(Okoboji)– Officials with Premier Communications today (Wed.) held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new office and retail facility being constructed in Okoboji. Ryan Boone, the company’s CEO, told KUOO news they’re excited to have a presence in the Iowa Great Lakes…
“We’re going to be constructing a storefront that customers can come and see us in person and interact with us in that way, but it’s also going to be a place where our technicians will be and we’ll have some inventory. It’s centrally located in the community so we can make sure we’re serving customers as quickly as possible if troubles do arise or someone needs a new service. The area just made complete sense for us within the lakes area.”
He says their goal, weather permitting, is to complete construction on the facility by the end of this year and to have it open in early 2025. He says Premier’s operations locally will employ 15 to 20 people.
Premier has been actively expanding its fiber optic network throughout northwest Iowa and the Iowa Great Lakes over the past year and-a-half or so…
“And so last year was a really big phase for us. This year is another $10 million plus investment phase for us, covering a couple thousand homes and businesses, and so we’re going to be getting after it for this year and probably the next two years after that, hopefully covering the entire lakes region.”
Boone says they’re working their way pretty much from north to south through the Iowa Great Lakes…
“We kind of started right by Big Spirit and Spirit Lake and just moving our way south all the way to Milford. Some of these builds will include even Fostoria, which also will be happening this year, and then we’ll be building out rural Spencer as well, so in addition to the community of Okoboji and continuing through Spirit Lake.”
By the time it’s all said and done, Boone says they will have invested more than $50 million dollars in the area…
“This just shows the investment that our board and our company and our employees have in this area and our expectation that this is just where we need to be. It will be over $50 million putting fiber in the ground, of putting buildings up, all those different things, even including some acquisitions that were completed at the end of last year.”
Those acquisitions include IGL Teleconnect and Royal Telephone Company. The fiber project is slated for completion in 2025.
Premier Communications, headquartered in Sioux Center, provides voice, video and data services, including high speed internet.
