Sinclair site will bring city an estimated $16 million for use on other projects; FEMA is paying an estimated $10 million or more to demolish it, too

CEDAR RAPIDS - What had been largely an empty, city-owned eyesore of a former meatpacking plant before the June 2008 flood will bring the city an estimated $16 million for some other use, the City Council learned on Thursday.

The money will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for use on an “alternative” project or projects once FEMA spends what could be another $10 million or more to demolish most of the more than 25 flood-damaged buildings on the site, some of which also are fire-damaged.

The city purchased the property in 2006 for $4 million from Central States Warehousing, collected rent from a small group of tenants in parts of the sprawling complex and wondered how it would ever find money to demolish the property one day.

Then the flood hit.

Todd Dolphin, FEMA's Public Assistance Group branch director in Iowa, told the City Council at a luncheon meeting Thursday that FEMA viewed the Sinclair site as a 625,000-square-foot warehouse, made of brick and in use, when it calculated the damages and the dollar figure for use as an alternative project.

“We owe you what you have,” Dolphin said.

FEMA put the value of the plant at $21 million, but FEMA pays only 81 percent of value for an alternative project minus money the city received from some insurance.

After adjustments, Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, estimated Thursday that the city would get about $16 million.

This is just the start. Eyerly has estimated that the city will get millions more from other flood-damaged facilities that won't be rebuilt. Those include the hydroelectric plant at the base of the 5-in-1 Dam, the city's animal shelter, the First Street SE parking ramp, the city's forestry-operation buildings near Czech Village, the Time Check Recreation Center, the former Quality Chef buildings on Third Street SE in New Bohemia and nine historically insignificant buildings in Ushers Ferry Historical Village.

It will be up to the City Council to decide just what it wants to do with the alternative-project money, a matter that Eyerly said the council will take up at its May 4 meeting.

At the Thursday session, Mayor Ron Corbett asked about the possibility of using funds that will come from the Sinclair site as the city's required $17-million local match for the proposed new Event Center convention facility and the upgrade of the U.S. Cellular Center. The total project cost is $67 million.

After the meeting, Corbett said it was unclear if the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, which is expected to award the city a $35-million grant in the near future for the Event Center project, would allow FEMA funds from the Sinclair site to count as a local match.

Corbett also mentioned the $4-million open-air amphitheater, which is proposed along the downtown riverfront on the west side of the Cedar River, as another possible project to be funded from alternative-project funding.

Another he mentioned was the proposed $60-million community center and recreation center called the Multigenerational Community Life Center.

In recent weeks, other possible alternative-funding projects that have been mentioned are a couple of wind turbines for the city's northwest Cedar Rapids water plant; support for a year-round farmers market in New Bohemia; and the construction of a new reception center and meeting place at Ushers Ferry Historic Village.

At Thursday's meeting, FEMA's Dolphin did encourage the city to get moving to identify uses for the alternative project funds.

Later Thursday, Corbett said FEMA said it might be possible for the council to hold funds for up to four years before using them on a project it identifies.