Developers target Kingston Village for two housing projects

CEDAR RAPIDS - A push for more housing in the city's center is getting a boost from two building proposals in Kingston Village across the Cedar River from downtown.

The latest of the two proposals at the most visible of the two locations - in the 400 block of First Street SW looking at downtown - comes from Hobart Historic Restoration, which has told city officials it will construct a $9.2-million, six-story building with first-floor retail space, four floors of market-rate apartments and a fifth floor with two penthouse condominiums.

B.J. Hobart, an owner of Hobart Historic Restoration, said Monday that the river views that will come with the new project made adding the top-story penthouses to the project 'too good an opportunity to pass up.”

She said the company hopes to start construction this spring.

The second proposal, called Kingston Lofts, features a four-story building with retail space on the first floor and a mix of 23 market-rate apartments and owner-occupied condominiums on floors two through four in the 200 block of Third Avenue SW. The developer, the Ahmann Companies, has put the project cost at $4.1 million.

The Ahmann project, which was first announced some months ago and is further along in the city's development process, is expected to start construction in April with a completion date in July 2016.

The City Council on Tuesday is slated to approve support for the two Kingston Village projects, both of which are slated to go up on city-owned land that the city acquired in its flood-recovery buyout program.

The City Council also is being asked to provide a 100-percent property-tax break for 10 years for the two projects, an incentive permitted by the city's economic development policy for projects that create more downtown housing.

Hobart Historic Restoration of Cedar Rapids was the only developer to submit a proposal to the city for the 400 block of First Street SW, which includes addresses at 404, 406, 416, 422, 424 and 426 First St. SW and 108 Fifth Ave. SW and 107 and 109 Fourth Ave. SW.

Ahmann Companies' Kingston Lofts project is at 200, 210 and 212 Third Ave. SW.

Ahmann Companies is busy. It is renovating the former Great Furniture Mart Building on First Street SE in downtown; it is building The Fountains mixed-use project at Edgewood Road NE and Blairs Ferry Road NE; it recently built the Geonetric Inc. building in New Bohemia; and has won City Council support for its mixed-used project called The Depot across 12th Avenue SE from the Geonetric Inc. building.

Hobart Historic Restoration agreed last month to buy the century-old Mott Building from Linn County at 42 Seventh Ave. SW on the edge of Kingston Village and plans to renovate it for market-rate apartments and retail space.

In June 2013, the City Council formally named the commercial area across from downtown Kingston Village to acknowledge its history as the town of Kingston before annexation into Cedar Rapids in 1871.

The city has entered into development agreements with a handful of developers who are in the process of renovating flood-damaged commercial buildings in the district in and around and including the historic Louis Sullivan-designed bank at 101 Third Ave. SW.

Developer Fred Timko has transformed the historic bank into a restaurant, has renovated the office tower next door, and has built the Kingston Commons Condominiums next to the historic bank building.