Corbett and Fagan sit down with the downtown interests to comment on a new parking ramp, buying a hotel and City Manager Jim Prosser

Downtown property-owners and business owners asked mayoral candidates Ron Corbett and Brian Fagan on Wednesday what each would do to support several key downtown priorities.

Among those priorities: Mayoral backing for a new downtown parking ramp close to the new federal courthouse now under construction; mayoral help for the expansion of the U.S. Cellular Center, the construction of a new convention center next door and the possible purchase of the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel, now in court receivership; mayoral willingness to include downtown owners more in City Hall decisions affecting the downtown.

Each candidate spent 20 minutes apart from the other candidate with the boards of the Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District and the Downtown District.

Each candidate received applause when he finished.

Corbett, vice president of trucking firm CRST Inc., said he would work to find some creative ways to help finance a new parking ramp, but he disagreed with meeting moderator Doug Neumann, head of the Downtown District, that support for a parking ramp had to be an unpopular issue in neighborhoods still waiting for more flood relief.

Corbett, 48, said a good explanation can win support for an issue, and he pointed to his work at president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce in recent years in which the Chamber helped convince local voters to pass a large bond issue for the local schools.

As mayor, Corbett said he certainly would work with the downtown stakeholders, and then he did just that: He wanted to know how unified they were in where they wanted a parking ramp to go.

Neumann asked each candidate if they would be willing to use the clout of mayor to provide City Hall financial backer if a local group of investors or even the city itself moved to buy what has been an ailing Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel.

Corbett said he would look at all the options, but he said he needed to know more before he could say.

Fagan, a local attorney, who spoke after Corbett, said, as mayor, he would back the building of a new parking ramp as he has done as a current council member. He said a creative solution could include the use of city revenue bonds with leases of parking spaces providing an assurance that the bond debt would be paid. He thought some excess funding from the courthouse project itself might help with the ramp.

Fagan, 37, estimated that the city might need to come up with between $10 and $15 million for the U.S. Cellular Center upgrade and for the construction of a new convention center next door even with the already-secured $15 million in state I-JOBS funds and the expected arrival of up to $39 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Fagan said the city “had to meet our obligation” to build a “competitive” convention center.

As for the hotel at the site, Fagan said the having the city take ownership of the property has “always been on the table.” In that regard, the city, perhaps, could take ownership in the short run as part of a transition to a new private owner, he said.

Both Fagan and Corbett made mention that it is important to pay attention to both the neighborhoods and the downtown, and not one over the other.

Tom Aller, president of Alliant Energy's Iowa subsidiary, Interstate Power and Light Co., asked both candidates their views of City Manager Jim Prosser.

Corbett said he didn't know Prosser and had only spoken to him a few times for a short time. Corbett said his campaign was not about the city manager or any single person. He said the city manager works as the City Council's CEO and will be measured based on a set of criteria.

Fagan said he has had disagreements with Prosser, but he said “I'm not going to throw him under the bus” in public over those disagreements. Fagan said the council has reviewed Prosser's performance three or four times based on specific criteria.