Success Stories - Siting Renewable Energy on Contaminated Land
Former Maytag Appliances Plant, Newton, Iowa
Small town redevelops as wind energy manufacturing hub
Site History
For nearly a century, the Maytag Corporation was the largest employer in Newton,
Iowa. When Whirlpool acquired Maytag, liquidated and closed the plant in 2006,
1,800 people were out of work in the town of 16,000, located in Jasper County 35
miles east of Des Moines. Maytag's departure also left 1.9 million square feet of
manufacturing space, warehouses and other buildings on its 175-acre site. The
Whirlpool Corporation agreed to take responsibility for cleanup at the Maytag site
when it acquired the company. Cleanup activities included removal and treatment of
soil and groundwater contaminated with chromium and chemical solvents. By 2008,
154 acres of the site were ready for reuse. An EPA order in 2009 will establish
continual monitoring and institutional controls at the site.
ABOUT THE SITE:
Location:
Property Size:
Available for Reuse:
Site Ownership:
Former Use:
Contaminants:
Project Type:
Infrastructure:
Supported Use:
EPA Region 7, Jasper County, Iowa
175 Acres, 1.9 million ft2 buildings
154 Acres
Whirlpool Corp., IRG Acquisitions
Maytag appliance plant
Chromium, PCE, TCE
RCRA
Electricity, water, sewer, gas, active rail
Manufacturing, warehousing
RENEWABLE ENERGY MANUFACTURING:
Renewable Energy Manufacturing
The city of Newton acted quickly to retain many of the jobs
associated with the Maytag Corp. operations by attracting
investment in renewable energy. The city, county and property
manager IRG Acquisitions began marketing the Maytag site to
investors. Various developers were interested in the Maytag site
and bringing renewable energy manufacturing to the city. Newton
representatives met TPI Composites, a wind turbine blade
manufacturer at the 2007 American Wind Energy Association
conference. TPI considered siting its facility in the former Maytag
plant, but the plant buildings were too short to house the 140-foot
blades. The city of Newton worked together with TPI to complete
construction of a new 316,000-square-foot, $56 million facility in
2008, creating 500 jobs. The plant makes fiberglass blades for GE
Energy, which sells its 1.5-megawatt turbines to customers within
a 500-mile radius of the facility.
In April 2008, a second developer, Texas-based Trinity Structural
Towers, announced it would invest $21 million to retrofit 300,000
square feet of the Maytag plant for the production of steel and
concrete wind turbine towers. The facility opened in February
2009, and will employ 140. Trinity Towers saw its first tower
section roll out of the facility that just a year earlier produced
Maytag washers and dryers. At the end of 2008, Trinity had a $1.6
billion backlog of orders for the towers it will make in Newton.
Economic Development Strategies
The incentives offered by the city of Newton and state of Iowa were important factors in siting both projects. The city and
state provided a combined tax incentives package of $6 million to encourage development of the TPI facility, in return for the
creation of 500 manufacturing jobs by 2010. Trinity Towers received a $580,000 grant from the state of Iowa to assist in
retrofitting the Maytag plant, in addition to local and state tax incentives. Although TPI considered a site in Mexico with low
labor costs, Newton's location and existing infrastructure were ideal for the project. Rail lines and Interstate 80 connect the
plant to wind power generation sites in the Great Plains region, where the turbines are needed but expensive to transport. In
addition, former Maytag employees were eager to fill the new manufacturing positions. Iowa plans to grow the wind power
industry as part of its strategy for state energy independence and economic development. The state expects new wind
installations over the next decade to produce $500 million in local tax revenue, and $100 million in royalty payments for
landowners. Iowa is currently working with 25 wind energy manufacturers and suppliers considering investment in the state.
RE Activity:
Incentives:
Dollars Leveraged:
Jobs Leveraged:
Key Partners:
Current Status:
Wind turbine support towers
$580k grant, state/local tax incentives
$21 million
140
City of Newton, Jasper County, EPA
Region 7
Plant operational February 2009
FACILITY CONTACT: Peter Yanson, IRG Assumptions/Quadrelle Realty Services LLC: (219) 764-2214
EPA CONTACT: David Doyle, US EPA Region 7: (913) 551-7667, doyle.david@epamail.epa.gov
To learn more about siting renewable energy on contaminated land, visit: www.epa.gov/renewableenergyland
; fact sheet is for informational purposes only. EPA does not endorse the property or the purchase or sale of commercial property.
Any prospective purchaser must contact the property owner to discuss the suitability, availability and sale of this property.
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