Corbett, proposed Event Center developer take on questions about no bid, developer's jump from governor's office to city contract

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Mayor Ron Corbett didn't blink once on Monday at questions about his move to hire Gov. Chet Culver's chief of staff to oversee the development of a $50-million-plus Cedar Rapids Event Center convention facility and a $15-million upgrade of the U.S. Cellular Center arena.

Meanwhile, council member Pat Shey, who has not always voted with Corbett on council matters this year, predicted on Monday that a large majority of the nine-member City Council will approve a contract at its meeting this evening to hire Iowa-native John Frew and his firm, Frew Nations Group, to run the Event Center project.

Shey said Frew -- a University of Iowa graduate who has worked for Iowa senators John Culver and Tom Harkin, who has developed events centers in Colorado and Texas and who once ran, unsuccessfully, for mayor of Denver, Colo. -- was the person for the Cedar Rapids job.

In an interview on Monday, a first question put to Corbett, Frew and council member Justin Shields was why the city was hiring Frew now when the heart of the Event Center project's funding -- a $35-million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration -- has not yet been approved for the project.

A second question related to Frew's leaving his post in the governor's office to return to his private development firm, which now stands to benefit from the public dollars that the governor's office, no doubt, has helped and is continuing to help lobby to secure.

To a third question, Corbett and Shields acknowledged that the city did not seek proposals from other development firms after they got to know Frew's Iowa roots and his firm's event-center development experience.

Corbett noted that city and community leaders have been working with the federal Economic Development Administration for many, many months to secure funding for the Event Center project. He said the federal agency and the city have ventured 99.9 percent of the way toward the grant, and he said he can't imagine the federal agency shifting gears now. Hiring Frew, he added, should only help the case. In fact, he hoped to hear a final word on the federal grant by month's end, he said.

Frew said he expected the federal grant to “be forthcoming.”

Before being asked, Frew volunteered that he did not lobby for any of the funds that are going into the Event Center project.

The project received a $15-million state I-JOBS grant late last summer, but Corbett noted that Frew didn't join the governor's staff until last September. Just last week, the City Council agreed to sell $17 million in local bonds to provide a required local match for the project.

Frew did, though, say he worked from his post in the governor's office during the just-completed legislative session to secure about $8 million in I-JOBS funds for renovation of the city's Veterans Memorial Building and the former federal courthouse, which the city will own. He also helped secure I-JOBS funding for Cedar Rapids for the Linn County administration building, he noted. He said the governor was committed to working on getting those disaster-relief funds to Cedar Rapids.

“All of those came out of the session, and I was very involved with those,” Frew reported.

Corbett, though, said Frew's event-center experience and his ties to Iowa were what made him an attraction for Cedar Rapids.

“That's what's exciting for us,” Corbett said. “To get an Iowa boy in here, a U of I grad. … I think the fact that he had exposure in the governor's office, he understands how important this project is for Cedar Rapids and for the Corridor for that matter.“

The mayor said the city's proposed contract with Frew and his firm, Frew Nations Group, is for professional services, for which the city is not required to seek competitive proposals, the mayor said.

Council member Shields said the council has had “an ongoing discussion” about the Event Center project and what kind of oversight it needed. Some city facilities built in the past, he said, have ended up being less than they could have been.

“So we're talking about how can we best come as close as possible to making sure we end up with the best facility that we can for the money we're spending, which is huge,” Shields said. “And we just feel that this firm has the total knowledge to handle something like this. … That's what we were searching for and that's what we found.”

Council member Shey said he looked at the Frew firm's experience and saw what he was looking for.

“We want to make sure this is not just a make-work program, but one that succeeds, sells seats, puts more heads on pillows and more people downtown and improves the quality of life for the community,” Shey said.

Among his past projects, Frew developed an event center in Broomfield, Colo., which opened in 2006, and one in Cedar Park, Texas, which opened in 2009. Both are located in fast-growing areas outside of big cities, Broomfield, outside of Denver; Cedar Park, outside of Austin, Texas.

A firm Frew partly owned also managed the Broomfield center in an arrangement that failed. Frew said he lost money in the investment, but “had no active role” in the management when it did not work out. He did own a minor-league hockey team, which made the center its home before folding.

Frew noted that the Cedar Park, Texas, event center that he developed is now home to the top-level minor-league hockey affiliate that left Des Moines' new event center for the Texas one. Frew said he helped Des Moines find a replacement team, but that team left after a season.

Frew said his current partner, Chris Nations, worked with Frew's management company during the construction of the Colorado event center. The two created Frew Nations Group in 2008.

In the interview on Monday, Frew explained that he took a sabbatical from his development firm and joined the governor's staff last September to help the governor on a set of specific priorities. Those, he said, included cleaning up the problem-plagued state film office and working through the state budget and its 10-percent across-the-board cuts.

With the legislative session over, Frew said the governor is now turning his attention to his re-election campaign, to which Frew said, “That's not what I do. … I wanted to return to the private sector. It's as simple as that.”

After announcing his resignation to the governor over the weekend, Frew said Culver, who has family ties to Cedar Rapids, told him “if I'm going to lose you to any place, my heart's in Cedar Rapids. So I'm happy for you.”

Frew said it will take 30 months to build the Event Center and upgrade the U.S. Cellular Center once federal funds arrive.

He said he will also try to sort out the future of the struggling Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel, which is part of the U.S. Cellular Center complex.