CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — When John Bloomhall was deciding where to build Diamond V Mills' new corporate headquarters, he never considered locations outside of Cedar Rapids.

"We have over 70 acres of land out here on 60th Avenue SW where we built our south plant in 2009," said Bloomhall, president and chief executive officer. "As we looked at our experience from the (June 2008) flood recovery, the wonderful community support, and all the great vendors we have in Cedar Rapids, we decided to build our new corporate headquarters right here.

"We bring a lot of our customers to Cedar Rapids to tour our facilities. By developing a campus out here, we can much more efficiently guide our customers through our facilities and make our time more productive."

On Thursday, Diamond V Mills marked the completion of the $4.5 million, 16,500-square-foot headquarters building at 2525 60th Ave. SW, adjacent to its plant at 2575 60th Ave. SW.

For many years, Diamond V Mills headquarters was located at 838 First St. NW, but close proximity to the Cedar River resulted in serious damage from the historic 2008 flood. Although the company rehabilitated and reoccupied the building, lack of any near term flood protection for the west side of the river prompted the move to higher ground.

"We are thrilled and excited about how this facility will improve our efficiencies," Bloomhall said. "From an office space standpoint, it's almost 50 percent larger than the First Street NW building.

"Our old headquarters building had a warehousing component, which we do not have here. This is strictly office space that will provide us room to grow."

Bloomhall said Diamond V Mills also has invested another $13.5 million to double production capacity at the south plant, a project that will be completed early next year.

Diamond V Mills, founded by C.W. Bloomhall in 1943, manufactures and markets nutritional fermentation products for animal nutrition and health. The company's original manufacturing plant at 436 G Ave. was rehabilitated after the flood and will continue to operate into the "foreseeable future," according to Bloomhall.

Although the Diamond V Mills normally would begin marking its 70th anniversary in October, Bloomhall said dedication of a new corporate headquarters and other events prompted the company to begin the celebration Thursday.

"This is an historic week for the company," he said. "We're conducting our global business unit meetings, so we have all of our global business unit leaders in Cedar Rapids.

"In conjunction with that, we're holding our first technical summit, so we have we have all of our scientists and technical people from around the world meeting in Cedar Rapids to talk about our science, research and innovation."

Diamond V Mills also operates a research and innovation center on the campus of nearby Kirkwood Community College.

"Kirkwood has been a tremendous partner since we build that facility in 1997," Bloomhall said. "Our Embria Health Sciences wholly-owned subsidiary in Ankeny also continues to do very well.

"We feel that we have a very bright future."