Gov. Reynolds Joins Lambertis, BVU in Opening The Foundry in Storm Lake
The Foundry, a site established in downtown Storm Lake through The Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, celebrated its grand opening by welcoming Governor Kim Reynolds and benefactors Donald and Charlene Lamberti to the ribbon cutting.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds joined a host of Buena Vista University officials, benefactors, and guests in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the establishment of The Foundry in downtown Storm Lake on Wednesday, June 2.
“This is a very exciting day for the City of Storm Lake as it starts down a truly innovative path to transform itself into a rural hub for innovation and entrepreneurship,” Reynolds said. “Projects like this don’t just happen without active and engaged leadership with a very strong vision.”
The site at 524 Lake Avenue, in the heart of the Storm Lake business district, is an incubator and co-working space for start-up companies, a key component of BVU’s Strategic Plan and a central theme in The Donald F. and Charlene K. Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship (LCRE), an initiative encouraging economic development through support for entrepreneurs in the region.
“As a family, we remain grateful to be in a position to do all we can to encourage the kind of growth that’s essential for a prosperous future in communities across Iowa and the Midwest.”
Donald Lamberti, Founder, Casey's General Stores
“We’re thankful for what Don and Charlene Lamberti have done for people and communities across the state and throughout the Midwest in building Casey’s General Stores from scratch, a business staple synonymous with Iowa quality and taste,” said BVU President Brian Lenzmeier. “Through their shared vision and generosity, Don and Charlene have strengthened Buena Vista University programming as well, in efforts such as the Lamberti Recreation Center and the Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, which seeks to link existing business owners with our students, the next generation of problem-solvers across Iowa.”
The Foundry, which stands less than one mile from BVU’s Storm Lake campus, allows easy access for students, staff, and faculty while enhancing the consumer experience in a downtown sector mere blocks from the beauty of Iowa’s “walleye capital,” Storm Lake. The site provides space to incubate start-up firms while providing co-working spaces for local and visiting persons in business. The Foundry will also host educational and community events in the future.
Levity, an enterprise owned and operated by 2020 BVU graduates Bazyl Horsey and Michael Martin, is the first start-up to begin business operations within The Foundry. The custom software development firm occupies a portion of The Foundry’s spacious first floor, allowing room for additional start-ups to operate and expand within a site that grants visionaries access to a variety of BVU resources in the way of advisors, mentors, physical materials, and more.
“It is wonderful to see recent BVU graduates taking their dreams for business and putting them into action in the center of downtown Storm Lake,” said Don Lamberti, a longtime BVU Board of Trustees member who founded Casey’s in 1968 and built the organization into a publicly traded enterprise that employs more than 15,000 people who serve more than 2,000 stores. “As a family, we remain grateful to be in a position to do all we can to encourage the kind of growth that’s essential for a prosperous future in communities across Iowa and the Midwest.”
Gov. Reynolds joined the Lamberti family, Lenzmeier, Storm Lake and BVU officials, and others in touring the facility while learning about the site’s unique history in a community that has grown in concert with dozens of start-up businesses emanating from Lake Avenue in all directions.
BVU leases the building from Storm Lakers David and Barbara Dvergsten. David Dvergsten, Chairman & CEO of Security Trust & Savings Bank in Storm Lake, is a longtime member of the BVU Board of Trustees.
“We are grateful to the Dvergsten family for making this wonderful downtown location available for BVU to lease with funding generously provided by the Lambertis, who share in the University’s mission to strengthen rural communities through entrepreneurship, innovation, business succession, and more,” said Gary Sterling, BVU Instructor of Management and Director of the Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.
“The heartland is the place for innovation, for entrepreneurship, and for opportunity,” Reynolds concluded. “You don’t have to leave Iowa to launch your career. You can make a difference in your community, or even have a global impact. It’s all right here.”