Are dark days ahead for downtown Cedar Rapids?

CEDAR RAPIDS - The temporary closings of the city's largest hotel and largest entertainment venue will be the next challenge for a downtown still recovering from the June 2008 flood.

The city-owned Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel will close Feb. 9 for at least 18 months, taking 274 hotel rooms off the market. The U.S. Cellular Center will close in August for about 15 months. Both are being shuttered for development of the new convention center.

The closing of the hotel will force visitors and meeting organizers to seek other accommodations, and both projects will bring scores of construction workers downtown.

Area businesses are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.

“It could in the short term have a very positive impact on the Coopers Mill,” said Gary Petrick, managing director of the Best Western hotel at 100 F Ave. NW - the only other downtown hotel. He said Coopers Mill is already picking up bookings that the Crowne Plaza can't accommodate.

Sub City deli owner Shawna Lane isn't worried.

“If anything, I'll get more business because of the workers who will be on the job site,” said Lane, whose shop at 421 First Ave. SE is across the street from the U.S. Cellular Center. “I'm only open days. I'm hoping they will eat here.”

Not everyone shares her enthusiasm.

“The sandwich places might see a spike,” said Brett Thomas, owner of the Piano Lounge, 208 Second Ave. SE. “Places like us and Zins - the bars and restaurants - we're all going to see a negative effect.”

Thomas hopes the impact won't be more than a 2 percent to 3 percent drop in revenue during the construction period.

“Our weekday traffic will be the main thing,” Thomas said. “With the Crowne Plaza closing, we won't have that built-in traffic.”

Bricks Bar & Grill owner Drew Munson said pilots and flight attendants whose employers had contracts to house them overnight at the Crowne Plaza will be missed at the pub, 320 Second Ave. SE.

“During the week, we get a ton of business from the hotel,” Munson said. “The hotel staff does a good job of steering business our way.”

Zins restaurant co-owner Lee Belfield said the construction period poses a marketing challenge.

“We have a slow but steady stream of customers from the hotel,” Belfield said by e-mail. “We will miss them and plan to work more aggressively with all hotels in the area in promoting our brand with them when their guests are looking for an alternative place to eat.”

Quinn Pettifer of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District believes the closings' impact won't be severe, because some downtown attractions that have reopened since the flood will bring in visitors - such as Theatre Cedar Rapids and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

A strong calendar of events also will draw visitors downtown throughout the year, Pettifer added, offering Uptown Friday Night, Landfall Festival, Fire and Ice Festival, Downtown Farmers Market, Taste of Downtown and pub crawls as examples.

Another plus for downtown will be the relocation there of about 400 Rockwell Collins employees in the spring. They are expected to boost daytime spending in restaurants.

Tourism officials are having mixed success in efforts to keep events that had been booked into the U.S. Cellular Center and Crowne Plaza during the shutdowns. They're steering some smaller events to other hotels with assistance from the Crowne Plaza staff. Some larger events have been steered to the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union will relocate its state girls' volleyball tournament to the ice arena in November, but at least two big events have been lost - the 2012 NCAA Division II National Wrestling Championships and a statewide pool tournament in March.

Gringo's Mexican Restaurant, 207 First Ave. SE, could face an additional loss of foot traffic, said general manager Cody Fritz. He said a significant part of its business comes from being on the city skywalk system, which connects to the U.S. Cellular Center's parking ramp. In the construction phase, though, the skywalk will be blocked at the hotel.

He's also wondering how many barricades and street blockages will result from the project, interfering with access and parking.

Marilee Fowler, president of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, expects the outcome to be worth the inevitable growing pains of such a major project.

Fritz, however, wonders how many competing restaurants will open downtown in anticipation of a boom in business when the convention complex opens.

“We'll see how many carts come before the horse on the new convention center,” he said.