Human Services Campus opens as another step toward flood recovery

Recovery from the Flood of 2008 took a step forward with the quiet opening of the downtown area's first major post-flood building project.

“It's right in the middle of the target area for the downtown improvements,” said Rex Eno. “In two or three years, it'll be part of a great renovation. You won't recognize this city.”

Staff members of a dozen non-profit agencies began moving into their new offices at the Human Services Campus, 317 Seventh Ave. SE, just after New Year's.

“It's a great building, really well-designed,” said Mike Barnhart, executive director of the Neighborhood Transportation Service. “We're happy to be here.”

Barnhart's staff of eight moved from the Harambee House in Wellington Heights after being flooded out of the Ground Transportation Center. They take clients' reservations, and then schedule and dispatch NTS' fleet of vans and buses to fulfill them.

“(Clients) do come down here to sign up before they ride, so everybody comes in at least once,” said Barnhart, adding that new clients are being referred from other agencies in the building.

“It's nice to have everybody in the same building,” he said.

Lois Buntz, president and CEO of the United Way of East Central Iowa, agrees. United Way moved its 26 employees to the new building last week. The agency also coordinated fundraising and planning for the project.

A single central location for non-profits, many of whose clients are low-income and without reliable transportation, was a priority for Human Services Campus Corp., the building's owner and itself a non-profit, said Eno, chairman of the landlord's board.

“We'd talked about having a center for the not-for-profits in the city, or a good number of them anyway, and I guess the flood provided an opportunity for that or a need,” he said.

Eno said representatives of several non-profits began talking about the project soon after the flood.

“For many of them, the request for their services went up, in addition to being flooded themselves,” he said.

The group lobbied the Legislature and became one of the first recipients of state I-JOBS funds. I-JOBS provided $10 million of the project's $15 million cost, with foundations and other donors covering the balance.

“We are not going to have a mortgage on the building, and we were able to offer the tenants a very wonderful rate because of that,” said Eno.

About 130 people work at the Human Services Campus, whose member agencies expect to serve about 10,000 clients per year.

The blocks around the Human Services Campus will be the crossroads of what's hoped will be a thriving New Bohemia arts and entertainment district, downtown and a revitalized Oak Hill Jackson neighborhood. The new federal courthouse is just two blocks west of the Human Services Campus, and the area is not far from the developing medical district.

“With that number of people having jobs there, there's certainly a market now for some of the support-type businesses that spring up around major employment centers,” said Doug Neumann, president of Cedar Rapids Downtown District. “It's a big symbolic boost. Here it is, the first major new development that's been finished.”

Owners of nearby businesses hope some traffic comes their way.

Tom and Toni Hauer, managers of Gatherings on the first floor of the Bottleworks Loft Condominiums, 905 Third St. SE, and Suzette and Joe Zoll, owners of Boston Fish, 804 Fifth St. SE, say business has been patchy since the flood.

“We've lost a lot of neighborhood people,” said Suzette Zoll.

Zoll hopes the Oakhill Jackson Brickstones will bring more life to the neighborhood. Set to open this spring, the Brickstones will have 97 apartments in two buildings about three blocks apart on Sixth Street SE, the nearest just a block away from Boston Fish.

“The courthouse in particular, we think, will have a big impact, but that's going to be almost another two years,” said Tom Hauer.