Housing proposed near Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - Not so long ago it was hard to imagine that anyone here could build anything in the vicinity of Ellis Park and Ellis Golf Course.

Now developers are moving ahead on two owner-occupied housing proposals next to the park and golf course.

It seems these proposals - one also features a riverside restaurant - are getting traction, in part, for what they are not.

Neither is an affordable-housing complex nor a city recreation center, plans for both of which were scuttled by neighbors and park advocates who didn't want those developments in or near the park and golf course.

The latest housing proposal comes from developer Jim Happel, who wants to build a four-story, 27-unit condominium building next the park and to the Cedar River at 1871, 1895, 1915 and 1919 Ellis Blvd. NW.

The building would include a first floor for parking and be designed as a flood wall, with three stories of living units above the first floor. A lighthouse-like feature would top off the building.

Next door would be a restaurant, which also will be built high enough to avoid flooding, Happel said on Monday.

Happel, former co-owner of the Byers & Happel real estate firm, said he came up with the idea for the condominium and restaurant project back in 2001, but someone else bought the existing restaurant on the site. The building, which had become a hair salon, was damaged in the 2008 flood as were homes next to it.

All subsequently were purchased by the city in its flood-recovery buyout program.

The City Council's Development Committee on Wednesday will consider if the council should use its property-disposition process and seek proposals for the four Ellis Boulevard NW parcels.

In a note to the committee, Thomas Smith, a planner with the city, stated that Happel's proposal or any other that might emerge for the site must construct flood protection on the property in compliance with Army Corps of Engineers' standards and in a way that fits with the city's future flood protection system.

A second development proposal near Ellis Park, which the council's Development Committee first discussed a month ago, comes from local developer Joe Ahmann, who wants to build single-family homes and row houses on a 6.4-acre site that used to be a practice chipping green for the Ellis Golf Course.

Last month, the council's Development Committee said it liked Ahmann's proposal, and City Council member Monica Vernon, the committee's chairwoman, said the proposal fit in with other owner-occupied housing nearby.

On Monday, Don Karr, former City Council member and current vice president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, said he likes both the Happel and Ahmann proposals and he said both have received favorable reaction from the association.

Karr predicted that the Happel project on the river could be the first of others as the city's new riverside greenway adds more park land nearby.

'That could be a premier area to live,” Karr said.

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