Amana Colonies ‘quietly innovative’ with top-notch technology

Despite its historic small-town charm that takes visitors back to a simpler era, Amana is wired for the modern-day world. Actually, the community has always been progressive when it comes to technology, according to Jeff Popenhagen, Amana Society’s chief revenue officer and director of marketing. From the hydropower that fueled the woolen mill in the late 1800s to the electrical configurations it takes to power the Amana Whirlpool plant, the rural community has always had a need to stay on the forefront of technology. “We’ve been quietly innovative for years,” Mr. Popenhagen said. “We may look a bit more conservative, but behind all the historical buildings, there is technology.” The Amana Woolen Mill was fully operational until the 1980s as one of the last functional mills in the country. When the 13-building complex shut down, 11 buildings were underused and falling into disrepair. The campus has been transformed into the Hotel Millwright, a 65-room boutique hotel with a restaurant, several bars, a banquet and conference center, and modern retail spaces. “We wanted to put a modern spin on our heritage for the younger demographic and attract new travelers to Amana,” Mr. Popenhagen said. “The Hotel Millwright offers everything – sort of like a resort. Simple, modern design is really chic. We hit that trend with different textiles, bricks and the like. But if you don’t have technology, you would lose those would-be visitors.” The Hotel Millwright finally opened Sept. 28, 2020 – in the middle of a pandemic that has kept travelers at home and forced business meetings and special events like weddings to be scaled back or held virtually. As was the case for most hotels nationwide, occupancy was down in 2020 and the first part of 2021, with just one-third of the projected guests, Mr. Popenhagen said. But the situation forced the project’s leaders to move forward with technology options sooner than they had planned to make the guest experience as contact-free as possible. This meant digital check-ins, new touchless apps, QR codes for ordering off the menu online and keyless entries. “We added more technology upfront because of COVID-19,” Mr. Popenhagen said. “We were more tech-forward than originally planned. We obviously wanted to provide that face-to-face Amana hospitality, but also wanted people to feel safe during the pandemic.” South Slope Cooperative Communications has been a valuable partner for the modernization of the Amana Colonies and other small towns in Eastern Iowa. The independent North Liberty-based company provides its service area, consisting primarily of rural communities, high-speed broadband internet and cell phone services through its underground fiber optic network. “We’re bringing the bigger city amenities to the smaller rural communities,” said Tom Decker, South Slope business relations manager. “Bringing over fiber optics allows them speeds up to 1 gigabit. If you’re living in a smaller town, you don’t have to be in Cedar Rapids to get the same technology.” Each community in the fiber optic network has a central office as a meet point for the lines. The signal then goes back to the main office in North Liberty, providing faster service than an aerial line a distance away from its provider’s main office. “Typically, the farther away you are from a provider, the slower your speeds,” Mr. Decker said. “But with fiber, distance doesn’t matter. Once the fiber is installed, we can push the same reliable high speeds to customers, no matter the distance. And with most of our network being underground, it’s ready to perform during any season of severe Iowa weather.” Severe weather is obviously an issue in Iowa, as the hurricane-force derecho that ripped through Eastern Iowa last August proved. “The derecho is a prime example of when the wind rips down all the same utility poles the power companies use,” he said. Due to its underground fiber optics network and backup generators, Amana didn’t lose power after the storm, even as many of its neighbors were in the dark and off the grid for weeks, Mr. Popenhagen said. Joining Amana, Norway, Fairfax, Swisher and North Liberty as fully fiber optic communities in South Slope’s network are Tiffin and Solon, which both had a complete fiber optic overhaul in the past year, Mr. Decker said. He noted Gov. Kim Reynolds’ recent commitment to expand broadband in rural communities as proof of its need. “It’s very recognized by the government as well as the state level that having sufficient speed for your internet is important,” he said. “Especially with the pandemic, a lot of people are working from home, and if you have a really lousy dial-up, good luck on a Zoom call.” In a typical non-pandemic year, around 500,000-750,000 visitors descend on the Amana Colonies. Obviously, that number was drastically reduced in the past year, but tourists are coming back, and postponed and new events are being scheduled at a fast clip, Mr. Popenhagen said. With so many weddings, family reunions and other events on the horizon, the Hotel Millwright is facing the same hiring crunch as many other industries. “We feel the pinch of hiring enough workers to handle new customers,” Mr. Popenhagen said. “It’s like drinking water out of a fire hose – it’s a crazy time.” For now, they will continue to find the right recipe of balancing not enough business with too much business and too few workers, he said. But they do have the comfort of knowing their technology is able to handle visitors while preserving its laid-back atmosphere. “The Amana Colonies is a really special place; there’s a lot about it that makes it unique,” Mr. Popenhagen said. “But having a modern infrastructure is definitely an important part of the experience and makes it more attractive to businesses and tourists. We have the infrastructure for new technology, but it is still a National Historic Landmark.” CBJ