116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
New owners look to transform former GoDaddy building
Hotel, restaurant among ideas for Hiawatha ‘corridor’
HIAWATHA — The new owners of the former GoDaddy building envision transforming the 74,000-square-foot building into a Hiawatha destination.
Doug Sevey, 68, said he and his partners envision a short-stay, “tower” hotel in front of the two-story GoDaddy building at 1 Parsons Dr., with a sit-down restaurant at the rear, where seating and a kitchen are already in place.
The property includes seven acres with a large parking lot that presents many possibilities, including an entertainment venue, Sevey said.
Perhaps a narrow strip mall can be build along Robins Road with a coffee shop or similar occupants, he said, noting nearby land also may be available for future projects.
The redevelopment fits with Hiawatha's Robins Road Corridor study and the vision for the city’s future, City Manager Dennis Marks said.
The Corridor vision statement, Marks said, calls for “creating a community place with a unique identity and brand. The corridor will become a place to spend time, socialize and do business in Hiawatha.”
“The corridor will no longer be an area to pass through, but a place to seek out and spend time,” the vision statement continues. “The corridor will be friendly to pedestrians and provide amenities that will aid in attracting new and additional investment in the corridor.”
In an email, Marks added that “having the new owners share our vision is very exciting for what will come.”
New owners
KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology sold the GoDaddy property to NGD LLC, with the sale closing Dec. 28.
NGD’s partners are Doug and Chris Sevey of Enseva LLC, Mike and Andy Hodge of Hodge Construction, and Bill and Tracy Bennett. Bill Bennett is a former Hiawatha mayor.
“It was a straight cash deal,” with no conditions, Sevey said. "We tried to buy it a year ago. But we couldn't come up with a number."
The sale price was not disclosed, but the building initially was listed at $8.43 million in 2022 and later reduced to $7.025 million in October 2023, according to Loop Net.
Sevey thought about disclosing the sale price in an interview with The Gazette in January, but thought for a minute and said, "I better not." He did say he thought the facility is worth $11 million.
Sevey, who lives near Palo, owns the Enseva Data Center in Hiawatha and also developed the 48-unit apartment building on Robins Road, which is visible from GoDaddy. The apartments opened a few months ago and are fully leased.
Mike Hodge’s construction company is based in Iowa City, and the Hodges have completed several building projects in Hiawatha.
The GoDaddy building, built in 1991 and fully remodeled in 2017, housed more than 400 GoDaddy workers in 2020 before the pandemic. With the interruption, the internet hosting and domain-name registrar company downsized and moved to a smaller space in the Armstrong Building in downtown Cedar Rapids.
A January tour of the former GoDaddy building showed most work stations still intact with like-new furnishings. A playground slide from the second to first floor remains in place, as do treadmills and weights in the building’s fitness center.
Meanwhile, it costs the partners to heat and keep the power on at the building. Sevey said the new owners would like to find a business interested in relocating into a portion of the building to offset ongoing expenses while the larger vision for the property evolves.
What next?
“Hiawatha needs a family-type restaurant and a hotel, a place for people to stay," Sevey said, noting the city of 7,000 has no hotel.
Sevey said he and his partners have had discussions with “hotel chains, franchise type restaurant chains and are talking to a couple of breweries” about business possibilities, but nothing is on tap yet.
At this point, he said, the partners are envisioning a tower with hotel rooms at the front and adjacent space for meeting and conference rooms.
Sevey said he and his partners bought the GoDaddy building to restore it.
“It's not about the money and projected income,” he said.
What they want to do, he said, “are all value-added things the city needs. All this (planned) growth is adding value to the city. We're doing it because we enjoy it.“
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