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It has spent its entire 45-year existence renting office space from which to conduct business, but thanks to a generous donation of a three-acre parcel of land, the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) will finally have a place to call its own.

The new ISA headquarters just north of Des Moines Area Community College’s Ankeny campus at 1255 S.W. Prairie Trail Parkway, will contain nearly 30,000 square feet, which is almost double the size of its current 17,000-square-foot location in Urbandale.

“Our organization has continued to grow, so now we need the space to adequately house the staff that we have and the programs that we currently manage,” said the ISA’s CEO, Kirk Leeds.

The ISA currently employs about 50 people, and Leeds said the new building will bring with it the need for additional workers; the organization plans to expand its current programs and house a water monitoring lab on the lower level of the two-story building. The new headquarters will also have a full basement.

The Weitz Co. is the general contractor and SVPA Architects Inc. designed the concept, trying to incorporate the organization’s practices and beliefs into the design.

“I think it was important that the building had an image that spoke to who this group was,” said Bob Ormsby, the architect for the project.

One way in which SVPA integrated what ISA does into the design of the building was with the entryway.

“We have designed a grain bin entryway that will look like a grain bin, so when you walk into our building, you will walk into something similar to a grain bin,” Leeds said. “We work for farmers and certainly grain bins are important, and so we thought it was a great way to tell our story, and we think that will be what people remember. It will be a very unique structure.”

Leeds and Ormsby said the building will feature soy-based products, such as soy insulation instead of a formaldehyde-based product and soy-backed carpeting instead of rubber-backed carpet. The building will also be heated and cooled using geothermal energy.

“It is a very sustainable design,” Ormsby said. “There are things we are doing to help save energy.”

The project’s anticipated completion date is August 2009, with an estimated cost of $7.5 million, and the donated land is valued at more than $1 million. Dennis Albaugh, owner of DRA Properties, and Harry Stine, founder of Stine Seed Co., donated the land to ISA, which doesn’t expect to secure any external funding for the project.