Generation Repair & Service Expands Story City Facility

Early this year, Story Construction completed work on a 67,500 SF expansion of Generation Repair & Service’s Story City facility. More than 10 years after completing an initial expansion and renovation project that brought the facility’s total square footage to 90,000, the Story team designed and constructed this significant expansion on the facility’s east side for GRS to increase its capacity for maintenance and repair of wind turbine components.

Generation Repair & Service – a subsidiary of NextEra Energy – serves an important role in the wind power industry, providing critical support for wind farms across the United States and Canada. With increasing demand for maintenance of wind power assets, the company aimed to invest in its facility with this significant expansion.

“This expansion provides our team with adequate space to safely perform the repair process on wind turbine equipment,” said Sean Monahan, Central Maintenance Manager at GRS. “Prior to this expansion, our facility remained the same size as our wind fleet grew drastically. More product was put into our existing building, which created challenges for both safety and planning.”

In 2024, GRS selected Story Construction to design and build the new expansion. The addition features a conventional steel structure with bar joists, metal wall panels with Silvercote insulation, and a 14-inch-thick slab on grade engineered to support 50,000-pound gearboxes. Within the expansion are 375-foot-long bridge crane rail extensions, aligned between new and existing buildings to within half an inch using scanner verification. Additional features include a loading ramp with four docks, two Rytec high-speed roll-up doors, a 500-by-300-foot laydown area with 18 inches of rock base, and 15 inches of concrete paving for delivery and circulation areas.

After enclosing the addition, the original exterior wall was demolished to open up the existing shop space to the new space, requiring coordination with the GRS team to limit disruption to existing operations.

The team broke ground in November 2024 and achieved substantial completion in January 2026, earlier than initially planned. Story Construction crews self-performed concrete foundations and steel erection on the project.

“When we started the project, we knew the deadline was going to be tight and that there would be challenges that came with how quickly we vetted design,” added Monahan. “The Story team was able to step up to the challenge with effective planning and open, honest communication throughout the project. Overall, we couldn’t be more pleased with how the project went and the effort that Story has put into providing us with an excellent finished product.”