Lawmaker says he saw potentially-underage worker at Banjo Block development

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids lawmaker has raised concerns about potential underage labor and safety risks at the $49 million Banjo Block development that’s receiving city and state tax incentives.

Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, toured the Banjo Block construction site Friday and was troubled by what he saw as fire risks and trip hazards. He also noticed at least one employee who appeared to be under age 18, he said in an email to Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz.

“The most egregious of the potential violations was a worker on the job site who was clearly too young to be working on a construction site,” Scheetz wrote in the email Friday afternoon.

“When a Spanish-speaking member of our tour asked the boy how old he was, a supervisor on the site instructed him (in Spanish) to tell us that he was 18. In a later conversation with the assistant supervisor of the project, he could not definitively tell me that all of the workers on the project were old enough to be working on the site.”

The project, by TWG Development of Indianapolis, is slated to receive $6.5 million in tax incentives from the city. The state also is providing more than $17 million in tax credits connected to restoring a brownfield and providing low-income housing.

The four-story, approximately 200,000-square-foot project will have 211 rental apartments, primarily one- and two-bedroom units, 1,176 square feet of ground-level commercial space; 147 parking stalls and amenities, including a rooftop patio.

“Since our taxpayer dollars are being used with this developer, I hope that the city of Cedar Rapids will investigate whether all safety protocols are being met on the aforementioned job site,” Scheetz said in the email.

Pomeranz wrote back to Scheetz less than 30 minutes later: “I will ask our staff to do an investigation, and we will report back.”

Staff at the city manager’s office staff told The Gazette they are “evaluating which state agency may be the appropriate entity for referral.”

Agencies that typically investigate these types of allegations include Iowa OSHA and the Division of Labor.

Scheetz shared some photos and video he took on Friday’s tour that show some of his concerns, including an electrical cord with exposed wire, trash inside the wooden structure and a 6-foot drop without a guardrail.

TWG, founded in 2007, specializes in developing commercial, market rate, affordable and senior housing projects across the country, according to its website. The company focuses on financing, design, construction and management and has been involved in development of 10,000 units nationwide, the site says.

The Gazette reached out to TWG on Friday afternoon by phone and email but did not hear back before deadline.

Iowa Code restricts the jobs teenagers can do and the hours they can work. Children age 15 and younger are not allowed to work in construction, unless it’s office or sales work. Children between the ages of 16 and 18 can work construction, with some restrictions.

Two bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature this year — House File 647 and Senate File 542 — would, among other provisions, let teens as young as 14 request a waiver from the directors of the state workforce and education agencies to work as apprentices in factories, mines, construction sites and warehouses, among others, as part of “work-based learning” programs.

Cedar Rapids has been trying to develop the block at Fourth Avenue and Fifth Street SE — named the Banjo Block after the Banjo Refrigeration business that operated there — for many years. An earlier developer — SC Bodner — proposed a more than $30 million project before withdrawing the proposal in 2019.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com