Three downtown Cedar Rapids buildings in running for apartment funds

CEDAR RAPIDS — Three vacant or partially empty downtown buildings would turn into 76 apartments if their developers are picked to share in a statewide competition for $30 million in federal disaster assistance funding.

The development concept, 'adaptive reuse,' is expected to bolster the projects' chances.

The three buildings are the former Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co. building, 323 Third St. SE; the former Intermec Technologies building at 509 Third St. SE; and the Kubias Building at 307-311 Third Ave. SE.

The first two projects, both in vacant buildings, are those of local developer and architect Steve Emerson. He calls them Cornerstone Place, which would house a first-floor of commercial space and 32 apartments on the top five floors, and Midtown Square, which would have 26 apartments in the two-story former Intermec building.

The four-story Kubias Building is a project of local developer Hobart Historic Restoration and would consist of 18 apartments above first-floor commercial space.

Caleb Mason, the city's housing redevelopment analyst, said Thursday that the statewide competition among the state's five largest cities is expected to be stiff for a final pot of federal disaster funds that the state secured after flood and storm damage in 2008.

However, the other four cities can submit only two projects each while Cedar Rapids is not limited in the number it can submit because of the amount of housing lost in the city's 2008 flood, Mason said.

This is the sixth round of federal disaster funding through the Iowa Economic Development Authority for apartment projects in a program that has brought 557 new replacement apartments to Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids projects received funding in rounds one, two and five, and seven of 10 proposed Cedar Rapids projects in round five secured funding, Mason told the City Council's Development Committee this week.

Among those seven now under construction is High Development's conversion of the former Coventry Gardens commercial building into 19 apartments called Coventry Lofts at 211 First Ave. SE.

In total, 16 Cedar Rapids projects totaling 307 apartments will be in the new round of statewide competition. Eight of the projects are in Kingston Village across the Cedar River from downtown, and six of the projects include Kingston in their names.

The City Council's three-member Development Committee this week agreed with the city's Community Development Department staff that the city should submit all 16 projects to the Iowa Economic Development Authority competition.

Committee members Monica Vernon, the committee chairwoman, Pat Shey and Susie Wienacht each said they particularly liked the idea of 'adaptive reuse' of existing buildings.

Shey said it was good to see that the city's project review panel, which consisted of city staff members, developers not in the competition and neighborhood leaders, placed adaptive-reuse projects near the top of the rankings of the 16 projects.

Emerson's Cornerstone Place project at 323 Third St. SE was ranked first; his Midtown Square project in the former Intermec building, ranked fourth; and the Kubias Building project, ranked fifth.

Another Emerson project, called Kingston Landing, ranked second and is a fourth adaptive-reuse project. It would convert the Cedar Rapids Community School District's former administrative office building at 346 Second Ave. SW, where Emerson already has done some work, into 26 apartments.

Vernon said the city had seen little interest from developers in the conversion of existing buildings into housing before the 2008 flood, but the climate for such work now has changed, she said.

Vernon said she liked that the Intermec building is near the top of the list because she said she's gotten plenty of questions about what might happen to it. Intermec has built a new building next to the old one.

Mason said the Iowa Economic Development Authority has indicated that it is looking for projects that include adaptive reuse, feature commercial space along with apartments and have historic value.

The first floor of the Cornerstone Place and Kubias Building projects will feature commercial uses, and both projects will use historic tax credits as part of their renovation funding as will the school-building conversion, Mason said.

He said a housing consultant for the city has concluded that the city has a need for about 150 new apartment units, and as a result, the Iowa Economic Development Authority is not apt to fund all 16 Cedar Rapids projects, which together would add 307 apartments to the city.

Mason also said that the 16 Cedar Rapids projects in total are seeking $32.4 million in help from a funding pot that has only $30 million in it.

Among the 16 Cedar Rapids projects, a 10-apartment project from local developers Joe Ahmann and Chad Pelley called Sixth Street Commons at Fifth Avenue and Sixth Street SW is ranked second in the review committee scoring.

Mason said 51 percent of the apartments must come with affordable rents and be rented to tenants who earn 80 percent of the area's average median income or less.

The maximum amount of program funds being requested for any of the 16 projects is $3.061 million, and three of the top five projects are asking for that funding amount. The total cost of each of those three projects ranges from $6.2 million to $13 million.

Mason said the state also has an additional housing funds for which smaller Iowa cities will compete.

Awards are expected to be made in January on the condition that project construction begins in April, he said.