HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-11-26 TranscriptionNovember 26, 2012 Iowa City City Council Special Work Session Page I
Council Present: Champion, Dickens, Dobyns, Hayek, Mims, Throgmorton
Council Absent: Payne (due to conflict)
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Yapp, Davidson, Karr, Long, Fosse
PRESENTATIONS:
Hayek/ Okay. Let's, uh, let's get started. I want to welcome, uh, all of you in the audience to
what I think will be an exciting work session. For those of you, uh, in the TV audience,
uh, this is a live, uh, work session being conducted by the City Council, with the help of
City staff, to consider, um, five interesting proposals for the vacant, uh, land at the corner
of Gilbert and College in downtown Iowa City. Um, at tonight's work session, uh, the
Council and staff will be hearing from the five developers and their... and their respective
teams, um, with uh ... with presentations to be followed by, uh, some Q &A, uh, to the
extent the Council, uh, has questions, uh, for ... for each of the applications. Um, what
we're going to do is ... is turn, uh, turn this over to John Yapp and Jeff Davidson from
City staff. They will serve as the MC's of the event, if you will, uh, and they will do
some, uh, provide some preparatory remarks and ... and get us going. Um, the only
housekeeping item I want to, uh, announce is that we have a lot of people in the room
here, um, and we just need the door, uh, to be as clear of people as possible for, uh, fire
escape purposes, should that become, uh, necessary, and let's hope that it doesn't! Uh,
but I want to thank you in advance for that. I want to thank all of you for your time and
for the efforts you've put into this process thus far. The materials we have, uh, for our
consideration, uh, are impressive and comprehensive, um, and I'm excited, and I know I
speak for the rest of the Council, we're excited to, uh, consider these proposals and um,
we know that at the end of the day, uh, whichever direction we take will benefit, uh, the
community as a whole. So with that, Jeff and John.
Davidson/ Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council, I'm Jeff Davidson, the Director
of Planning and Community Development. To my left is John Yapp who in addition to
his duties as the Director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, uh, for Johnson
County has been managing this process for the City. Uh, John and I are going to keep
our remarks very brief, uh, we're all here to hear the presentations this evening, uh, an
eagerly awaited evening and ... and we're happy that it's here. Uh, this ...this, uh, project
came out of a decision that came from the completion of a space needs study by the entire
City of Iowa City organization, and a determination that the property that we own at the
corner of College Street and Gilbert, uh, Streets were ... was in excess of what we were
going to require for our long -term needs at the City of Iowa City, and uh, the City
Council Economic Development Committee then made a determination to, uh, go forth
with an RFP. Uh, that RFP process was very fruitful. We received nine, uh, proposals,
and I do want to thank all of the proposers, uh, for their proposals. The five that we have
here this evening, as well as the other four. There's certain amount of time and expense
that goes into preparing those, and we really appreciate that. We considered a resounding
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endorsement of downtown Iowa City that we received nine proposals, uh, that's an
extraordinary number and we're, uh, it's with a lot of anticipation that we are going to
hear the presentations this evening. Um, John is going to step through quickly the
process basically what part this evening is of a longer process that will get us to the City
Council meeting on December 18. Uh, we're still having some internal discussions as
recently as this afternoon. We would like to get you some additional financial
information, uh, for your consideration on the, uh, 18th about all of the proposals and we
had some discussions with the National Development Council this, uh, this afternoon and
so we're ... we don't know exactly how ... how we'll do that. We'll let you know before
then, but we do hope to, in addition to the information you receive this evening, the
public comment that you receive, also give you a little bit of financial, uh, information
about the five proposals. So ... with that, John?
Yapp/ Thank you, Jeff. Uh, John Yapp with the Planning Department. Uh, last week before
Thanksgiving we placed all five of these proposals on the City's web site with an email
for public comment. Uh, and public comments have been coming in, and some are in
your, uh, formal Council agenda, uh, which you received last week. Tonight is meant to
be ... uh, the developers presenting their projects to you as Council. Uh, also carry it on
the City Channel. Uh, we are live tonight. Uh, and then we have on your December 4th
agenda, we'll have an ... an agenda item for people to give public comment verbally to
Council. Uh, in addition we'll continue to collect, uh, additional public comments via
email. Uh, we selected the five ... the order of the five projects tonight randomly. Uh,
they are not in any ranked order. Uh, and the first team to present to you tonight is
Sherman Associates. Uh, we will have ... we have asked for a 20- minute presentation. I
will be monitoring, uh, the time. Uh, and with that would like to invite up Sherman
Associates.
