Vision Iowa board awards $1.6 million for performing arts center in Coralville

WEST DES MOINES -- The Vision Iowa board voted Wednesday to award $1.6 million to a planned Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

The roughly $10.2 million project features a 518-seat theater in the central part of the city, at the corner of Fifth Street and 12th Avenue. The center will be located near Coralville's library, city hall and recreation center.

"It's just really a capstone for that part of our community," said Ellen Habel, Coralville's assistant city administrator.

Habel said they hope to break ground on the project this summer and complete it in early 2011.

"We've done a lot of the planning and design already, and we have people ready to go. We've been anxious to start," Habel said

The city originally had sought a $1.8 million grant from the state's Community Attraction and Tourism, or CAT, program.

The performing arts center has been in the planning stages for 10 years, and more than 100 donors have pitched in to help make the project a reality.

"As we get closer and closer to groundbreaking ... it's an exciting feeling," Habel said.

Southgate Development Services will build the center and is expected to sell it to the city of Coralville once it is completed.

The CAT grant for Coralville wouldn't have been a reality if state lawmakers had not recently approved a new round of dollars for the CAT program in a year when money was tight.

The CAT program, which funds community betterment and tourism projects, had reached a standstill after handing out all of its available dollars and waiting for action by the Iowa Legislature.

Last month, lawmakers earmarked $12 million for CAT in an infrastructure bonding program pushed by Gov. Chet Culver. Culver is expected to sign it into law Thursday.

Already, the program has seen requests for more than $25 million for the new round of funding.

Regenia Bailey, chairwoman of the Vision Iowa board, which hands out the CAT grants, has received three boxes of applications in recent weeks.

"We're thrilled with all of the interest," Bailey said. "We know that this program has been very important to Iowa communities for years."

Bailey notes that many of the projects receiving awards are construction projects that provide well-paying jobs. Other projects create jobs beyond the construction phase and create draws for the community, she said.

In other action Wednesday:

The board awarded $100,000 to build an aquatic center in Grinnell. The new $5.5 million facility will include a pool with eight lap lanes, a speed slide, tube slide, family slide, lazy river and concessions and a bathhouse.