In October 2021, the City of Altoona issued 9 commercial and 19 residential building permits representing over 510,737 square feet of new or improved space and over $50 million invested.
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Understanding the 3 Types of Commercial Office Spaces
It’s as easy as Class A, B and C.
The funny thing about commercial office real estate is that you could pick up a building in one location (say, an Iowa City suburb) and place it in another (downtown Chicago) and, just like that, its classification would change.
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Meet the Altoona Business Owner Who Prefers to Work on a Small Canvas
While most of us look at a fingernail and see, well, a fingernail, Kim Nissen sees a canvas—a small but nonetheless exciting plain of possibility on which to create her next masterpiece.

September 2021 Building Permit Report
In September 2021, the City of Altoona issued 7 commercial and 26 residential building permits representing over 199,500 square feet of new or improved space and over $24 million invested.
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What to consider when choosing where to live
Anyone who has relocated to a new city or state knows that finding the right place to live is complicated—logistically and emotionally. And as you weigh the many factors that influence your decision – from affordability and safety to schools, amenities and culture – it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
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Meet the Altoona resident who literally wrote the book(s) on his hometown
Even as a third grader at Altoona’s Willowbrook Elementary, Alex Payne was intrigued by the history of Altoona, particularly when his class visited historic sites like Back Door Fabrics in Olde Town. For a kid, these dusty places contained a kind of magic—it was like the people and events of the past were echoing through the walls, their stories begging to be told.
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Live the Good Life at These 2 New Altoona Properties
Located across the street from one another on Altoona’s 34th Ave SW, The Emory and Vintage Cooperative could hardly be closer.
At the same time, they couldn’t be more different: One property is geared towards residents ages 55 and up. The other is designed for people of all ages (and their furry friends, too).
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Purchasing Commercial Real Estate: Altoona Property Sales
Finding commercial real estate is about more than picking the right multiple listing service, broker, and suites of services to establish contractual offers. You must consider location, flexibility, limitations, and more when appraising real estate for sale.
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It’s more than the pipes and wires. MidAmerican Energy is building strong, sustainable communities.
It often takes a power outage to get us thinking about the energy we use every day. (Electricity suddenly became very interesting following the 2020 derecho.)
But ever since MidAmerican Energy launched their Altoona-based Service Center in 2019—a facility that supports the power MidAmerican delivers to communities throughout the Central Iowa region—energy has been on our minds.
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August 2021 Building Permit Report
In August 2021, the City of Altoona issued 11 commercial and 10 residential building permits representing over 37,647 square feet of new or improved space and over $3.3 million invested.
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