Up and Out

Up+and+Out

From a bird’s eye view, a city is almost like a single, vast organism. Countless arteries, or roads, circulate a continuous supply of people to the towering new apartment buildings on the ped mall. Everything works together to help small businesses grow and to facilitate the development of the local economy.

Business has been great due to the turn out and support from the community. Iowa City has a really active population for art and other media.

Iowa City is currently in the middle of a major transition period. The University of Iowa and the Iowa City community have drawn in new crowds and businesses over the years, increasing the need for expansion. More recently, the addition of massive complexes and office buildings casting their shadows over the community calls to mind a bustling metropolis instead of the quiet college town with which Iowa City’s citizens have previously been familiar.

In order to keep up with the growing downtown area in Iowa City, wealthy real estate investors have increasingly been commissioning the construction of newer, larger buildings. In fall 2017, construction crews finished work on a 12-story Hilton Garden Inn hotel on Clinton Street that boasted a rooftop lounge, a ballroom, and multiple restaurants and bars. Several other high-rises are set to come up within the next few years.

Mark Moen, a prominent Iowa City developer, is constructing one high-rise, the Chauncey, on the corner of Gilbert Street and College Street. Moen has constructed high-rise buildings in Iowa City before, such as the Plaza Towers and the Park@201.

The Chauncey is named after Iowa City founding father Chauncey Swan. The 15-story high rise will be used as a multipurpose building open to use by the public. It will feature a boutique hotel, 14 studio apartments, 50 condominium units, and 40,000 square feet of office space. However, the Chauncey is not just comprised of living quarters and office space. The high rise will also contain several movie theaters containing a total of 225 seats, a 12-lane bowling alley, and a restaurant with a lounge.

The Chauncey, like other large-scale projects, will attract businesses and aim to provide new sources of revenue to the community as a whole.

“It will contribute financially to the tax base in Iowa City and will bring amenities and entertainment downtown which are not currently available,” Moen said of the building. “Property taxes are estimated to initially be in the range of $1.3 million per year.”

Moen believes that the Chauncey, much like the similar Plaza Towers project that his business, the Moen Group, completed a decade before, will become a hub in Iowa City.

“We opened Plaza Towers in 2006. Prior to that, the site on which Plaza Towers was built was a parking lot for over 40 years,” Moen said. “Now it is a hub of Iowa City and over one million people per year come through the building. This type of activity is critical to the survival of downtowns.”

In addition, Moen said, the Chauncey will aim to keep its carbon footprint as small as possible in order to reduce the possible negative environmental impact of an undertaking of that scale.

“We are utilizing geothermal systems for heating and cooling. The building is energy-efficient and we have worked with the Weidt Group on energy-efficiency analysis,” said Moen.

Another way the Chauncey is reducing its environmental impact is by building downtown. The proximity of the site to different, preexisting centers of commerce and other important locations in the area means less need for transportation, and as only a small portion of land will be needed for the property, the city’s infrastructure and the surrounding area will not be disturbed.

“One of the great things about downtown dense development is that the carbon footprint of the building is minimal,” Moen said. “We do not need to build roads or take acres of ground for the building because we are building up.”

The $55-million project is set to open towards the end of next summer, during the August of 2019.

One of the great things about downtown dense development is that the carbon footprint of the building is minimal

— Mark Moen

Another new high-rise that began its construction recently is the Rise, an apartment complex at Riverfront Crossing. The 12-story complex will be located on the previously empty lot at the corner. The building offers high-end off-campus apartments, a club lounge with a media room, a pool, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The building is planned to open sometime during the fall of 2018.

Despite the aforementioned urbanization of the Iowa City community, the city’s expansion is not just limited to the sky. It has also been growing out, as Iowa City continues to develop into a hub for startups and small businesses. In the past few years, several new restaurants, such as Dumpling Darling, Estela’s, Blaze Pizza, The Vue, and Bao Chow, opened.

One of these establishments is Cortado. Calling itself “metropolitan-inspired, fast-paced, [and] European style” on its website, the new cafe opened its doors in January 2017. Like other new businesses in the area, it seeks to fill a perceived space in the community. The cafe, which specializes in non-Americanized coffee drinks, is thriving, according to its owner Yochai Harel.

“Business has been going really good. We are getting more and more longer-term customers. Lots of people come in to try us out and end up coming back,” said Harel. “We have lots of customers that come in every single day, sometimes multiple times. That is my favorite part, just getting to know people and recognizing their face.”

Among the various businesses that have opened recently is the the independent movie theater known as FilmScene. Since the theater opened in 2013, it has become an important place in the movie-watching community. FilmScene will soon be increasing its screen count with several new theaters opening in the Chauncey.

“Business has been great due to the turn out and support from the community,” Joe Tiefentaler, the executive director of FilmScene, said. “Iowa City has a really active population for art and other media.”