The TechWorks Campus is a 30-acre advanced manufacturing, research and development, innovation, education, commercial and manufacturing center. Located in downtown Waterloo adjacent to the John Deere Tractor and Cab Assembly Operations, the campus is comprised of development sites and 300,000 square feet of flex space divided among two historic John Deere manufacturing buildings: Tech 1 and Tech 2
. With the most concentrated source of biomass, some of the world’s most productive land and cutting edge public and private innovation, Iowa has emerged as a leader in the global bioeconomy. Located in the Cedar Valley—a central, accessible area built around agricultural manufacturing—the TechWorks project is becoming a center point of research and commercialization of advanced and additive manufacturing. TechWorks Campus is owned and operated by the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber. TechWorks is bringing together public and private sector partners to collaborate on new bioeconomy innovations, including Deere & Company, the University of Northern Iowa and Hawkeye Community College. Ultimately, TechWorks is a place where major innovators in the region as well as small and start-up businesses, can collaborate on and showcase innovations and products, while at the same time accessing expertise and facilities of major research universities in the state. TechWorks consists of a 40-acre campus containing 15 acres of development sites and over 300,000 square feet of space in two existing buildings undergoing renovation. TechWorks offers an ideal location to strengthen the region’s employment base. Located at the intersection of Waterloo’s downtown riverfront, the 3,000-employee John Deere Waterloo Works Drive train Operations, and the interchange of U.S. highways 63 and 218, TechWorks is highly accessible both to the underemployed workforce in surrounding urban neighborhoods as well as to people and companies throughout the region. Additionally, reuse of the historic TechWorks buildings, where the original two-cylinder John Deere Waterloo Boy tractors were once assembled, is catalyzing reinvestment in surrounding downtown sites.
