116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Work on levee piece of Cedar Rapids riverfront amphitheater project set to start after July 4
May. 17, 2011 10:01 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS - For well over a decade, a changing cast of city leaders, including four mayors, has pushed to build an outdoor amphitheater here along the Cedar River.
The flood of 2008, it turns out, helped to transform long-talked-about plans and pretty drawings into reality - a riverfront amphitheater that is part floodable entertainment venue and a piece of the city's new flood-protection system.
Once Freedom Festival ends on July 4, work on the levee piece of the amphitheater project - which will built on the west bank of the river between the Third Avenue bridge and the Police Department with a view across the river to downtown - will begin in earnest, city officials report.
Doug Carper, the city's flood-recovery construction coordinator, says the first order of business will be to reroute a sanitary sewer line that now runs from May's Island to the west bank of the river so the line runs under the levee and amphitheater at a perpendicular alignment in a way that does not undermine the sturdiness of the new levee. A stormwater line from the Police Department through the levee also will be realigned to meet standards set by the Army Corps of Engineers.
By late July or early August, Carper says dump trucks will begin arriving and earthmoving machines working to create a lawn that gradually slopes up to First Street SW, about 13 higher at its highest point than the street itself.
Carper says engineering plans call for 41,000 cubic yards of dirt to be brought to the site, which is an amount equivalent to that needed to cover a regulation football field with 25 feet of dirt, he estimates. The resulting levee won't provide real flood protection until the rest of the proposed flood-protection system is connected to it.
The levee portion of the project is expected to be complete this fall so construction of the amphitheater portion of the project, the final design of which is still in the works, can take place in 2012.
Gail Loskill, project coordinator for the Cedar Rapids' Parks and Recreation Department, says the amphitheater should be ready for the first local performances by the fall of 2012, though the first national touring acts won't be scheduled until 2013.
The outdoor amphitheater will be built to handle crowds of between 3,000 to 5,000 patrons for the national touring shows, but also will be used for an assortment of other smaller concerts and events, Loskill says. The size, she adds, will make it the largest such venue in Iowa. The Simon Estes Riverfront Amphitheater in downtown Des Moines lists its seating capacity at about 2,000.
Cedar Rapids' amphitheater will feature a permanent stage and a few rows of benches made of stone or concrete. Patrons also will use the lawn for seating. In addition, a walkway will lead to a spot to the south called Festival Park, which will provide parking, areas for vendors and also space for small concerts and events like the city's BBQ Roundup during the Freedom Festival.
The city's feasibility study envisions eight national touring concerts, 14 local “ticketed” events, 14 non-ticketed local events, six other “ticketed events” and 10 private rentals a season. The study estimates that the city will clear $73,000 a year from total operating revenues of about $1 million a year.
In total, the project will cost about $8.25 million, which includes the donation by the city and Linn County of $1.9 million in land for the project. The project has secured two state grants: $1.6 million from the I-JOBS program and $1.075 million in River Enhancement Community Attraction and Tourism funds. In addition, the city is raising $2 million in private donations for the project, a goal nearly complete. Of the $2 million, the Hall-Perrine Foundation contributed $1 million, AEGON USA and Rockwell Collins, $225,000 each, Alliant Energy, $180,000 in in-kind services, and CRST, $100,000. The city also will contribute another $1.675 million to the project budget and Linn County, $10,000.
Loskill says the amphitheater if finally being built for one central reason: The community wants it built. Surveys of the public before and after the flood list the amphitheater as a priority, and the city's master parks and recreation plan now lists it as the plan's number one priority, she says.
“So we feel it is a demonstrated community need,” Loskill says.
We Can Do Better CR, which evoked Tea Party sentiments in its recent vocal opposition to the effort to pass an extension of the city's local-option sales tax to provide funds for flood protection, isn't thrilled about the amphitheater.
Tim Pugh, the group's founder, says the amphitheater is “yet another example” of downtown revitalization and the city's unsuccessful River Run redevelopment project of a decade ago being labeled as “flood protection.”
“The city has put forth every effort to continue to push through failed plans of the past,” says Pugh. “ … Cedar Rapids needs to focus on the reality and the necessities of the community and not the desires of a select few big money special interests.”
Doug Neumann, president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, says a riverfront amphitheater is a core component of the Downtown Vision Plan of 2007, a plan that addresses essentials, not extravagances, he says.
“I don't view anything in that plan as an extravagance,” he says. “The fact that the amphitheater envisioned pre-flood was able to be designed as a flood levee in addition to its purpose as a quality-of-life attraction makes it an even greater asset for the community.
“The essential nature of the project is supported by the incredible philanthropic support that it has gotten.”