New Bo plans on move for Iowa Irons Works site

By Rick Smith, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS Yet more progress is taking shape in the New Bohemia arts and entertainment district.

The City Councils Development Committee this week backed a plan to seek proposals from developers who will buy and develop the vacant, city-owned site of the former Iowa Iron Works plant on the west side of the 400 block of 12th Avenue SE.

Caleb Mason, the citys redevelopment analyst, told the three-member council committee that several developers have expressed interest in the property.

Those include local developer Joe Ahmann, who is the developer on the new three-story brick office building now under construction across 12th Avenue SE from the Iowa Iron Works site. The new building, which be the new home of Geonetric Inc., a growing local health care software and services company, once was the site of the Iowa Steel plant.

The city acquired both the Iowa Steel and Iowa Iron Works properties more than a decade ago, and with the help of federal and state brownfield money, demolished both plants, cleaned up the sites and readied them for redevelopment.

The council committee, which is chaired by council member Monica Vernon, agreed with Mason that the city should seek proposals for a master plan to develop the entire 4.83-acre Iowa Iron Works parcel that sits between 10th and 12th avenues SE behind the New Bo City Market.

Mason said development proposals in New Bohemia must abide by the special design standards in place in the district, which call for buildings to be built close to the street with parking in the rear. The city also will be looking for a mixed-used plan that includes market-rate housing, Mason said.

Vernon said she wouldnt mind seeing another multistory brick building as part of any development that would mirror the new brick Geonetric office building going up across the street.

Dream big, she said the city needed to tell developers.

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New Bo plans on move for Iowa Irons Works site