Row houses will add to new development in northwest Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — A local developer’s $3.2 million investment will bring more row houses to the northwest quadrant, adding to a slate of work that is infusing new life into a heavily flood-damaged part of town.

The Cedar Rapids City Council recently approved a development agreement with LTRI LLC, the ownership entity associated with Hiawatha-based Ahmann Companies, to construct eight three-unit row houses on vacant city-owned property at four lots on the 1100 block of Sixth Street NW, 606 and 610 J Avenue NW and 1111, 1113 and vacant land on Ellis Boulevard NW. This will bring 24 market-rate housing units to the Time Check area.

Construction is slated to start by Aug. 1 and wrap up by July 1, 2022. There will be a public hearing June 8 when the council considers approval of city incentives — a 10-year, 100 percent abatement of increased taxes.

Chad Pelley, the vice president of business development for Ahmann Companies, said the design is tasteful, with a palette that is consistent with the company’s other projects in the northwest quadrant, such as the Ellis Commons town house complex in the 1300 block of Ellis Boulevard NW.

The new row houses will have “that same common craftsman style that the neighborhood has liked,” Pelley said, with front porches that lure people out into the neighborhood. And he said the attached single-family dwelling units help keep prices down.

“We’re really, really trying to hit the price point of affordability,” Pelley said.

Al Pierson, president of the Northwest Area Neighborhood Association, said he served on the review committee that scored the project. Residents are “all for it,” he said.

“We can’t wait to see it get going,” Pierson said. “ … We’re looking forward to more rooftops, to more people in the neighborhood. There’s a lot of interest, development here.”

The design, which had input from the neighborhood association, features front porches and individual patios with a stone exterior on the first floor, city planner Seth Gunnerson told the council. Parking will be located on the interior of the block.

Early on after the historic 2008 flood, Pierson said the group wrote a neighborhood action plan in which developers were asked to consider front porches, “so it fits with that really nice.” Ahmann Companies has “a great track record” in the neighborhood, Pierson said, so he is pleased to see the group working on this project.

But Pierson said, “with all these row houses coming, we do want a variety of buildings in the neighborhood, so we really want to focus when these projects are done on some single-family houses.”

A number of developers are getting ready to start projects on Ellis Boulevard NW. A pizza parlor will open later this year on the street, and Pierson hoped more commercial development would follow.

In the coming years, the city has work planned on street and flood control projects that will enhance the neighborhood’s connectivity with the downtown core and incorporate permanent flood protection into the Time Check neighborhood.

Eventually, E and F avenues NW will be reconfigured to simplify the design at the intersection where First Street NW, E Avenue NW, F Avenue NW and the Interstate 380 off-ramp come together. Sixth Street NW will be extended to Ellis Boulevard NW to allow for easier access.

In addition to the city projects, local nonprofit Matthew 25 in April announced a $1 million campaign to revitalize the Time Check neighborhood. The initiative envisions a new nonprofit grocery store, the Cultivate Hope Corner Store, as well as new and rehabilitated housing there.

Collectively, the various projects underway here are “going to start attracting more people,” Pierson said. “It’s a great neighborhood with the park and the river. There’s just a lot going on, really positive.”

Pelley said this project, in partnership with the city, is just one more component of rebuilding the area.

“I think the more we can see people, whether that’s people living, people visiting, people doing things down there, the more viable those other uses become,” Pelley said.

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