Cedar Rapids City Council advances $32.6M Terex site redevelopment

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday advanced a proposal for a $32.6 million redevelopment of the former Terex site into a mixed-use building that would include nearly 200 new housing units.

The council approved a resolution outlining preliminary terms of city incentives for a development at 916 16th St. NE, near Mount Mercy University, with The Hub LLC, an entity of Hiawatha-based Ahmann Companies. Officials previously have said that they hope this project would spur further development in the area.

The development, which calls for a $32.6 million minimum investment, calls for the phased construction of three buildings.

City Economic Development Analyst Caleb Mason said the first building would include 36 units with some amenity and commercial space as well as 12 first-floor parking spaces, and start by October and finish by July 2022. The second would contain 78 units and 43 first-floor parking spaces with a rooftop patio, and start by November 2021 and wrap up by May 2023. And the third would include 72 units and 47 first-floor parking spaces, with construction starting October 2022 and ending May 2024.

Mason said this would be a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The inclusion of three-bedroom units is “fairly rare for these types of projects to have,” he said.

The city would provide tax incentives of up to $4.2 million in present value, discounting each payment back to the date of completion using a 6 percent discount rate, or a 20-year, 100 percent reimbursement of the increased taxes the project generates.

The resolution the council passed supports an application for Workforce Housing Tax Credits to the Iowa Economic Development Authority, which requires a local match.

“We’re doing our best to position our projects to receive that funding,” Mason said, as the council Tuesday approved such applications for a number of developments.

Council member Pat Loeffler asked about the price point on the housing units in this development.

“We just had a large group talking about affordable housing,” Loeffler said, in reference to advocacy groups urging the council to use $28 million in American Rescue Plan funds largely to support affordable housing development in Cedar Rapids.

Mason said these units would be considered shallow subsidy — providing rent rates lower than a luxury apartment — though he did not have exact rates available. Part of the Workforce Housing Tax Credits involves metrics guiding cost per unit, which he said “effectively puts a ceiling on the development cost to get the pricing into more of an affordable range.”

A development agreement will be brought back to council later this summer to finalize the proposal, Mason said.

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