Frank Liebl winces when he still hears someone refer to his city as “poor Newton.” But he’s hearing that expression less often as the city continues its steady recovery from the loss of Maytag Corp. nine years ago. 

Liebl, who became executive director of Newton Economic Development Corp. in 2009, has seen a lot of forward momentum as Newton diversifies its economy and strives to capitalize on its affiliation with the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Des Moines metro area. 

New residential housing and redevelopment of blighted areas, expansions of existing businesses, development of new commercial spaces and downtown renovation are just a few of the positives that Newton officials point to as recent signs of progress. 

Making up for Maytag

One of Newton’s biggest challenges is also one of its biggest potential assets — filling approximately 400,000 square feet of Class A office space that remains vacant in the former Maytag headquarters complex downtown. The spaces are still completely furnished with fiber access and with interior walls that can be easily reconfigured for new users, he noted. About 20 percent of the space is leased out to a handful of companies. 

“We show it occasionally, and there’s been interest,” Liebl said. “Our goal is that big-end user. We’re looking for that big 400- to 600-employee company that can really make use of it.” 

About 500,000 square feet of the 2 million-square-foot Maytag factory complex remain to be filled as well. 

Since Maytag’s closure, Newton’s economic base has become more diversified, said Bryan Friedman, the city’s director of finance and development. Landing TPI Composites Inc., a wind blade manufacturer, was a critical early win for Newton in 2008. That was followed by Trinity Structural Towers Inc. locating in Newton. 

“Attracting the wind industry was really a blessing, because its really starting to take a foothold in Iowa,” Liebl said. “I think the big thing was that Maytag/Whirlpool left us with great buildings, great infrastructure, and we have the workforce.” TPI, which is now Jasper County’s largest employer with about 850 workers, built a new 35,000-square-foot building, while Trinity came in shortly afterward and leased 335,000 square feet of the former Maytag space. 

Other significant employers that have since located in Newton include Walter G. Anderson Inc., a cereal box packaging company; Patriot Converting Inc., which cuts paper for industrial companies; and Atlas Hydraulics Inc., a maker of hydraulic hoses whose largest customer is Deere & Co. 

“I think they’re all evidence of an intentional diversification of our economic base,” Friedman said.

Building out around the Speedway 

A major destination project has been the Iowa Speedway. The city is now looking for ways to further develop the speedway interchange to make the area a more complete attraction. 

“We’ve gotten a start out there,” Friedman said. “We have a couple of hotels and a travel plaza and another gas station. There are 200-plus acres of great development land out there with interstate access and the attraction with the Iowa Speedway. We’ve been working with the landowners to put together plans to try to attract some anchors out there to complement Iowa Speedway. 

“The Speedway is great because it has the big bang of major event weekends, but it doesn’t have that big daily draw around the year,” he said. “So we’re looking for ways to play off of the prominence that the speedway has but (with) more complementary daily uses.” 

Marketing

Newton is also seeking to market itself as a great place to live and raise families through its Get to Know Newton campaign. 

“It’s our attempt to reintroduce ourselves to the Central Iowa region and really promote the things that are strengths in our community,” Friedman said. “We’re just a half hour from downtown Des Moines, the great recreational opportunities we have here and the education system we have, all the way from pre-K through DMACC (here). We’re positioning ourselves as a good growing place to grow families.” 

Housing

In 2014, the city bonded $3.5 million for housing initiatives, the majority of which was used for acquiring and demolishing dilapidated houses. Downtown just east of Skiff Medical Center, for instance, a half-block of dilapidated houses has been razed to make way for four duplex townhomes. 

The rest of the bond is being used to offer $10,000 incentives to the first 40 people who purchase a new spec home or build a home. “The reason we had to do this was we couldn’t get any builders to build new homes,” Friedman he said. “We hadn’t had any new housing starts for many years. So we had to go out on a limb, try to attract builders to prove to them there was a need for housing.” 

Venture Homes of West Des Moines now has built three homes in what had been a failed subdivision, and Ground Breaker Homes, a subsidiary of Peoples Co., is building five spec homes. Planning is also underway for a townhome development on a former country club property. 

Downtown development

Newton is also putting focus on downtown redevelopment. In the past couple of years it was named a Mainstreet Community and received a designation as a National Historic District. 

“Both of those were years in the making, trying to get those designations, and it’s been a very intentional statement that we believe in our downtown and consider it the heart of our community,” Friedman said. “We see many opportunities to have additional upper-story housing, and renovating the buildings through the different programs that the city offers.”  

The city is also investing nearly $2 million in infrastructure improvements, after completing a design study for a new streetscape design for the downtown. “We’re doing about seven blocks of it this summer and have plans in the works for revamping some of the meeting and events spaces in the downtown square area,.” Friedman said.

As for landmark projects, “the real gem is going to be the Hotel Maytag renovation,” Liebl said. “It takes up half the block on the east side of the courthouse downtown. We’ve got some developers very interested in taking this old hotel. They’re going to take the upper three floors and make those market-rate apartments, because we know how hot downtown living is. We think there’s really a market for that. 

“The second floor, which used to be the Maytag ballroom, will be renovated as a community center. The first floor will be general retail. A movie theater will also be completely renovated. And hopefully a fine dining restaurant will be part of that building.” 

“It’s a great project for downtown, and I think it will be a great catalyst to spark more investment and bring more housing and activity there,” Friedman said. 

Liebl said he recognizes there is still some negative perception in the region that Newton hasn’t recovered. But he’s proud of the city’s current 4 percent unemployment rate — it was 10 percent after Maytag left. And he says claims the city’s population, now 15,254, hasn’t wavered more than about 500 from that mark in the past 50 years. 

“And have we recovered totally? Probably not. But jobwise, we’ve done a good job. And in housing starts, a lot of positive things have happened. When I bring prospects in and show them some of the buildings and some of the things going on, the first thing they say is, ‘Oh, my gosh, I didn’t know you had this much going on.’ ”