At its Wednesday meeting, the Iowa City Council Economic Development Committee (EDC) will consider a proposed nine-story apartment building that Tailwind Group wants to construct behind the three Ped Mall buildings that stand between the Graduate and the Wells Fargo building.
Tailwind Group is a property management company based in Mankato, Minnesota, best known locally as the owner of The Quarters at Iowa City, a student housing complex. It owns all three Ped Mall buildings. Tailwind purchased what is being called “the Crescent Block,” which houses Union Bar and Revival, from the Ruth V. Swisher Revocable Trust in 2017 for $2.9 million.
“The project would ensure the historic preservation of all of the buildings facing College Street and the bulk of each of those buildings,” Iowa City Economic Development Coordinator Wendy Ford wrote in a summation of the Tailwind proposal. “Behind the historic buildings, and separated by a walkway, the developer would build a 9-story, 170-unit apartment building (with studios, one and 2 BR units totaling 186 beds) with 2 levels of parking accessible from the alley.”
Tailwind estimates the total cost of the project as $65 million. The company is asking the city for $9 million in tax increment financing (TIF).
Iowa City uses TIF — which grants a developer a rebate of, or exemption from, a percentage of property taxes for a set period of time — as an economic development tool in the Downtown and Riverfront Crossings area, but the Tailwind project does not meet one of the criteria set by the city for such financing.
The city’s TIF policy states “except under extraordinary circumstances, applications seeking TIF should ensure that their projects fall within the Desired Height ranges shown on the Downtown and Riverfront Crossing Master Plan’s building heights diagram.” The desired height range is four to six stories, meaning the Tailwind project is planned to be three stories above the upper limit.
In its proposal, Tailwind states the project should be granted an exemption from the height limit, because it will provide “exceptional public benefits.”
According to Ford’s summation of Tailwind’s proposal, the “developer will designate each of the three [historic Ped Mall] buildings a Local Historic Landmark, thereby ensuring it against demolition.”
The company would also restore some of the building facades to their early 20th century appearance.
The developer is also working with a local arts group to offer new space for them. They plan to offer programmable space, a shop, office, sales counter and restrooms on the third floor of the Crescent Building above what is now the Union Bar. This use would restore the third floor to a public gathering space (it was once a ballroom), and strengthen downtown’s presence as a cultural center.
Along with the exceptional public benefits described above, the project would reactivate the street with tenants who will have active businesses during the day and into the evening. This section of East College Street is relatively quiet during the day due to the years-long vacancy of a big portion of the Dooley Block (the former Field House) and the night-time-only activity associated with the Union Bar. Among other tenants, the developer plans to retain a liquor license and add a full restaurant to the mix.
The company also promised the new building would exceed the city’s energy efficiency requirements in TIF projects.
In addition to the $9 million TIF, Tailwind is seeking “a reduction in required parking [providing 54 spaces instead of the 80 spaces that would normally be required in a 170-unit building] either through the Board of Adjustment because of the unique circumstances surrounding the historic preservation of the buildings or via fee-in-lieu.”
City staff has not yet performed an analysis of the Tailwind proposal, and the Wednesday meeting will be the first time the three members of the EDC — District B Councilmember Susan Mims, at-large Councilmember Rockne Cole and Mayor Jim Throgmorton — have considered the project. Company representatives are supposed to attend the meeting to answer questions from the committee. If the EDC eventually recommends approval of the TIF, the matter would then be taken up by the full city council.
The EDC meets in the city council chamber at Iowa City Hall at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
This is just another scheme to keep rich people rich. We need affordable housing in this town. Instead, the developers are just build boutique place that only wealthy and/or well-off people can afford. Poor and lower middle-class people are being pushed increasingly out of Iowa City altogether. This projet is nothing more thn gnetrification, and the city council needs to come up with alternative that will restore the area and provide affordable housing for lower-income people.
