Mercy to take over Iowa Workforce building

Mercy Medical Center will move much of its back-office operation into a building at 800 7th St. SE after it is vacated by Iowa Workforce Development later this year.

The medical center bought the building in 2008, when the state's lease on it was set to expire. The building was needed to replace space in the Mercy Family Practice Center demolished in February 2009.

The state didn't vacate the building at the end of the lease, however, requesting two lease extensions that end next month.

Mercy spokeswoman Karen Vander Sanden said the building will be renovated to house 55 Mercy employees in the billing, centralized scheduling, and finance operations of the medical center.

The employees are now housed in temporary modular buildings on the north side of the hospital, where they were relocated due to the the 2009 demolition of the Family Practice Center.

The modular buildings will be removed sometime after the relocation to the former Iowa workforce Development building, which is expected in December.

Iowa Workforce Development's new home at Lindale Mall will be called an IowaWorks center. It will be staffed not only by Iowa Workforce Development employees, but by Kirkwood Community College employees who have been providing job-search skills training and related services at the Kirkwood Resource Center.