Coralville council to consider agreement for preliminary design for arena

CORALVILLE - The Coralville City Council will vote Tuesday on entering into an agreement with an architect to create the preliminary design for the arena proposed for the city's Iowa River Landing.

If approved at the council meeting, the $99,500 consulting services agreement with JLG Architects, based in Minnesota and North Dakota, will be payable on March 31, 2016, unless the firm is chosen as the architect for the entire project - in which case that fee will be lumped into the overall cost.

City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said the preliminary design should answer two main questions for the 7,000-seat arena and performance center: the price and included elements.

'That really tells us, number one, what is it going to look like and what is going to be included and it's going to include a cost estimate so that we know what kind of money we're looking at that we need to raise,” he said.

If approved Tuesday, Hayworth said JLG Architects officials could be in town as soon as Thursday to get started.

Hayworth said the city will soon seek out a consultant to help meet the gap in finances for the proposed project.

In June, the Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved a $9.5 million investment for Coralville, roughly 80 percent of the city's original request toward the area, estimated to cost roughly $45 million.

That funding came from the Iowa Economic Development Authority's state-funded Reinvestment District program, which allows new state hotel/motel and sales taxes to be reinvested within approved districts.

To receive that funding, Coralville must submit a final application for review before March 1, 2016 and final funding decisions will be made after the IEDA board receives and evaluates a final application.

If the state money is approved, Hayworth said work on a final design will begin soon thereafter.