Geico plans new North Liberty office, to open by April 2018

Insurance company Geico will open a new office in North Liberty next year, the city announced Tuesday.

Geico plans to construct a 50,000-square-foot office building on a site just east of Interstate 380 and south of Penn Street. The office will be north of the University of Iowa Community Credit Union headquarters building.

North Liberty officials expect the office to open as soon as April 2018.

Geico currently operates a service and call center in Coralville with about 400 employees. The company is expected to move all those employees to North Liberty and hire additional staff.

'We are excited to work with the developer and the city of North Liberty as we build a new facility for our associates,” Dan Beacom, Geico regional vice president, said in a statement. 'We want to thank Coralville's city officials for helping us build a successful business through the gracious assistance they provided over the last 20 years.”

A spokeswoman for Geico said the company could not comment beyond Tuesday's announcement. That included questions about the cost of the project, what work will be done in the new office and whether Geico will ask the state for financial assistance.

In an email, Iowa City Area Development Group President Mark Nolte said his organization will work to find a new business to occupy the Coralville office once Geico leaves.

Nick Bergus, a spokesman for North Liberty, said the city does not plan to provide incentives for the project.

Geico would be the third tenant in the Villas at Liberty Executive Park, an office park established in 2008. The park also is home to the University of Iowa Community Credit Union and the Corridor Business Journal.

'The more folks that are able to not just live in North Liberty, but work in North Liberty, that's critical for us,” Bergus said Tuesday.

Geico is based in Chevy Chase, Md., and is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. Tuscon, Ariz.-based Bourn Cos. will develop the new building.

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