What’s the status of Marion’s $8.35M Central Plaza project?

MARION — Crews earlier this spring broke ground on the approximately $8.35 million project to transform Marion’s City Square with a new Central Plaza.

When complete, the project will include water features, art, seating areas, fire tables and a refrigerated ice-skating loop during the winter. The Depot Pavilion in the park — which was built with the roof structure and bricks from the original train depot — will be enclosed with an event space, bathrooms and warming area for the ice loop.

The refrigerated ice-skating loop likely will not open until winter 2025 because of a delayed start on the project, though most of the work will wrap up this year.

A popular caboose that stood in City Square since 1992, once it gets a face-lift, will move farther east and become the centerpiece of a park named after former City Council member Paul Draper.

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Background

This project stemmed from Marion’s ImagiNEXT community visioning process, continuing the North Plaza that was built when the city reconstructed Seventh Avenue and did streetscaping work in 2021 and 2022. The project includes the eastern section of the park and the vacated portion of 11th Street.

In February, the city kicked off the public portion of a capital campaign led by the Marion Park Foundation to raise $1.3 million. Mayor Nick AbouAssaly asked people to support the “transformational project and the impact it will have for generations to come.”

Other support includes a $3 million Destination Iowa grant, awarded by the state using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. Remaining costs will be covered by local-option sales tax funds and general obligation bonds.

What’s happened since

Louis Ruggio, vice president of operations at Rinderknecht Associates, told the Marion City Council last week crews so far have demolished the bathrooms at the existing Depot to install a new water run, and the existing floor also was demolished.

Crews have completed sanitary rough-in there, and the foundations for the new walls are going inside the Depot. A rough-in is when lines are laid out, but final connections are not made until other parts of the project advance.

Addition foundation has been poured as well as pit basins for the ice melt pit and water feature pits. The whole site has been rough graded and crews started excavating for the ice loop layout. Crews are still working on electrical rough-ins and the ice loop.

“It is pretty cool to see it come together,” Ruggio said. “It’s a drastic change to the site.”

A 100-foot long area has been excavated so footing for the loop can be poured. Once that’s ready, Ruggio said that’ll allow Pennsylvania-based contractor Everything Ice to run transmission lines at the end of the month.

In the coming months, crews are working on the water feature rough-in. This week, there will be a structural steel delivery coming for the Depot. The chimney has to be demolished before that arrives.

For now, crews are “concentrating on hitting the water feature and ice loop hard,” Ruggio said.

Ruggio said the crews are working to stay on track for the Pennsylvania contractor, which has to be here three separate times to run lines, set up equipment and again for startup.

Council member Grant Harper last week asked how the city was tracking the availability and delivery of critical equipment, and whether procurement delays were factored in.

The item with the longest procurement time is the ice loop chillers, Ruggio said. The latest those can arrive on-site is the first week of November to be installed by the end of the year, so those have to ship by the first week of September. The construction team gets weekly updates on that.

Council member Steve Jensen said he wanted to ask when the community can use the ice loop, but he’d wait until later this year when the construction timeline for that becomes clearer.

To stay updated on how the project is progressing, visit cityofmarion.org/CentralPlaza. That link includes a live feed from the top of the Marion Economic Development Corp. building at 1107 Seventh Ave., overlooking the project. It also includes a link to the capital campaign for people looking to donate.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com