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FAIRFIELD – Liberty Communications has moved into a new building at 51 S. Ninth St. in Fairfield, a much larger space than the building it had been renting just a block away.

Liberty Communications of West Liberty acquired Natel Broadband in 2022, and for the first three years it operated from Natel’s former location at 907 W. Burlington Ave. Sandee Buysse, Marketing Manager at Liberty Communications, said that building was not a good fit for the company because it wasn’t big enough to accommodate the business’s network and employees. Liberty Communications began looking for open space to build its own office, where it wouldn’t have to rent from another owner.

The business found a good spot just a block east of its location, immediately north of what was previously Family Video and now Crown Liquor Tobacco and Grocery Mart. The business hired Kalona Post & Frame to build its new office, and hired Schaus Vorhies Contracting of Fairfield as general contractor. After months of construction, the new building was finished this fall, and employees began moving in the last week of October. Buysse said she was thrilled to move into the new office, and said the business now has more warehouse space and a new central office hut to house its core network.

“The old building was more compartmentalized and included no place for storing our vehicles and equipment inside,” she said. “The new building includes office space, a front lobby for greeting customers, and a warehouse for equipment and storage.”

Buysse said Liberty Communications previously had to lease storage units in other locations, but with the new building, everything will fit under one roof.

“We have invested a lot in Fairfield for future growth,” she said. “We believe in this community, and the community has been very good to us. We envision Fairfield as the hub for our south market to include Centerville and Fairfield, and all the rural small towns and areas between Centerville and Mt. Pleasant.”

Buysse said this past year has been a “whirlwind of building” both fiber and fixed wireless networks, and cleaning up and upgrading the network purchased from Natel in 2022.

“We have had tremendous focus on getting things in place that will allow us to deliver the type of quality, reliability and speeds that we’ve had in our north market for the last 115-plus years,” Buysse said. “We are ready now to move forward with confidence and optimism to gain the trust and loyalty of new customers and to keep and hold the trust with all our loyal customers who have remained with us through the upgrades and maintenance of 2025.”

On top of this major investment in Fairfield, Liberty Communications has worked to expand its offerings at what it calls its “north market” around West Liberty, West Branch and rural Iowa City.

“We love serving rural Iowa and it’s incredibly enriching to know that we’re bringing broadband to underserved areas,” Buysse said.

Liberty Communications has 22 employees across its north and south markets, and seven who regularly work in its Fairfield office.

Before being purchased in 2022, Natel Broadband had served Fairfield customers since 1996. Liberty Communications was founded in 1907, and has been in the Melick family for its entire history.