Chamber of Commerce backs closing of portion of Second Avenue SE

The board of directors of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce has submitted letters to Mayor Ron Corbett and the City Council calling for the closing of Second Avenue SE between 10th and 12th streets as requested by Physicians' Clinic of Iowa, the Chamber said Wednesday in a news release.

PCI has said it needs the closure as part of its plan to build a new medical building at the site. The medical building will sit in a new Cedar Rapids Medical District that stretches from St. Luke's Hospital to Mercy Medical Center.

The Chamber calls the closing of part of Second Avenue SE a “rerouting” of Second Avenue SE as does PCI and Mayor Ron Corbett.

The proposed change in traffic flow eventually would steer Second Avenue SE traffic on to 13th Street SE and over to Third Avenue SE. Third Avenue SE would convert to a two-way and eventually be widened to five lanes.

In a news release, the Chamber says that street closure is necessary “in order to create an economically viable and regionally recognized medical district.”

The City Council is considering providing millions of dollars in local tax dollars to the PCI building project, and the Chamber says it supports “this public-private partnership.”

“The support of PCI's project will launch a medical district that will attract numerous sustainable jobs and significant economic development through basic-sector business attraction for many years to come,” Shannon Meyer, president and CEO of the Chamber, states.

The Chamber said the vote by its board of directors came after “careful consideration.”