Seven former Maytag buildings donated to DMACC

The president and founder of Engineered Plastic Components in Grinnell is donating seven former Maytag buildings in Newton to Des Moines Area Community College.

The $8 million gift of the 472,000-square-foot former Maytag headquarters complex by Reza Kargarzadeh represents the largest donation to DMACC since the college was founded in 1966. It will triple the size of the DMACC Newton Campus.

Preliminary plans call for a multiuse facility that could include a traditional office/industrial park, student housing, space for expansion of new and existing academic programs, and a business incubator for startup and growth companies. The incubator would offer move-in ready space, access to 100 Gbps (billions of bits per second) fiber optics to support voice, video and data, and DMACC's custom workforce training program.

Rob Denson, DMACC president, said Kargarzadeh approached the college earlier this year with his proposal.

'We will be working closely with the city and the Newton Development Corp. to grow this business park,” Denson said in a news release. 'It offers a unique opportunity for all of us to work together to create new opportunities and jobs in Newton.”

Kargarzadeh bought the former Maytag corporate complex in April 2012 from Windstream Corp.

Joe Pugel, DMACC board chairman and Newton resident, said Maytag was instrumental in helping create the Newton DMACC campus almost 25 years ago.

'The history of DMACC and Maytag are closely connected,” Pugel said. 'Now, it seems fitting Maytag's former facilities will become part of the college and will be the place where new businesses will be created and a new generation of workers will be trained.”

Engineered Plastic Components manufactures plastic parts for aerospace, consumer appliance, agricultural, heavy equipment and medical equipment. The company has 15 manufacturing facilities in 10 states and Mexico, including plants in Grinnell and Kalona.