Hotel, mixed-use planned across from Fleet Farm off Highway 100

CEDAR RAPIDS - Multiple developers are working to transform parcels of vacant land at the southwest corner of Highway 100 and Edgewood Road NE in Cedar Rapids, with a price tag that could reach up to $55 million.

The 14.8-acre River Ridge Square development by Ahmann Companies sits immediately south of the developer's 56-acre Edgewood Town Center, a $50-million-plus commercial-retail hub now anchored by the 192,000-square-foot Fleet Farm, which opened its doors last month.

Within River Ridge Square, Hunter Companies continues to build a 35,110-square-foot new dealership for Randy Kuehl Honda, which in February announced plans to relocate from its current location on Center Point Road.

Project signs indicate a spring 2020 finish, though construction more likely will wrap up closer to summer 2020, said Chad Pelley, business development manager with Ahmann Co.

Opposite the car dealership within the development, Lloyd Companies of Sioux City, S.D., is preparing to build a Hilton Garden Inn.

The hotel will have a 25,050-square-foot footprint on 3.36 acres, and feature 102 rooms and 190 parking spaces, Cedar Rapids city documents show.

The location would become the Corridor's second Hilton Garden Inn, after an existing hotel in downtown Iowa City.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings had 660 Garden Inn properties with 91,140 total rooms across the U.S. at the end of 2018, according its to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Jake Quasney, executive vice president of development with Lloyd Companies, said the developer hopes to begin construction on or around Nov. 15, after it closes on a bank loan. The hotel is expected to take around 11 months to complete, he said.

In between the car dealership and hotel sits 4.44 acres of vacant land where Ahmann Co. originally proposed three, three-story mixed-use buildings, with retail and office space on the first floor and 84 residential units on the second and third floors.

Though Pelley said he still could see mixed-use buildings developed, a different complementary project also could be on the table.

'With the announcement of the hotel paired with the Honda (dealership) and the whole area getting interest, we believe somebody could come and push that along,” he said, noting that, with Ahmann Companies' focus on multiple existing projects, that site presently is 'not a huge priority.”

Construction costs for those 14.8 acres could range between $25 million and $35 million, Pelley said.

Nearby, on a separate 8-acre parcel west of Toyota Financial, Ahmann Co. last week broke ground on Buffalo Ridge, a residential project with 100 market-rate rental condos.

Construction is expected to take 14 to 18 months to complete and cost in the range of $16 million to $20 million.

The River Ridge Square developments represent a 'natural progression” for the southwest corner of Highway 100, said Pelley, noting that the projects will become part of at least $300 million invested in that area once they and the nearby Ahmann Co. commercial developments Fountains and Peck's Landing are fully built out.

'To me, it's bigger than Lindale Mall, it's bigger than Westdale Mall,” he said. 'If you look at that, to me, that becomes your northwest hub.”

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