116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Marion City Council airs Uptown parking concerns but OKs Belltower Lofts plan
Construction begins this spring to turn historic church into apartments
MARION — Despite worries that the transformation of the historic Marion Methodist Church into Belltower Lofts apartments could worsen Uptown parking, the Marion City Council unanimously approved the site plan for the project this week with assurance sufficient parking exists in the high-traffic area of the city.
The council’s 6-0 approval of the site plan Thursday, with Mayor Nick AbouAssaly absent, moves the $10 million to $11 million project one step closer to beginning.
The historic building, which was saved from demolition through a last-minute deal in 2022, will be transformed into 55 rental units and common spaces at the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 12th Street in Marion.
Amenities will include a workout room, mail room, leasing office and social spaces.
Crews are expected to break ground later this month or in April. The final development agreement will come to the council in April or May. The project is anticipated to wrap up in 18 months.
Parking concerns
At a Tuesday work session, some council members expressed concern about sufficient parking in Uptown, an area the city is studying to assess parking needs.
That study is anticipated to come to the council this spring. Dave Hockett, Marion’s principal planner, said it will factor in new development, such as the Broad and Main apartments and the anticipated redevelopment of the old Marion Public Library site, 1095 Sixth Ave.
Hockett said Belltower Lofts will have 22 parking spots on the property and another 13 leased from Farmers State Bank for three years with a potential five-year extension option.
Within 300 feet, there are 34 public parking lot spaces and 72 on-street parking spaces, including 20 time-limited stalls, which allow overnight parking. That’s approximately 141 spots total.
“With the downtown parking environment, there’s always going to be that car shuffle,” Hockett said. “If you get home late, park a little farther away. In the morning, you reshuffle your cars. It’s a pretty standard practice in Uptown living environments.”
Parking is concentrated in popular areas like Seventh Avenue where restaurants and other businesses are located, but Hockett said parking still should be available on surrounding blocks.
Council member Grant Harper said the parking study will provide a framework for how the city thinks about parking impacts on future projects, but “this project in and of itself doesn’t elevate a tripwire for us.”
“We’ve got a very historic structure Uptown, and we’ve got to find a way to save it, and this project does that,” Harper said.
Council member Gage Miskimen said the city cares about the perceived parking problem because residents express concerns, but ultimately resident behavior can’t be predicted — some may forego dedicated parking spots in favor of closer public parking, for instance.
“A lot of communities in Iowa especially would wish that they’re in the place that we’re in, to worry about parking in their Uptown/downtown areas,” Miskimen said.
Agreements
The council last fall signed a development agreement and earmarked $2.595 million in federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for the project. The federal government awarded $57.6 million to the state of Iowa, mostly to projects in Linn County, to aid in recovery from the 2020 derecho.
The church, built in 1896, most recently housed the Pentecostals of Greater Cedar Rapids. In 2022, it was named as one of the most endangered properties in the state by Preservation Iowa. It was sold to Conlon Construction for just under $100,000 to be saved and redeveloped.
Under the terms associated with using the disaster recovery funds, at least 51 percent of 29 rental units — or 15 units — must be leased to people or households at or below 80 percent of the area median family income. That’s for the portion of the project covered by CDBG funds.
The developer also received $650,000 in 2022 in brownfield redevelopment tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority toward the project.
Preserving history
“The original portion of the church is planned to be refurbished, brought back to the original character as much as possible,” Kyle Martin, president of Martin Gardner Architecture, recently told The Gazette. “The 1990s addition and the original midcentury classroom addition are going to be modernized.”
Hockett said much of the original brick would be preserved, and “they really are trying to use as much as they can of the original buildings.”
Some of the building’s stained glass windows will be refurbished in place with new protective storm coverings and with more light filtering inside, Martin said. Some of the windows will be removed, crated, taken off site and rebuilt. Others might be partially removed, restored and put back in a new unit while the rest of the window could be restored in place.
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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