Coralville arena project gets $12 million in state aid

DES MOINES - It was more than a year ago that Coralville officials approached the state with plans to build a $70 million arena and sports complex.

On Friday, the Iowa Economic Development Authority board signed off on a $12 million commitment to the effort - something those pushing for the project say is essential to the arena's completion.

'It's a great day,” Josh Schamberger, president of the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said after the vote. 'It's a big step, it's just one step, but it's really the most important step. It's $12 million that leverages the entire district.”

The IEDA board approved the $12 million allocation through the authority's state-funded Reinvestment District program, which allows new state sales taxes and excise taxes - which are sales tax collections at hotels and different from locally collected hotel/motel taxes - to be reinvested within approved districts.

'You guys are on your way, go forth,” board member David Bernstein said to Coralville officials present at the meeting after the board's unanimous approval.

Those state funds are tied to a 6,216-seat, multiuse arena on the Iowa River Landing. The arena will be attached to the Iowa Fitness and Sports Performance Institute and a new home for the Antique Car Museum and Johnson County Historical Society Museum.

While viewed by those involved as a boon for Johnson County, some to the north in Linn County have raised concerns over Coralville's arena plans.

Sharon Cummins, executive director for VenuWorks of the U.S. Cellular Center arena and three other Cedar Rapids-owned entertainment venues, said the Coralville arena will add more competition to a limited market.

'Their philosophy is there's enough for everyone, that's surely not the case in the entertainment industry,” Cummins said. 'Competition really does impact overall programming.”

More than 202,000 people attended events at the Cedar Rapids arena last year, Cummins said.

Schamberger, on the other hand, argued that competition - which already takes place between the 10-year-old Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center and DoubleTree by Hilton in Cedar Rapids - is a good thing.

'We are going to compete a few times as it comes to concerts, there's no doubt, but it's no different from us competing with conferences and meetings,” he said. 'I think that will be true with the arena, just as it has been since Cedar Rapids moved forward with their convention center a few years back.”

Moving forward, the U.S. Cellular Center will lean on it's experience in the industry, Cummins said.

'We'll just continue to work as hard as we currently are to bring all types of entertainment to the Cedar Rapids market,” she said.

In Coralville, the arena is merely a component in a much larger plan for the Iowa River Landing area. All told, the IRL is poised to see a roughly $174 million investment in projects tied to the state dollars.

While the $12 million chunk represents only a fraction of the entire project, the funds are critical to its completion, Coralville Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Gross said.

'It was a big piece, it's always been a central piece of the big plan and now that we have this we can definitely move forward,” Gross said.

The board's approval does come with contingencies - namely that Coralville officials secure an agreement with a contractor for the attached arena, sports center and museum buildings by October. The city also must provide the state with a complete financial plan by June 30, 2017, which includes a backup plan in case $2.5 million in potential Brownfield Grant and Vision Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism funds fall through.

All financing needs to be secured by June 30, 2017 and, in order to receive state funding, Coralville officials need to ensure the project opens debt-free.

Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said Friday's approval will greatly help in securing the final gap in finances.

'We've got several people who were waiting to hear what happens today before they made a decision so we've got a lot teed up and that's our next step, to get those all completed,” he said. 'There's a lot of dominoes falling because of what the state did today.”

The city had been exploring an arena project since the 90s and the project was first presented to the state authority in late May 2015.

The state board last summer pledged Coralville about $9.5 million. But with Davenport - which received a pledge for $10.7 million - since backing out of the program, Coralville's request bumped back to $12 million.

Last month the state board sent Coralville officials back to Johnson County with the request that the city seek a financial buy-in from the county.

In response, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors last week approved a $200,000 commitment to the project. That money will go toward relocating the Johnson County Historical Society Museum and Antique Care Museum into facilities attached to the arena complex.