Off-market purchase brokered by John Beardsworth & Steve White of Skogman Commercial
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – June 25, 2025 – WRH, Inc., the South Amana-based heavy-civil contractor best known for water, wastewater, and flood mitigation infrastructure, has purchased the three-story Geonetric Building at 415 12th Ave SE in Cedar Rapids’ New Bohemia (NewBo) District. The off-market transaction was facilitated by John Beardsworth & Steve White of Skogman Commercial, underscoring continued private-sector confidence in the Cedar Rapids market.
WRH will renovate one full floor to create a modern headquarters for 35 executives, project-management, estimating, and administrative professionals, while leaving its fabrication, maintenance, and operations dispatch in South Amana. Existing tenants Geonetric, NewBoCo (including Vault Coworking and DeltaV Code School), and other creative-class firms will remain in the building, preserving its role as a regional innovation hub.
Building the city’s next line of defense
The move comes as WRH executes a $30 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract on the Cedar Rapids Flood Risk Management Project (Reach 2, Phase 1), which includes the A Avenue pump station, floodwalls near the Tree of Five Seasons, and new road gates designed in collaboration with other projects to protect downtown and NewBo from a repeat of the 2008 disaster. Concurrently, WRH is constructing Phase 2 of Horizontal Collector Well No. 7 near the future site of the Alliant Energy LightLine Bridge. The $14 million well is intended to supply future cooling water for local industry and is a critical step in enabling future flood wall construction in the area.
Executive statement
“WRH, Inc. (Wendler) is proud to call Cedar Rapids our new home and headquarters. This move reduces travel for our growing office staff by nearly 20 percent and creates operational efficiencies that keep us competitive while giving us room to expand. Coming to the community as both an owner and a tenant gives us greater control over our operating costs into the future. We’re deeply rooted here through our infrastructure work, membership in the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, and support of organizations like Kids First and the Cedar Rapids Parks Foundation. We’re also proud to have included up to $47,000 in donations to NewBoCo as part of the purchase agreement. Geonetric, Skogman, and CRBT were excellent partners throughout this successful, fast-tracked deal.”
-Jamie Rich, President, Kurt Reihmann, COO, Matt Grause, CFO
“Geonetric, NewBoCo and Vault are moving to the first floor, continuing our work with entrepreneurs, small businesses, and software. We’re excited for this next chapter, keeping jobs and momentum in the NewBo District.”-Eric Engelmann, co-founder of Geonetric
Community & Economic Impact
- Daytime density & retail lift – Relocating 35 high-wage professionals is expected to add hundreds of weekday visits each month to NewBo restaurants, retailers, and the adjacent NewBo City Market.
- Workforce Development – The new location will support the expansion of apprenticeship programs and strengthen partnerships with area educational institutions. This move relocates WRH’s commitment to building a highly skilled workforce to the Cedar Rapids region.
- Living classroom for resiliency – With its front door just yards from the new floodwall, the headquarters will showcase best-practice flood-mitigation and water-quality design – core WRH competencies now protecting Cedar Rapids.
About WRH, Inc.
Founded in 1973 as Wendler Engineering & Construction and re-branded as WRH, Inc. in 2007, the company specializes in water- and wastewater-treatment facilities, flood-mitigation structures, deep foundations, and EPC high-voltage electrical projects. WRH self-performs critical scopes of work and partners with leading suppliers to deliver single-source, resilient-infrastructure solutions across the Upper Midwest.