Architect: Flood recovery ahead of 10 year projection

CEDAR RAPIDS -- A Cedar Rapids architect says the community is recovering at a faster pace from the June 2008 than Grand Forks, N.D., which was devastated by a 100-year flood in 1997.

"When city officials visited Grand Forks, they were told that it would take a minimum of 10 years for the community to get out of recovery mode," Dan Thies of OPN Architects said Tuesday during the Leadership for Five Seasons annual luncheon at TrueNorth Companies.

"We will be marking the fourth anniversary of the June 2008 flood in a couple of months. At the end of year six, the recovery will be mostly complete with regard to major construction projects like the United States Federal Courthouse, the Cedar Rapids Central Fire Station, the Cedar Rapids Convention & Events Center, the Cedar Rapids Public Library and the Paramount Theatre."

Thies said the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor will see construction completed over the next five to seven years on projects that would normally happen over six or eight decades during normal economic times, much less recovering from a disastrous flood and national economic recession.

"Depending on how you look at it, there's somewhere between $750 million and $1 billion worth of reinvestment occurring in downtown Cedar Rapids," Thies said. "Coralville, Iowa City and the University of Iowa will be reinvesting roughly $1.5 billion.

"If you've run into cranes, barricades and red barrels all over downtown Cedar Rapids lately, that's progress. This will be a vastly different community when all of the construction is completed."

Thies also noted the New Bo City Market, PCI Medical Mall, Hall-Perrine Cancer Center and other projects outside the immediate downtown area, saying there has been a "ripple effect" of reinvestment in the community. He also pointed to Alliant Energy, United Fire & Casualty, TrueNorth Companies, Intermec and Steve Emerson as examples of private reinvestment in the community,

"All of the public and private reinvestment opens the door to additional opportunities," Thies said. "We need to look at bike paths, trails and other ways to surround this new infrastructure and link it to various amenities."

Thies urged fellow Leadership for Five Seasons alumni to spread the word about the public and private reinvestment in the community.

"There are many people in the community who do not have a clue that this is happening," he said. "We need to step out in front and promote this. We have a great community with a lot of good things happening, but we need to stay engaged and focused.

"This is not the end, but the beginning of the future for Cedar Rapids and the Corridor."