Sherman Associates — Option #1:
Sherman/ Thank you, Mayor and City Council Members. I'm George Sherman with Sherman
Associates, and with me tonight is David Graham with Elness, Swenson, and Graham,
along with our, uh, Jackie Nickolaus with our, out of our Des Moines' office and Will
Anderson. We're very excited, uh, to be here tonight. Uh, you've gotten five fabulous
proposals, and I think it's indicative of the interest that people have in Iowa City and the
economic via ... uh, viability of downtown Iowa City. Um ... you know ... it is a unique
site, um, and that's why I think you have so many (away from mic) proposals. It... it, um,
the site allows for a lot of opportunity (noises in background) potential of New Pioneer
and Co -op, housing, and some additional office space needs for downtown, um, Iowa
City. I... in our, order of our review we're going to talk a little bit about the site, about
our team qualifications, (mumbled) design and financial components (noises on mic).
...the opportunity, uh, the site is, um, (noises on mic) downtown Iowa City. It offers a lot
of interest, both for retail, for commercial, and for housing. It's proximity to the
employment centers, to the University of Iowa (away from mic) Uh, it is one of the
reasons I think you have such strong proposals here is that you have strong stakeholders,
uh, both when the City, uh, steps forward with a proposal like this that they're interested
in seeing a ... a good proposal at the high ... at the highest and best use for this site, it
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encourages developers to put their proposals out and to show what they can offer. Uh,
you have a strong private developers. You have a potential, uh, for a very strong
commercial user. And then community benefit as you heard is ... is significant. You have
an opportunity to provide quality housing, uh, housing that may not be in downtown Iowa
City right now as in the form of market -rate and uh, workforce housing. You have the
opportunity of providing strong commercial and office space. Uh, we ... it is clear in Iowa
City that there is a strong, uh, demand for student housing, but I think there's an ... an
even stronger demand for non - student housing in downtown Iowa City that's both
affordable to the workforce and, uh, at market rate. And I also think it gives you the
opportunity of really having a polar development here, something that anchors the City
Hall and anchors the City. Um, you have, uh, our team resume in front of you, and I
think there's been information provided in the past. I think we are proud of what we've
accomplished over the last 35 years in development. Sherman Associates was formed in
1978, um, in that period of time we've completed about $2.5 billion of... of urban
redevelopment. Our specialty is urban sites, such as what you have here tonight. Uh, we
are ... have developed in Minnesota, Iowa, uh, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and
Colorado. In that period of time we've completed, uh, as I said almost $2.5 billion over
150 different developments, predominantly multi - family housing (mumbled) urban
development. Um, we are ... I am the owner of Sherman Associates and we continue to
own our properties (away from mic) not the ... we are not merchant builders. We don't
come today and say, uh, goodbye in two years. The same properties I developed 35 years
ago I continue to own. We have strong reputations in this ... in every city we work with,
because we don't disappear overnight. We stay with our projects; we make sure they are
economically viable. In that ... since 1978 I think we've gone through three different
recessions and I have a, you know, I follow through on all the projects with every city
and in every community. Um, in that ... we've developed in that period of time some
8,500 multi-fain ... family housing units. Some 600 square feet of commercial (away
from mic). We have a very strong organizational staff (noises in background)
relationships with our cities. We form strong partnerships. Cities ask us to come back
after our first project because we ... we listen; we understand what the community needs.
We have a strong, uh, background assembling complex financing. There's a number of
articles in the handout to you about our... our reputation being able to put financial
packages together that have all mixed use (away from mic). ...spent a lot of time on
(coughing, unable to hear) quality. It's important... you... you only get a chance to do it
once right, and you have to spend that time (noises in background) put in the right design,
build quality construction, and again, I think that's why when you listen ... talk to cities
that worked with us for 35 years, they'll say our projects lead the way. And we want
(coughing, unable to hear) community impact. Uh, why we have some, over 100
different projects we've completed. Wanted to show you a few that have mixed use,
urban impacts to them. Urn ... and these are projects that have been completed (away
from mic) that we have developed, financed ... have as I said different mixed -use
components. (noises in background) ...condominium overlooks a key park in downtown
Minneapolis on the river. Uh, the first floor is a clinic space run by the University of
Minnesota. The upper floors are condominiums that, um (away from mic) $400,000 to
$2 million in price. You know, we spend a lot of time on integrity of the building on
both the exterior and on the interior finished. This is not, you know, don't, uh, chintzy
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out on the development because we, as I said — we stand behind it for years. Downtown
Des Moines has been a significant investment of our company, uh, over the last, uh, 12
years we've developed about, uh, about 400 units in downtown Des Moines. Um, both
for sale and market -rate rental, and workforce rental. Uh, we had a significant impact on
the redevelopment of the downtown riverfront in Des Moines, and are now, uh, starting
our, what would be our next 300 units this summer, in what was an industrial, uh, steel
mill area (sirens, coughing). Uh, Midtown Exchange is one of the, uh, won the National,
uh, Historic Preservation Award in, uh, 2004 for ... and represents about a 1,000,006
square feet. Sherman Associates did the housing of the project. The significant
component of it is that this is housing over a grocery store component and it... it shows
the viability of...having mixed use. Has both office in it; has housing and has, uh, a
grocery component on the first floor. Uh, we develop in numerous towns around the
Midwest. I think you, um, what you will see at all... in all of our efforts is that we really
try to listen to the city and make sure our ... our developments fit in. Uh, we redeveloped
the historic Duluth Hotel on the left -hand side into housing and we built a new hotel with
condominiums on the right -hand side, and booked in what is now the east end of
downtown, uh, Duluth. It has, um, in the city's eyes completely revitalized the east end
of Duluth. That repr ... that investment of ours represents over $75 million of capital. Uh,
Riverside Plaza is the .... one of the largest housing complexes in the U.S. Uh, we
completed ... we put it in here simply to indicate that we ... this project represents over
$165 million of financing, about 15 different sources of financing. Um, and represents
housing for about 4,000 people. Uh, it also won a National Historic Preservation Award.
