The Chauncey, along with two more well-known Iowa City buildings, went under the hammer at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office auction on Tuesday, and there were no bidders for any of them. That means GreenState Credit Union still owns the Chauncey (404 E College St), Plaza Towers (221 E College St) and Park@201 (201 E Washington St).
The properties had been owned by real estate developer Marc Moen and business associates, until earlier this year. 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. In March, GreenState filed a motion for a summary judgment, which was granted, and the credit union foreclosed on the three properties, along with 118 E College Street, the Ped Mall building that’s been home to FilmScene’s original cinema since 2013, and the parking lot adjacent to the downtown Starbucks (102 E Burlington St).
The minimum bid for the Chauncey, Plaza Towers and Park@201 at Tuesday’s auction was set at $24 million. None of the approximately 30 people gathered outside the Johnson County Jail entered a bid.
The downtown parking lot had originally been scheduled to be included in the Nov. 18 auction, but was withdrawn and will be sold separately. The building at 118 E College Street already has a new owner.
At the beginning of August, FilmScene announced it “partnered with Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City (RSFIC) to purchase the building at 118 E College St, home to its longstanding FilmScene on the Ped Mall venue, supporting its long-term presence in downtown Iowa City.”
RSFIC is an Iowa City-based nonprofit private foundation established in 2022 with a mission of “building long-term, systemic resilience in Iowa City,” as its site explains. In the past, it has assisted organizations such as the Wright House of Fashion and Tamarack Discovery School, purchasing buildings and equipment for them. It’s also worked with FilmScene, commissioning “Stories of Community,” a series of short films focused on resilience.
The Ped Mall building was purchased for $2.3 million, and RSFIC “is providing a mortgage to FilmScene,” according to FilmScene’s news release about the partnership. “FilmScene will have two years to raise the $230,000 down payment.”
“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,” Andrew Sherburne, FilmScene’s co-founder and executive director, told Little Village when the deal was announced. “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.”
FilmScene is the state’s oldest and largest year-round nonprofit cinema, and when he was speaking to Little Village in August, Sherburne said Marc Moen’s support was important in its creation.
“He trusted us,” Sherburne said. “He believed that if he built it, we could find the funding for it. It took 800 enthusiastic supporters pitching in anything from a dollar to $1,000, but thanks to the goodwill of the people of Iowa City, we did it.”
FilmScene opened a much larger second location in the Chauncey in 2019. That location is unaffected by the foreclosure and the auction’s failure to find a new owner for the building, because FilmScene owns the space. The same is true for the other condominium unit owners in the Chauncey and the other foreclosed properties.
