New Convention Complex parking ramp now on the way

The City Council agreed this week to build a new 500-to-550-space parking ramp across First Avenue East from the Five Seasons Hotel and Convention Complex. The ramp will be connected by skywalk to the hotel and complex.

Mayor Ron Corbett on Wednesday said the city still has a few details to work out on the ramp project. For instance, the city owns most of the land needed for the ramp, but Theatre Cedar Rapids owns a piece of it, he noted.

The council's plan for now is to sell up to $13 million in bond debt to pay for the ramp and a new exterior stairway at The Roosevelt apartments to replace what had been the building's secondary egress - a private parking ramp being demolished to make way for the city's new convention center. For now, the city expects the ramp project to cost about $10 million and The Roosevelt project about $1 million so it may not need less than $13 million in new debt to finance the projects, city officials said this week.

At council member Kris Gulick's suggestion, the council is continuing to look at a financing mechanism to pay off debt on the new parking ramp over more than 20 years so the ramp's operating revenue has a better chance of covering the cost of the debt payments.

Two private parking ramps are being demolished for the convention center project and demolition of the city's First Street Parkade, which was slated for demolition before it was damaged by the June 2008 flood, begins July 5.

Two downtown businessmen, Doug Laird, a Realtor with Skogman Commercial, and Brian Brandt, managing director for the Principal Financial Group, told the council this week that it needed to take steps to improve parking downtown.

The City Council has said it would like to have the new ramp in place when the hotel and the adjacent U.S. Cellular Center arena, both closed for renovation, reopen in the fall of 2012. The new convention center next door is slated to open in early 2013.