Committee announces CA Ventures as preferred developer for Court & Linn streets site

IOWA CITY - An internal review committee, which included Iowa City Council members Susan Mims and Kingsley Botchway, will recommend CA Ventures as the preferred developer for the city's property at Linn and Court streets.

If the recommendation is approved Monday by the council, staff can begin the roughly three- to four-week process of negotiations with CA Ventures to craft a formal agreement for the property sale and development for the roughly 60,000 square feet of land where the St. Patrick's Catholic Church's parish hall once sat.

CA Ventures' RISE at Riverfront Crossings proposal, which calls for a $102.5 million, nearly 560,000-square-foot building, would be unique for future Riverfront Crossings District development in size and scope, said Jeff Davidson, Iowa City economic development administrator.

'We certainly don't see a lot of projects of this scale in Riverfront Crossings,” Davidson said.

CA Ventures' proposal includes 320 residential units among two towers - 15 floors and 14 floors in height - as well as a 152-room hotel and more than 30,000 square feet of office and retail space.

HUB at Iowa City was a close second, Davidson added. That project, proposed by Core Campus, included a 15-story mixed-use building with 405 residential units, a 153-room hotel and nearly 25,000 square feet of retail and office space.

Neither project is requesting financial assistance from the city. CA Ventures has offered to pay $6.5 million for the property, while Core Campus has offered $5 million for the land.

While the projects are similar, Davidson said the mix of units in the CA Ventures project, which is nearly 90 percent one- and two-bedroom units, was more favorable than the project by Core Campus, which is made up 45 percent by three-bedroom units.

'We were very much interested in the one- or two-bedroom units. I think that was another thing that maybe put (CA Ventures) a little ahead,” he said.

If a deal cannot be reached with CA Ventures, the city will have the option to open conversations with Core Campus, Davidson added.

Iowa City staff last summer requested proposals - six were received - for the property where St. Patrick's Catholic Church's parish hall sat until the church, which was across the street, was destroyed by a tornado in April 2006 and the church and parish hall moved.

In 2008 Iowa City bought the land for $3.05 million with plans of building a parking facility on the site, but those efforts never came to fruition.

Davidson said that if CA Ventures is chosen by the council and an agreement is reached, work on the roughly two-year project could begin yet this year, noting the developer's interest in breaking ground.

'I don't think they intend to wait around at all,” he said.