U-Haul’s data which analyzes migration patterns ranked Iowa the 24th largest growth state in the United States in 2020. One-way U-Haul rentals arriving in Iowa increased by about 12 percent last year and departures were up 9 percent.

Christopher Hall, manager of Marshalltown’s U-Haul location, is a transplant to Iowa from California. He’s lived in Marshalltown only a couple years but has found moving to the state to be a good transition.

“As for a lot of people moving here, Iowa has seen an uptick. I think that speaks to the Midwest culture,” Hall said. “It’s a little bit more laid back. I learned pretty quick that Iowa is just one big, small town.”

Of all the one-way rentals in Iowa, 50.6 percent were arrivals. This brought Iowa six spots higher than its No. 30 ranking in 2019.

The U-Haul location at 702 S. Center Street is seeing progress on its $3 million remodeling. Painting is about 90 percent complete according to store manager Chris Hall.

Hall said he has seen some activity at his location that would indicate Marshalltown is among the destinations in Iowa people are moving to.

“I know we’ve seen a little bit of an uptick in one ways coming to town,” he said. “In the last 30 days we’ve done 57 — that’s just trailer hook ups. A lot of that could be in-town moves.”

Tennessee was the top state for people moving in, followed by Texas, Florida, Ohio and Arizona. Florida ranked first in 2019.

U-Haul compiles this data from more than two million one-way rentals per year.

The Marshalltown location is one of U-Haul’s newest remodeling projects in its region. It opened in June 2019. It is still undergoing a $3 million expansion to its 98,174 square-foot building which sits in a more than seven acre lot at 702 S. Center Street.

The building used to be home to a K-Mart retailer. Hall said U-Haul purchased K-Mart locations across the country and renovated them to house some operations.

“They’re also doing the same thing on Hubbell Avenue in Des Moines,” he said.

The location offers a variety of moving services with pick-up truck rentals, moving trucks and detachable trailers as well as climate-controlled storage.

When U-Haul took ownership of the property there were issues with a leaky roof as well and exterior ware. Outside painting is almost completely finished while work continues in the climate-controlled storage portion of the building. New motion-activated lights will soon be installed. More indoor storage units are incoming and some old offices that were part of the building are still to be removed.

U-Haul has met some resistance in improving its location in Marshalltown, according to Hall.

“There was a letter sent to the council and what it said was they were against us putting up external units because they thought it would lower the standard of the outside out front here,” he said. “I think one lady said it would ‘Look trashy.'”

Hall said offering external storage is important for U-Haul because the price point between climate controlled and non-climate controlled storage is slightly different and some customers prefer the outdoor option.

The other offering the Marshalltown store does not yet have is propane.

“U-Haul has a specific sign they want to put out front that shows the deals of the week and things like that. When we submitted the proposal they said there’s a one sign zone for the building,” he said. “It’s going to take time for them to realize our property is separate (from the rest of the mall).”

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Contact Joe Fisher at

jfisher@timesrepublican.com