Grants help Czech Village, New Bo flood recovery

Little by little, shops in New Bohemia and Czech Village are moving beyond the 2008 flood.

Grants from ITC Midwest through the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation are helping.

The Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District was awarded $75,000 for facade improvements from ITC. Grants are being doled out in smaller increments to commercial property owners and tenants on both sides of the Cedar River.

“I would say that this has been an excellent stimulus for the neighborhood provided by ITC,” said Main Street secretary Maura Pilcher.

Pilcher said the $73,679 committed so far to facade projects has leveraged $152,065 of privately funded investments.

One of those is manifested in a very visible venue.

The former Village Bank, 1201 Third St. SE, in new Bohemia, is using a $4,000 matching grant to restore the front of the 1917 building.

“Every little bit helps,” said Arielle Pierce, one of four partners transforming the 17,000-square-foot bank into Capones restaurant and bar.

She and husband Ray Pierce of Cedar Rapids and Dave and Diane Fountain of Martelle are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into restoring the building.

“We're trying to keep some of the old history in there,” she said.

That includes restoring terra cotta lions on the building's facade, which the grant helped cover.

Capones could open in January, while the owners hope to begin leasing office space in the upper level in December.

Other projects that have benefitted from the grants include a new awning at the Red Frog, 88 16th Ave. SW; a sign at Czech Cottage, 100 16th Ave. SW and the storefront painted at Flickers of Fun, 84 16th Ave. SW.

Grants have also gone to storefront window replacements and masonry repair at other shops.

Pilcher said grants have been awarded to 10 New Bohemia buildings and 14 in Czech Village.

Awards range from $500 micro grants to $4,000 grants that require a 50 percent match.

New Bohemia and Czech Village were inundated with 8-to-10-feet of floodwater in June 2008.

ITC Holdings Corp., parent company of ITC Midwest LLC in Cedar Rapids, established the fund to support flood recovery. The company owns and operates high voltage power transmission lines in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Illinois.

ITC Midwest spokesman Tom Petersen said the company was attracted to Main Street's vision of connecting the two neighborhoods on opposite sides of the river to benefit flood recovery.

“We wanted to be a part of supporting that,” he said, “We're excited to see the variety of investments made and the use of the funds to restore the unique character of those two neighborhoods.”