Event Center: Impact for Downtown
Pursuit of $35 million of federal disaster recovery money for the Event Center in downtown Cedar Rapids has been arduous, and justifiably so. A project of this size and importance demands serious scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s challenging questions since receiving our grant application last April about project details and regional economic impact are many of the same issues taxpayers will want to understand.
Community leaders should be proud to answer those questions and proud of this project. If federal funding can be secured and if surrounding development is properly managed, the Event Center will stand as one of the most important projects in the transformation of post-flood Cedar Rapids, particularly of downtown.
The impact of the project itself has been well documented by the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and Venue Works, the group currently managing the U.S. Cellular Center. I’ll leave that part of the story to them and others. In short, it’s clear that improving the existing arena and freeing it from the scheduling and service conflicts it endures by having to serve as a convention center and exhibition hall will significantly improve its ability to compete in the regional market for concerts and sporting events. It’s just as clear that building new, well-designed convention and exhibition space as an expansion to the U.S. Cellular Center will draw a significant number of new visitors to Cedar Rapids and chalk up impressive economic impact.
The success of the expanded and improved facility will be of utmost interest to the Downtown District. But our primary responsibilities will lie outside its walls. Downtown plans – further validated recently by an Urban Land Institute report – look at the Event Center as an anchor project that can help spur construction of a new downtown hotel, expanded dining and entertainment venues, enhanced streetscape and pedestrian-friendly environments, improvements to existing commercial properties, and eventually development of all the elements necessary to make residential and retail sectors of downtown successful.
One critical decision already has been made by the Five Seasons Facilities Commission and the City Council, and that was keeping this facility downtown. Options to build a new convention center or a new arena outside of downtown were considered. At costs more than twice the current plan, the project would likely have been impossible for local government budgets, plus the economic development benefits would have been considerably diminished.
Nationally, some Event Centers have been economic development disappointments. Because of the land mass needed for these massive structures, new facilities often are built outside the city center and surrounded by surface parking. Facilities like that can be successful in drawing events and strong attendance. But participants don’t spill over to use other aspects of the community, and other investments in businesses and amenities don’t surround the facility. Taxpayers get little add-on benefit to their investment.
We have to look only a few miles away to see a facility done right. Coralville surrounded its convention center with an urban-feeling, pedestrian friendly neighborhood. New investment followed its convention center construction, and people who go to events there can take advantage of that emerging retail/commercial neighborhood.
Cedar Rapids is not trying to mirror the facility in Coralville. While the centers could compete for some events, they are very different facilities, designed to attract different mixes of events. Together, they will have an opportunity to attract far more diverse offerings for the region. In fact, this has been an aspect of the project intensely scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Without confidence that this makes sense for regional economic development and not merely parochial interests, it will not provide funding from its Economic Development Administration grant program. It also should be noted that these funds cannot be used for housing programs, flood mitigation or some of the other critical priorities of disaster recovery, so there’s no conflict related to local initiatives.
If the federal grant is awarded – and community leaders remain optimistic about its prospects – Cedar Rapids will be well on its way to succeeding at a very important component of its flood recovery.
Doug Neumann is president of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District and was integrally involved in the EDA grant process through his related work with the Economic Planning & Redevelopment Corp.
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