Kirkwood buying Hiawatha building for regional education center

Kirkwood Community College will be locating its Linn Regional Education Center in Hiawatha after agreeing to buy an office building from Transamerica Life Insurance Co., formerly AEGON USA/Life Investors Insurance Company of America.

The Kirkwood Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the purchase of a 98,138-square-foot building and 11.47 acres of land at 1 Martha's Way for $5.7 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of this month.

The one-story building currently houses Paetec Holding Corp., which is moving its operations later this month to a new 40,000-square-foot office building at 1450 Center Point Rd. in Hiawatha. Paetec is reportedly donating a significant amount of office furniture in the building to Kirkwood.

Voters in Kirkwood's seven-county service area overwhelmingly passed a bond issue in September to build regional education centers in Linn, Johnson and Washington counties. The facilities will integrate state-of-the-art technology with cutting edge instruction.

Read more at Business380.com