An aerial view of the ACT Campus in Iowa City on Jan. 23, 2025. The area is being reimagined to include senior housing, commercail development and a pediatric palliative care center. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette) — An aerial view of the ACT Campus in Iowa City on Jan. 23, 2025. The area is being reimagined to include senior housing, commercial development and a pediatric palliative care center. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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IOWA CITY — The re-imagination of nearly 400 acres on the east side of Iowa City, site of the former ACT campus, is taking its first steps forward.

The property is set to undergo a transformation that will remove an existing building, add commercial development and create new senior housing. Future phases of the development plan may include various housing types, the first pediatric palliative care center in Iowa and other community-centered spaces.

As the property stands today, it’s largely underdeveloped with the exception of a few remaining ACT office buildings.

The development team is working with the city to plan infrastructure improvements as the area was never identified for development and has never been platted or mapped for construction. Additionally, parts of the property still need to be rezoned to allow for development, and the city is in the process of updating its comprehensive plan.

A sign marks the entrance to ACT’s campus in Iowa City on Jan. 24, 2025. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

ACT officially sold the property to JNB Iowa City for $17.5 million in April 2024, according to assessor records. Construction is already underway on part of the project, with the next phase set to begin in the spring.

“We now have a chance … to spur some commercial development and residential development in an area that no one really ever thought was going to happen. No one really ever thought ACT was going to move,” said Steve Long of Salida Partners, part of JNB Iowa City.

Senior housing construction underway

Repurposing of two old ACT office buildings, along ACT Drive, into 44 units of market rate senior housing is already underway. The housing will include both one- and two-bedroom units and developers will be able to retain the existing heating and cooling system.

“It's a class A corporate office space. We don't see a lot of them in our region, and they were built with high quality materials to last and that really helps when we're converting to residential,” said Long.

Long said the development team is selling land to Oaknoll East, which will look to add another 141 units to its existing campus along Scott Boulevard. A timeline for construction still is up in the air.

Renderings of an expansion of the Oaknoll East campus. The addition will look to add more than 100 housing units on a portion of the former ACT campus in Iowa City.

A mix of low-income housing also will be added to the area, made possible by $1.3 million in federal housing tax credits. They include nine two-bedroom town homes and a 35-unit apartment building. As a condition of the tax credits, the housing will be both age and income restricted. The exact terms of affordability are still being finalized, with construction set to begin in the spring.

“We really want to have a mix of housing, it's not going to be all seniors, but it just makes sense with Oaknoll there and Iowa City as a retirement destination. … Our goal is to have a mix of incomes as well and housing styles,” said Long.

Commercial development planned along Highway 1

Long said the team is in conversation with a grocery store that will anchor a hub of 40 acres of commercial development along Highway 1/Dodge Street.

The development team is also in conversations with a financial institution, various restaurants and seeking tenants for potential office space, he said.

The opening of the grocery store and other commercial spaces is being coordinated with the development of a four-way intersection to provide access to the area. Long is hoping construction on the commercial spaces can begin in the spring, with an estimated completion of sometime in 2027.

Conceptual site plan for the commercial development planned along Dodge Street/Highway 1 in Iowa City. (Courtesy of JNB Iowa City)

“Prior to the sale of the ACT property, the city was beginning to plan for the three-way signalization of Dodge/Highway 1 and ACT Circle,” said Iowa City Manager Geoff Fruin. “After the ACT property was sold and initial conversations were had with the new ownership team, we evolved the planning to include a fourth leg off the intersection into the main campus.”

A four-way intersection previously existed near the campus in the early 2000s. Design plans for the intersection are currently underway, and the city plans to put the project out to bid sometime later this year.

The development team also received $700,000 through the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s redevelopment tax credits. The tax credits allowed for the demolition of the former Lindquist Building, on the site of the commercial development. Long said the building, originally built in 1968, could not be salvaged.

Pediatric palliative care center finds a home

Approximately eight acres of the former ACT campus has been earmarked for the nonprofit Mason’s Light House, founded by the Sieck family of Grinnell, which plans to build the first ever pediatric palliative care center in Iowa. It would be only the fourth such facility in the U.S.

Pediatric palliative care centers are residential facilities that provide support to children and young adults with shortened life expectancies, as well as their families. They offer equipment that’s sized appropriately for children, and their staff have experience treating younger patients.

The nonprofit’s name is a reference to the Sieck family’s son Mason, and the mission to build a respite and hospice care home for children.

Mason, who died in 2021 at age 7, had Gardner’s Syndrome, a rare disease that results in the growth of cancerous and non-cancerous desmoid tumors. The Sieck family sought care for Mason in Minnesota and hopes to localize that type of care for Iowa families.

Mason Sieck (far left) is pictured with his family, dad Curtis Sieck, mom Shanna Sieck, and brother and sister, Colton and Izzy Sieck. Mason died in 2021. (Contributed Photo)

The nonprofit is looking to raise $14 million to pay for the land and build the facility, which will have seven suites for hospice care and offer 24/7 respite care. A purchase agreement for the land is not finalized and that portion of the land also needs to be rezoned to allow for the development.

“It just seems like a really good fit,” Mason’s mother, Shanna Sieck, founder of the nonprofit, said of the ACT property. “It has the nature that we want, it has the space that we need, and then it also is going to have that water feature right next to us that will be able to be enjoyed by our families that are there among people in Iowa City.”

The ideal timeline would be to start construction on Mason’s Light House in about a year and a half, with an opening date sometime in 2028, Shanna Sieck said.

Plans for east side of property remain flexible

While the west part of the property is largely spoken for with senior housing, the development team plans to add more housing options on the east side of the property. At this time development plans remain flexible in that area, but the team will look to add additional commercial and residential development.

Long said the project could potentially add a total of 2,500 housing units across the nearly 400 acres.

Conceptual master plan of the former ACT campus in Iowa City. A mix of commercial development and housing is planned for the area. (Courtesy of JNB Iowa City)

The project planners have reserved some land for a potential new elementary school within the Iowa City Community School District. ICCSD has not announced any plans for a new elementary school, nor has the school board formally considered property acquisition in the area.

Amid the construction plans, preserving some of the natural woodland and opening the natural area to the public has emerged as a priority. Long said the team is looking to expand a trail system that already exists on the property.

“The ownership group has embraced sensitive area preservation in their planning and both the city and development team see the existing sensitive features on the campus as an asset for the future neighborhood and larger Iowa City community. Preservation of sensitive features may impact roadway alignment across the nearly 500 acres of property, but interconnectivity of streets and pedestrian ways will remain a prioritized goal, as it is across the entire city,” said Fruin.

Beyond just the trails, every road on the property also will be converted from private to public.

Former ACT campus gets a new life

The development plans come after ACT was bought by a Los Angeles-based investment firm, Nexus Capital Management. The new owner turned the nonprofit into a for-profit company, under the ACT name and brand, along with a new ACT nonprofit headquartered in Iowa City.

ACT, a fixture in Iowa City since its founding in 1959, had been running deficits during the early 2020s, with most of its remaining employees working remotely. ACT has sold or leased most of its former campus.

In 2022, the Iowa City Community School District bought the building at 301 ACT Dr., formerly known as the Tyler Building, for $8.7 million. The district is using the building to house its Center for Innovation and as a space for specialty career and project-based learning.

The Iowa City Community School District bought ACT's Tyler Building, seen in August 2022 at 301 ACT Dr., in Iowa City, for $8.7 million in 2022. (Grace King/The Gazette)

University of Iowa Health Care signed a $12 million, 20-year lease for a former ACT warehouse and office space for its pharmacy services group.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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