ALPLA breaks ground on Iowa City learning and development facility

IOWA CITY — ALPLA, a global packaging solutions company, has broken ground on a new 35,000-square-foot Learning and Development Hub in Iowa City. The building is expected to be complete in mid-2025.

The building, which is being constructed adjacent to the company’s existing Iowa City plant, 2258 Heinz Rd., will serve as a hub for apprenticeship programs, training and other personnel development programs.

Iowa City based McComas-Lacina Construction will be the general contractor on the project.

The Austria-based company, which makes plastic packaging systems and bottles, said it’s investing 15 million euros, which equates to around $15.8 million, in the project.

The building will feature traditional classrooms as well as an area for training with production equipment.

There are plans to expand in the future by adding up to three stories to the building.

Building on existing educational partnerships

With the new facility ALPLA will be expanding its apprenticeship in the United States by building on existing work with Kirkwood Community College and Industry Consortium for Advanced Technical Training.

“Iowa City stood out as a strategic location for our new Learning & Development Hub due to its close proximity to our plants using key technologies such as IBM and EBM, as well as our strong partnership with Kirkwood Community College,” Mirna Morcos, ALPLA’s HR director, said in a news release.

This past summer, the first group of 12 apprentices began a three-year training program. A new plastics technology apprenticeship program is expected to start in 2026. As part of the program, apprentices are paid and receive a free associate degree through Kirkwood.

The company received a five-year tax break on a portion of the project’s value through the Iowa Economic Development Agency’s High Quality Jobs program.

The project is expected to create 36 new jobs, with a portion of those jobs paying $30.65 per hour.

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