Council not going back to GTC bus depot even if it costs $8 million in local funds to build a new one

CEDAR RAPIDS – The flood-damaged Ground Transportation Center bus depot on First Street and Fourth Avenue SE isn't going to be a bus depot again.

The City Council last night decided to move ahead with near-decade-old plans to build a new transit building, called an Intermodal Transportation Center, despite still murky cost projections that, for now, call for local taxpayers to spend $7.8 million in local funds in order to keep an $8.2 million federal grant for the project.

Back in 2002, the city had expected to pay about $2 million in local funds for an $11-million building.

The Intermodal will be built between Fifth and Sixth avenues and Fifth and Sixth streets SE now occupied by and large by Pepsi Americas. It will sit on a diagonal from the site of the new downtown library.

After last night's 5-2 council vote, Brad DeBrower, the city's transit director, said design on the new facility would take place this year and construction would start in 2011. As a result, the city's central bus location will continue in modular buildings in a city parking lot at Second Street and 12th Avenue SE.

Only Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Don Karr opposed building the Intermodal at this time. Both wanted to return the city's bus operation to the Ground Transportation Center, where it had been since 1983 until the June 2008 flood.

Corbett noted, though, that two absent council members, Monica Vernon and Pat Shey, also favored building the Intermodal in what the mayor called “overwhelming support” for the project.

The new building will sit on one block of Pepsi Americas property but will require the city to purchase an additional block and half of Pepsi Americas property, which the city then will hope to sell for redevelopment.

The total price tag is about $8 million to buy Pepsi Americas and pay to relocate them. Apparently, the company plans to move its warehouse and maintenance operation to a site in southwest Cedar Rapids.

In figures reviewed by the council last night, city staff said it might be possible for the city to sell the excess Pepsi Americas property for $2.6 million and to sell the Ground Transportation Center depot space for another $2 million, which would help limit the city's funding gap for the project to $7.8 million.

After last night's vote, DeBrower said the projected $16-million cost for the Intermodal was not out of line with a similarly priced facility in Des Moines, but, nonetheless, he said he thought the city could build the Intermodal for less than $16 million.

Council member Chuck Wieneke noted that the city will have access to funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for “alternative” uses because the city can't reuse the city-owned and flood-damaged Sinclair meatpacking plant. Perhaps, some of the $18 million in those FEMA funds can help close the funding gap on the Intermodal project, Wieneke suggested.

The city first secured a federal grant for the Intermodal in 2002. Initially, it was to be built across from the U.S. Cellular Center but the site has moved a couple times since. Initially, the facility was part transit hub, with a large parking ramp and office space for the Witwer Senior Center and a human services agency. For now, the Intermodal is just transit hub for city buses, neighborhood transit vans and bicycles with some surface parking for cars.

Council member Karr called the project a total waste of federal and city tax dollars.

The previous council opted to move the bus depot from the Ground Transportation Center before the June 2008 flood because the council concluded the center site was a public safety risk because it required buses to back from their parking spots. The old depot also interfered with pedestrian traffic on First Street SE, the council said.

DeBrower said the public safety issues would need a solution if the council opted to move the bus operation back to the Ground Transportation Center.