Chauncey project breaks ground in downtown Iowa City

IOWA CITY - With shovels, inscribed with the word 'finally,” in hand, local developer Marc Moen and community leaders kicked off a project that was more than four years in the making.

The Moen Group broke ground on Chauncey, a 15-story residential and commercial building planned for the corner of College and Gilbert streets in downtown Iowa City during a ceremony Sunday afternoon. Moen said the building is targeted for a mid-2019 opening.

Plans for Chauncey call for a movie theater, hotel, restaurant, park, bowling alley, office space and 65 residential units, including five units of affordable housing

'What goes on in the main floor or the commercial areas is critical to me, to the building,” Moen said 'What we try to do is add, rather than repeat what we've done, we try to add services and amenities within an easy walking distance.”

The Chauncey project has been controversial since it was proposed.

The Moen Group's concept was chosen in January 2013 during a request for proposals process for the city-owned land.

'It became very clear that the Moen Group's project hit all of the things that we were looking for,” said city council member Susan Mims during Sunday's ceremony. 'The city had very much committed to trying to increase and improve the activities downtown for our students who are not 21.”

Since then, the project has been wrapped up in legal battles. The Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow, led by now-city council member Rockne Cole, filed a legal appeal of the city's Chauncey related rezoning.

Chauncey seemed to clear its last legal hurdle in April when Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady denied the appeal.

In August, the city council voted to approve $12.8 million in loan agreements to help further the project. While the structure was originally estimated to cost $49 million, the lengthy delays were expected to increase that number.

'The reality is, in life today, anything worth doing is going to have controversy surrounding it,” said former City Manager Tom Markus during the ceremony. 'We spent four years in plan review, building permit review, litigation, back-and-forth exchanges and all sorts of communication ... to get this project to a stage of approval.”

During the ceremony, roughly a dozen speakers, including Markus, along with representatives of the downtown district, Iowa City Area Development Group and the convention and visitors bureau, among others, explained to a crowd of a few dozen why they supported the project or what benefits they believe it is going to bring to the community.

Afterward, Moen said he expects the residential units to open at the end of February 2019 with the commercial pieces following four to six months after that.

Moen also said he expects an announcement about what kind of restaurant may be coming to Chauncey to be made 'pretty soon.”

'Where we stand today, is a place where we're making a serious investment in our city and the citizens of Iowa City,” Moen said. 'Chauncey and Chauncey Park are designed for everyone.”

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