was an idea and made it a reality.”

As of early February, the water main and sewer main on the property had been completed and passed required testing. The road through the site is not yet done, but should be completed in early spring, according to Riley Bleam, executive director of the Calhoun County Economic Development Corporation.

“We had a delay due to a machine breaking down and with the delays in our supply chain with the delivery of required parts to fix the machine,” she said.

Bleam joined the Calhoun County Economic Development Corporation as its executive director during the summer.

Bleam, a native of Rockwell City, is deeply familiar with Calhoun County. She started her role as the executive director on June 21, 2021, and is raising her family on a farm near Manson.

A new Fareway grocery store broke ground in Rockwell City in July.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Mayor Phil Heinlen during the groundbreaking ceremony. “For this size of community to be without a grocery store is not fun. We have been without one for about a year-and-a-half and we still have a ways to go. But we found a friend in Fareway. They are going to build and we are going to enjoy it when it’s done.”

Rockwell City’s last grocery store, Heartland Market, closed in early 2020. Since that time, Heinlen said most residents have traveled to Lake City, Fort Dodge or Carroll for their grocery needs.

The store, located at 339 E. High St., opened Feb. 9.