The Altoona City Council has taken another step toward bringing a Wisconsin company to the metro and expanding the growing industrial area on the city’s north side.
The city council on Monday approved the preliminary plat, final plat and site plan for Robinson Inc., a custom metal manufacturer based in De Pere, Wis., which plans to expand to Iowa. According to the company’s website, Robinson creates products for the energy, food processing, heavy equipment, pulp and paper, and military and defense industries.
The council’s approvals will allow the company to move forward with closing on the purchase of the more than 60-acre site and finalizing a development agreement with the city.
Robinson, which was awarded $1.2 million from the Iowa Economic Development Authority in September, will lease about 560,000 square feet in a newly constructed building being built by Enclave, a real estate development and management company with offices throughout the Midwest.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $76 million, IEDA documents show.
According to IEDA documents, the city will provide tax increment finance and tax abatement incentives for up to 15 years or until a maximum of $25 million is reached. The city will also invest $9 million in road and infrastructure improvements.
Chad Quick, the city’s director of economic development, said the Robinson development will be north of the Meta facility and north of the city’s warehouse areas north of Interstate 80. It’s on the city’s northern boundary along 70th Street, which Quick said the city plans to pave with the assistance of a RISE grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation.
IEDA documents show Robinson’s expansion to Altoona will create 100 jobs, but Quick said that number could go higher.
Sam Thomas, president of Robinson, said expansion outside of the company’s home state of Wisconsin is “critical to provide a dependable supply chain for our growing customer base.
“This site is conveniently located near Interstate 80, a major supply route for our customers in the energy sector,” he said.
The expansion will add nearly 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space for customized products, a news release said.
Robinson focuses on designing, building, and installing custom enclosures for energy storage, pump enclosures, battery energy storage and other storage systems. It currently employs 865 people across five locations in Wisconsin, with facilities in De Pere and Manitowoc.
Quick said the project will continue the momentum Altoona has seen in growing its industrial base.
“The industrial sector in Altoona has been really good over the past 10 or so years with Meta and 4 million square feet of warehouse space and some smaller industrial properties as well,” he said. “We haven’t built a lot of standalone manufacturing, so this really just diversified the employment base and helps to the general economic outcomes for the city, residents and employees in the area.”
The site where Robinson plans to locate is currently owned by Marco Properties and I-80 Business Park.
Quick said he expects the sale of the property to close and a development agreement to be finalized within a couple of weeks.
The plan is for road improvements and construction to begin in spring 2026 with the building open and operational by early January 2027, Quick said.
“It just helps to continue to build that part of Altoona and hopefully we’ll attract more industrial businesses and future employers into that area,” he said.
This version updates the story with company comment