The date for some of Iowa City’s best-known downtown buildings to be sold at a sheriff’s auction has been set. In April, GreenState Credit Union foreclosed on four properties owned by real estate developer Marc Moen and business associates. The properties — The Chauncey (404 E College St), Plaza Towers (221 E College St), Park@201 (201 E Washington St) and the parking lot adjacent to the downtown Starbucks (102 E Burlington St) — will be sold by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Other than The Chauncey, the names of the buildings may not be immediately recognizable, but the other two are very familiar to Iowa Citians. Plaza Towers is the 14-story building on the Ped Mall that houses Bread Garden Market on its ground level, and Park@201 is the glass-sided building on the Ped Mall by Black Hawk Mini Park.
GreenState sued Moen and his associates on Feb. 4, claiming they had defaulted on about $28 million in payments on loans made between 2016 and 2023.
“Unfortunately, over a year of efforts to restructure the obligations have proven fruitless, so [GreenState] has been forced to institute this foreclosure action to enforce its mortgage, guaranty, and other rights,” according to a court filing from the credit union.
The judge in the case granted summary judgment in GreenState’s favor on April 16.
Another well-known building that was included in the groups of properties included in the April foreclosure — 118 E College St on the Ped Mall — won’t be sold at the November auction. The building, which dates back to the 1860s, has been home to FilmScene since it first opened its doors in 2013.
When the foreclosure happened in April, FilmScene co-founder and executive director Andrew Sherburne assured the public that neither the Ped Mall location nor FilmScene’s larger, second location in The Chauncey that opened in 2019 were in danger of closing.
“To clarify, FilmScene owns its condominium units at The Chauncey and has lease options for our Ped Mall location through October 2030,” Sherburne posted on the cinema’s social media sites. “This foreclosure does not involve us directly and we do not anticipate any immediate impact on our operations.”
Last month, FilmScene announced it had “partnered with Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City (RSFIC) to purchase the building at 118 E. College St.” RSFIC is a Iowa City-based nonprofit private foundation founded in 2022 with a mission of “building long-term, systemic resilience in Iowa City,” as its site explains.
FilmScene started working on ways to secure the future of its Ped Mall location beyond the end of its lease as soon as GreenState foreclosed on the building, Sherburne told Little Village when the partnership was announced.
“From the beginning we wanted to try to make sure the building was in the hands of someone who cared about Iowa City and cared about FilmScene,” Sherburne said. “In talking with RSFIC, they said our mission aligns with theirs. We share a lot of the same visions for what Iowa City can be, so this was just a wonderful way to come together.”
The Ped Mall building was purchased for $2.3 million, and RSFIC “is providing a mortgage to FilmScene,” according to the news release. “FilmScene will have two years to raise the $230,000 down payment.”
The Nov. 18 auction of the other properties is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Iowa City.
