Hupp Electric Motors marking move to Marion

When you are rebuilding large electric motors weighing over 100,000 pounds that power factories, you need a lot of room.

Hupp Electric Motors, a 103-year-old company, on Thursday will celebrate its move to the 110,000-square-foot former Kwik-Way Products building at 500 57th St. in Marion, which it bought in 2013. The family-owned business, which added a 19,000-square-foot addition that houses the company's large motors operations, was previously at 275 33rd Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids.

'We outgrew our Cedar Rapids facility and found that the former Kwik-Way building was perfect for our needs,” said Kevin Hupp, president of Hupp Electric Motors, in a news release. "Modifications to the interior along with the addition should serve the needs of our customers for several years to come.”

Hupp Electric Motors began life in the early 1900s wiring grain mills in Eastern Iowa. It progressed to selling and repairing electric motors, hoists and cranes, building electrical panels and offering field service and predictive maintenance programs.

The company, which employs more than 200 people, played a pivotal role for many customers in the aftermath of the June 2008 flood.

With employees working 12-hour shifts in July and August 2008, Hupp Electric Motors inspected more than 4,100 electric motors and cleaned and repaired 1,472 units - triple the normal rate.

'We were able to get well pump motors back to the city in 17 hours,” Hupp, fourth generation owner of the company, said in a July 2012 interview with The Gazette. 'We were moving motors through as quickly as possible.

'A lot of our customers run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We served two meals a day to our employees for six weeks.

'Twenty of our employees also were dealing with their homes being flooded.”