University of Iowa moves Iowa Hawk Shop from Old Capitol Town Center to IMU

IOWA CITY - The Iowa Hawk Shop - which includes University Book Store and Tech Connection - has returned to the basement of the Iowa Memorial Union after almost seven years in the Old Capitol Town Center.

It's the latest shuffle of University of Iowa services and classrooms as the campus continues its recovery from the devastating 2008 flood.

The move left a visible 8,000 square feet vacant in Old Capitol Town Center, where the Hawk Shop opened after the flood.

UI spokesman Tom Moore said the UI will continue to use the former bookstore space, which is leased at $13.43 per square foot - a price consistent with other first-floor mall spaces leased by the UI.

Moore said the university won't have firm plans for use of the space until later this summer.

The UI leases all second-floor space in the mall except for offices belonging to The Gazette's Iowa City newsroom.

The nearby Tech Connection will be filled by a non-UI tenant, according to Kevin Digmann, general manager of the mall.

Digmann said there is ample interest from potential new tenants for the downtown mall, located on Clinton Street between Washington and Burlington streets.

'We're not in any way, shape or form nervous about filling,” he said. 'We have a lot of demand for spaces.”

He added that the space where Pizza and More used to be will be filled in the coming months, likely by another food-oriented business.

'There are four or five interested people who have all requested to lease it,” he said. 'It all comes down to who is best for the center.”

Next summer, the UI School of Music will be moving its operations, located on the first and second floor at the mall, to the under-construction School of Music building on the south side of Burlington Street. The second-floor space is UI-owned and will be repurposed next year, Moore said. The ground-floor space, where the recital hall is located, will not.

As with other vacancies, a new tenant will be identified when the time comes, Digmann said.

'That's at least a year off,” he said. 'We'll have no trouble filling that up.”