This doesn’t sound like a rich people’s building (ala Chauncey or Plaza Towers) it sounds like student apartments. The article says it will have studio apartments, 1 and 2 bedroom. That doesn’t sound like a boutique building for the wealthy. I’m tired of all the high rises – enough already! – but realize you can’t stop change and progress. Yes it would be nice for the city to come up with affordable housing for lower-income people but as long as we’re dreaming about giving away stuff how about subsidized cars and groceries and maybe everyone gets a free pony too? Who pays for this? We do. No thanks.
Change is one thing, but this change wouldn’t be progress at all. Not sure why you think affordable housing is giving things away for free, how about the 9 million in tax rebates? Now that’s a give-away that the tax payers are eating, I’d rather my tax money go towards helping people who are less fortunate than multi-millionaires and corporations.
Absolutely – me too!
“Affordable housing” means subsidized, I presume. That means someone else is helping to pay for it. I don’t know why you assume I’m in favor of 9 million in tax rebates either. I’m not. Let’s have everyone pay the going rate, just buy, rent or build what they can afford, without getting someone else’s money to help pay for more than that.
No, in this case it isn’t subsidized (at least not by the government). To even get approval, the builder needs to make 10% of the units “affordable” for 10 years. Housing units are required to be affordable to households with an income that does not exceed 60 percent of the area median income, and rent cannot exceed 30 percent of monthly income for those households. If TIF money is involved then the requirement is 15%. The buyout amount to waive the requirements is $80,000 per unit
They applied for TIF that means if approved taxpayers are basically footing the bill for $9 million in taxes on the new property. And have you seen the rent prices of some of these student housing projects? It’s ridiculous. Who gets the free stuff? Sounds like the developers of the project. No thanks. Make them pay the taxes. Tax incentives should be used for small businesses, not giant conglomerates that can afford to pay it.
The property taxes currently shouldered by homeowners in Iowa City are among the highest in the country, and are driving young people and families out of IC into surrounding communities. Meanwhile, developers get huge breaks on what should be their fair share of such taxes, while filling our city with higher and higher buildings and charging ever-higher rents. Enough. This project does not justify the large TIF.
Those sketches submitted to Iowa City Council Economic Development Committee by the developer are deceptive. A 9-story building is going to be taller than what is shown in their drawings. They are fudging the height, probably afraid of public reaction if the true height was portrayed accurately. In the sketch of the 3 store fronts, they neglect to show the 9 story “wall” that will appear behind it.
Council members may wish to ask some university professors what a “DEO” is and what that means for the university’s future before considering more student housing.
We do need more affordable housing downtown, but a sudden dive in demand might not be the way the council wants to go about it….
Because the new building is south of the south facing shops on the Ped Mall the developers should do a daylight study to make sure they don’t make that area of the Ped Mall a cold, dark canyon.
It will – how could it not?
I don’t agree that the changes will provide “exceptional public benefits”. It sounds like a way to stuff a bunch of students into crackerjack boxes. 170 units with only 186 beds that’s only 16 two bedroom units in the whole place. The first two floors are parking so 170 units on the remaining 7 floors, that’s 25units per floor. That’s not meant for families.
You know the children’s story, The Mixed-up Chameleon?
Iowa City should make up its mind about what it wants its downtown to be. If it wants an historic downtown, lets do that. If it wants high rises, let’s do that. Already we have a downtown and surrounding area where historic views are marred by TIF-subsidized “development” projects. I don’t understand how we can have a campaign to preserve and maintain the glory of historic buildings such as the Englert and then surround it by what can only be described as ugly in this context–glass and concrete high rises. I heard a councilwoman once justify the money being spent in downtown as part of what you’d do for your living room since downtown can be considered Iowa City’s living room.
Student housing is important, affordable housing is important; AirB&B apartments are not. Let’s make sure we know what we are subsidizing.
Here’s a novel idea: Everyone should buy, rent or build what they can afford and stop asking to be subsidized, whether it’s housing or high rises.