City to seek $8 million in tourism grants to fill project financing gaps

The Vision Iowa Board has $12 million a year through June 30, 2013, to hand out statewide in Community Attraction and Tourism grants - CAT, for short.

And the city of Cedar Rapids on Friday said it will seek $8 million in the funds to help plug financing gaps in three building projects: the city Convention Complex, the city library and the NewBo City Market.

The city is packaging the three projects into one request, which the city calls the Third Street Arts, Culture and Entertainment District. The announcement Friday of the CAT request comes with a new City Hall acronym - ACE - to identify the Third Street district.

The biggest part of the city's funding request, $5 million, would go to the $75.8-million Convention Complex project. The city has a $25.8-million funding gap for the project, a gap for which the city also is seeking private funds to help close. The city also has said it will use some revenue from the city's hotel-motel tax to help pay off bonds it sells to help finance the project.

The City's CAT request also is seeking $1.5 million for the library and $1.5 million for the NewBo City Market.