First of two Brickstones opens in Cedar Rapids’ Oakhill/New Bohemia area

CEDAR RAPIDS - The copper-colored metal roofs on the two clock towers of the Oakhill Jackson Brickstones jut up over what is around them in a way that has changed a piece of the city's skyline near the downtown.

The two towers now compete with the steeple on nearby St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in a way that says something is afoot in an area just south of downtown now called New Bohemia.

More impressive, though, says Gretta Dirks, is the view from her apartment in the first of the two Brickstones buildings now accepting tenants.

“You can see the downtown moving this way,” says the 31-year-old Dirks, a local restaurant manager.

Dirks is one of the first six tenants in the 52-apartment Brickstones building at Sixth Street SE and 12th Avenue SE, with tenants set to occupy another six apartments by the end of March and five other tenant applications on the verge of being approved.

Dale Todd, the local project manager for Hatch Development Group of Des Moines, says filling the two buildings will be an easy task because the buildings are safe, secure and near the downtown and because they feature a unique combination of affordable rents and tasteful, urban design unlike anything else in the city.

“They're just in awe when they look at this place,” Todd says of prospective tenants.

Dirks says the exterior design of the apartment buildings first attracted her to them even as they were going up, and once she put in an application, she says she spent hours decorating a one-bedroom apartment in her head while waiting to get accepted.

She volunteers that she as well as her father initially had reservations about moving into the neighborhood that had been declining for years. But she says a tour of the new building and a look out her apartment window changed all that.

From her third-floor perch (the first floor is a parking garage built to flood), she can look out and see the other Brickstones building down the street, the new federal courthouse going up a few blocks away on the edge of downtown and the redevelopment in the flood-impacted New Bohemia and Oakhill neighborhoods that the Brickstones is helping to lead.

“What the flood did was it washed away a lot of the bad we had here and brought in the new,” Dirks suggests. “In the next few years, the downtown will (extend) to here. The flood's done nothing but clean this all up.”

But for the 2008 flood, the $19-million Brickstones project likely would not have come to be.

In the flood's aftermath, the federal, state and city governments worked in tandem to secure federal housing tax credits for Iowa to help build new housing, both rental and owner-occupied, to replace what the flood destroyed.

The Brickstones, the renovation of The Roosevelt apartments in the downtown, the Cedar Crest Apartments on O Avenue NW and the Cedar Pond Townhomes off Edgewood Road SW are all projects backed by the Iowa Finance Authority and funded with the help of tax credits. Investors put money up for the projects and have it returned plus interest in the form of a smaller federal tax bill. In turn, the project developers, like Hatch Development Group on the Brickstones, must abide by rent and income guidelines as they rent the apartments.

At the Brickstones, a single-bedroom apartment rents for $465 a month plus utilities and a two-bedroom for $540 plus utilities.

Households must display, at minimum, an income equal to two-and-half times the rent. On the other hand, annual household income must not exceed 40 percent of the average median income, which is $28,740 for a one-person household, $32,880 for a two-person household and $41,040 for a four-person household.

Todd says the first tenants have included workers at helping-services agencies and restaurants.

“These are people who work, who make things happen,” Todd says. “There's a nice mix of younger and older. For the younger ones, this is a good starting point.”

The cornerstone on the first of the two Brickstones reads “Adam,” a commemoration to Todd's son.

“This is a building that's important to me, not only because of the name on it, but everything that has gone into it to make it happen,” says Todd. “I'm going to make sure I take care of this like I take care of my son.”

The second of the Brickstones, a 45-unit building at Sixth Street SE and Ninth Avenue SE, should begin taking tenants on June 1.