116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust expanding downtown footprint
City awards $1.4 million tax rebate for 3-story building
CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids City Council this week awarded financial incentives to the $19 million redevelopment of a parking lot for another Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust building.
The company is planning to build a three-story, 34,000 square-foot building at 116 Sixth St. NE, across the street from its headquarters at 500 First Ave. NE. The bank would be the building’s only tenant.
Thirty full-time-equivalent employees would move into the new, with space for up to 115 employees.
The project is eligible for city support under the Targeted District Reinvestment Economic Development Program based on its location in the urban core.
The standard incentive provides for a 10-year, 50 percent rebate of increased taxes generated by the project. The redevelopment is expected to generate $3.4 million in property taxes over a 10-year period, of which $1.4 million would be rebated back to the company.
City Economic Development Coordinator Scott Mather said it could receive a 100 percent rebate if the building achieves LEED certification for its sustainability.
The project is within the existing Consolidated Central tax increment financing district. At a later date, council will amend the urban renewal area encompassing the project and sign off on a development agreement to finalize project terms.
Council member Scott Overland, a CRBT employee, recused himself from the vote.
The bank, founded in 2001, surpassed $2 billion in assets at the end of 2021.
Collins’ microchip expansion gets final OK
The City Council on Tuesday also gave the final go-ahead to Collins Aerospace — the city’s largest employer — to pursue a $22 million expansion of its northeast Cedar Rapids campus to begin production of microchips.
The company will modernize a building — between Collins and Blairs Ferry roads NE — to add environmental controls for safe chemical storage/handling, water treatment and associated equipment and furnishings with a “class 100 clean room,” a manufacturing structure that uses HEPA filtration systems to keep the air clean.
The company will develop and manufacture microchip technologies for Collins Aerospace communications products, with production expected to grow, city Economic Development Manager Caleb Mason previously said.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority board has awarded $1.85 million in state financial incentives toward the project for Collins, a division of Raytheon Technologies.
Cedar Rapids is providing a local match — $1.05 million in tax incentives allocated through three consecutive yearly payments of $350,000 economic development grants.
Work is scheduled to begin this month and wrap up by January.
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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