$450,000 helps entice Rockwell downtown

CEDAR RAPIDS - A $450,000 incentive from the city helped lure 400 Rockwell Collins employees into downtown office space being restored from the June 2008 flood, giving a boost to downtown recovery.

The employees are part of Rockwell Collins' information technology operations, Senior Vice President of e-Business Jean-Paul Besong said. They will relocate to the Town Centre building, 221 Third Ave. SE, from leased space in the former K's Merchandise building on Collins Road NE. The move should be completed by the end of March.

Mayor Ron Corbett has been urging Cedar Rapids' largest employers to move some of their operations downtown for months. Despite assistance from Priority One, the regional economic development agency, deals had been elusive - until now.

Besong said Rockwell Collins' IT group, which supports global operations, volunteered to move downtown.

“It's the right decision for the city and the right decision for our company,” Besong said.

The city will provide a direct incentive of $150,000 per year for three years, with the money coming from its parking fund, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said.

It also will provide safety improvements in city parking facilities and permit Rockwell Collins employees to travel free on Bus Route 3 between downtown and Rockwell Collins' headquarters, 400 Collins Rd. NE.

Pomeranz declined to characterize the $150,000 as a parking discount, but a draft of the economic development agreement prepared for City Council consideration says the incentive can only be applied to parking.

Rockwell Collins designs and manufactures aerospace and defense electronics. As previously reported, the business plans to hire about 800 people this year, roughly half of them in Cedar Rapids.

The information technology staff will take over 82,000 square feet of vacant space in the 190,000-square-foot Town Centre building, said owner Steve Emerson. That includes part of the main floor and all of the second, third and fourth floors.

About 51 percent of the vacant office space in Cedar Rapids is located downtown, said commercial Realtor Scott Olson of Skogman Commercial. This will take about 10 percent of it off the market, he said.

Besong and Corbett emphasized that the relocation was a business decision, not one made solely for community benefit.

Still, the community benefits are considerable, said Vanessa Solesbee, director of operations for the Cedar Rapids Downtown District.

“This is incredibly meaningful for the small local businesses that call downtown home,” she said.

Rockwell Collins previously leased 34,000 feet of space downtown for a short time in 2006 and 2007 while it built a facility on C Avenue NE.