Dick Hogan

The Marion City Council gave its permission Thursday for the city to begin the process of closing the Marion Airport runway by this summer. The move will effectively halt flights at the airport.

The Marion City Council at its Thursday meeting will hold a public hearing on a partnership announced two weeks ago, with Dubuque-based developer Gronen, and the Kilbourne Group, based in Fargo, North Dakota, to refine ideas and develop a project for the former Marion library property.

There may be new hope that a grocery store will move into the former First Avenue Hy-Vee, but much more work still has to be done before the store becomes a reality, Bill Micheel, the city’s economic and development services director, said this week.

A new Dick’s House of Sport at the former Sears store at Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids is on the road to becoming reality after it received initial approval from the city council this week.

Ingredion Inc., is planning to spend $48.5 million to upgrade and expand its Cedar Rapids facility, and it has asked the city for incentives.

Under a proposed budget reviewed Monday, the City of Cedar Rapids would raise property taxes 19 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation, or about $54 per year on a home valued at $200,000.

The intended tenant of the former Sears store at Lindale Mall will be Dick’s House of Sport, and will include an outdoor year-round, multi-use field, according to documents set for discussion at Tuesday’s Cedar Rapids City Council meeting.

The Cedar Rapids metro commercial real estate industry “continued to excel” in 2024, despite persistent challenges related to remote work patterns established during the pandemic. That’s according to a real estate report published this week by GLD Commercial.

The city of Marion needs a fifth hotel, according to market study results presented to the city council this week. The study recommends an 80- to 90-room hotel in Uptown Marion that caters to people who need to stay during the week and longer than a day or two.

The Cedar Rapids City Council approved an agreement this week that will provide incentives for the redevelopment of the former downtown Wells Fargo building.

Thirty acres of the former Transamerica site at Edgewood Road and 42nd Street in northeast Cedar Rapids would be used for commercial development, while 19 acres would become home to Cedar Rapids Prep, a new charter school set to open this year.

Improvements at Cedar Rapids’ Water Pollution Control Facility — nine years in the planning — will cost $318 million. That’s down $30 million from the original contract price because of negotiations with the contractor.

Jeff Witter complains about tight time frame

The City of Marion owns the airport's runway and a fixed-base operations building. The rest of the airport belongs to LuxAir Aviation, a private company.

A tenth revision of the 2015 Cedar Rapids Flood Control System master plan was approved last week by the city council. The plan’s intent is to mitigate flooding so an event like the catastrophic 2008 Cedar River flood doesn’t happen again.