Whirlpool Corp. announced Wednesday that it has sold a number of former Maytag facilities in several states.
Whirlpool has sold the majority of the Maytag headquarters building complex in Newton, Iowa to Iowa Telecom. Following the sale, some of the property will be transferred from Maytag to the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) to be used as a regional vocational training center. In the future, Whirlpool will have the option to sell to the Jasper Community Foundation, the vacant Maytag manufacturing facility in downtown Jasper. Plans call for the elimination of the old buildings with a planned green space.
Whirlpool has also sold the former Maytag manufacturing facilities in Galesburg and Herrin, Ill.; Searcy, Ark.; Ranson, W.Va.; and Newton, Iowa, as a package to Industrial Realty Group (IRG) of Los Angeles.
IRG specializes in the redevelopment and adaptive reuse of excess corporate real estate and manufacturing facilities, closed military and government facilities, underutilized corporate campuses, industrial parks, and large vacant buildings.
Whirlpool will lease back the plans in the Herrin, Searcy and Newton plants, as well as the adjacent manufacturing support facilities to ensure proper cleaning and shutdown of the facilities.
The company will continue to operate one of the adjacent manufacturing support facilities in Newton for up to five years to support the production of spare parts.
In Galesburg, Ill. and Ranson, W. Va., IRG will begin discussions with community officials to determine possible redevelopment plans.
The former Maytag manufacturing facility in Florence, S.C., has been sold to Hackman Capital Partners, LLC of Los Angeles, a private asset-based investment firm that specializes in the acquisition of real estate and capital assets.
Whirlpool acquired Maytag in April 2006. It later announced the elimination of 4,500 jobs as a result of plant closings and corporate office consolidations.
