Kirkwood to move some programs to Midland Forge site

A former Cedar Rapids manufacturing plant will become the new home for Kirkwood Community College programs in semi-truck driving, fire safety and group industrial training, after the college purchased the vacant facility for $2.1 million.

The plant at 101 50th Ave. SW was formerly home to Midland Forge, which closed in December 2009 after a 66-year history of manufacturing shackles, chain hooks and rigging gear in Cedar Rapids.

Kirkwood officials say the site, less than one mile from the Cedar Rapids campus, will have more room for the growing semi-truck driving program and will allow them to eventually turn the current truck driving range on campus into green space to be used by students in golf course and athletic turf grass management. The school's board of trustees approved the purchase this fall, pending results from an environmental site study that came back in October.

"The location and everything is really good for us, and the price was right, so we feel very good about the project," said Tom Kaldenberg, Kirkwood's executive director of facilities.

In addition to the $2.1 million purchase price, Kirkwood will spend another $5 million to $6 million to renovate the site, including repaving the parking lot, putting on a new roof and constructing classrooms in open spaces of the building. Kirkwood hopes to be using the site by late next fall. The project will be paid for with a combination of college general funds and proceeds from a bond issue renewed by voters in September.

Kirkwood at first will use about one-third of the 111,259-square-feet of building space on the 18-acre site; the rest of the space will be available for future college development, Kaldenberg said. The facility was built in 1973.

The former Midland Forge site has a 2011 assessed value of $2.8 million. Property tax of more than $108,000 was paid in 2010 by former owner Columbus McKinnon Corp. of Amherst, N.Y.

Mayor Ron Corbett said Wednesday that most government decisions come with pros and cons, and Kirkwood's purchase comes with the "downside" that the property will fall off the property-tax rolls, he said. At the same time, Corbett noted an effort was made without success to find a private-sector buyer.

"Obviously, Kirkwood is a pretty important institution in our community and in Eastern Iowa, and for them to be there is a good thing," the mayor said.

At least four offers were rejected by the previous owners, Scott Olson, Realtor with Skogman Commercial, said. A fifth offer was accepted, but that party decided not to buy the facility because they needed only a fraction of the space, he said. Most of the offers came from developers looking to buy it and redevelop the site, Olson said. Of any potential tenants who looked at the property for industrial or manufacturing purposes, most wanted to lease rather than buy, which was not acceptable to the previous owners, he said. Olson and Doug Laird handled the transaction for Skogman.

"They liked what Kirkwood was going to do with it," Olson said. "The company is happy and Kirkwood is very happy."

Kirkwood will renovate the site, which means construction jobs, and they will provide training programs there, said Olson, an incoming member of the Cedar Rapids City Council. The property will come off the tax rolls, but Olson said the plan still benefits the community and area companies.

"There will be programs there we need in this economy, so it's a great step in that way," he said. "The list of benefits to the community will outweigh the loss of valuation."

All of Kirkwood's Continuing Education transportation programs -- semi-truck, motorcycle, forklift, school bus and an AARP-driving program -- will move to the site. But the four-week truck-driving program is by far the largest of those, with about 3,800 students last year and 2,600 the year before.

"The industry does have quite a bit of demand right now," Jennifer Fischer, directors of operations for Kirkwood Continuing Education, said.

Several other Kirkwood programs will move to the site, including fire training and group industrial training. Both of those are now housed in the Emergency Training Center on campus.

Moving the programs will allow for better, more modern training facilities, Kaldenberg said. The semi-truck driving course on campus especially is in bad shape and has cracked and sinking asphalt that needs major repair, he said.

A study showed moving the programs to the Midland Forge site would cost about $1 million less than finding a different site and building new facilities, Kaldenberg said. Kirkwood officials also want to move the semi-truck course from the southwest corner of the busy main campus, where much residential housing has sprung up nearby, he said.

"It's a growing program that we just need more room for," he said. "Trucks on that campus are not really a good marriage."

The current truck-driving range and classroom building may be replaced in the future with a soccer field and three-hole golf course for use by students in turf management, though that's likely several years down the road when funding is available, Kaldenberg said.

-- Staff writer Rick Smith contributed to this report.