Um, the Sherman Associates' team, um, has, as I said, have ... has developed over 8,500
units, but 6,000 of those are in ... are, uh, rental units in mixed -use projects. The last 12
months we've completed 1,100 units that valued over $200 million, and we have
(coughing, unable to hear) for development representing about $100 million. (away from
mic) financing, um ... I have been able ... because of our ability to stay with the projects,
and our financial ability, we've had the same strong banking relationships for over 35
years and I think that (noises in background) testament to the fact that we don't give our
projects back to banks. We stick with `em. We complete what we promised to the cities.
Uh, we have the financial ability to deliver on this project. I'm going to introduce David
Graham to talk about the architectural (noises on mic)
Graham/ Good evening. I've worked with George for over 20 years and it's very exciting to be
here and the level of, uh, presentations are astounding so it's great to be here. I just want
to say a few words about our firm. Uh, we won the American Institute of Architect's
Award for innovation in urban design and residential mixed -use so this is a real passion
of ours. This particular project type, so thank you, uh, for setting this up. We have a
national practice. I have about 55 people and again, specific expertise in urban
residential mixed -use redevelopment, hospitality, and most importantly city building
which is really what this is all about. Uh ... I've been at this for 35 years but we've
developed over 40,000 units over that time, both in terms of residential and hotels, and
we're currently constantly looking at upgrading and looking at trends that are today and
that will last into the future, so it's a real major part of our practice, and as George said, a
passion for quality and this particular type of project in parti ... in particular, I wanted to
show you some examples. George showed you the Zenith, but hopefully you'll see in
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these three or four projects that we really deliver these kinds of projects on real sites that
really get built. So the Zenith Condominiums, uh, George talked about the program but
what's more important or as important is the public realm. This building shapes Gold
Medal Park. So it's got many similarities to your project, where the building is part of a
much larger public realm of building places for people and ... and park -line settings, um,
and ... and also, uh, contemporary architecture. 301 Kenwood, again, redundant, but this
is a ... I call it a boutique, mid -rise, contemporary designed building; concrete
construction, uh, we think creative use of glass, masonry, uh, and materials and again, as
importantly, it's adjacent to the Walker Sculpture Garden, uh, in Minneapolis and is
really about creating this public realm, so it's more than just an object building on a site.
The Edgewater, this is actually, uh, limestone from Iowa. We specifically picked a
limestone so this is a.. over a 100 -year building, high - quality stone, zinc, copper, uh, it's
got a green roof, so we really explored some things, uh, while doing private sector
housing. This building also shapes a public sculpture park and overlooks Lake Calhoun,
so again, architecture, public realm, creating public benefit is very important. Excellcion
Grand, I only show you this because we really do successful urban, uh, vertical mixed
use. This has a Trader Joe's, restaurants, 350 market -rate apartments, and 300
condominiums, all using I suppose you'd say `new urban principles' but trying to do
contemporary architecture. So we really have good experience in mixing these types of
uses. Lastly, this is a project that's about to break ground in Minneapolis. It's, again, a
classic tower over podium, uh, high -rise, high ... high quality, uh, the podium will contain
restaurants, office on two levels, and then a 35 -story tower with a, a large roof terrace.
So, again, the purpose in showing you these is we actually are doing these kinds of
buildings and getting them built. Other people on our team will be (coughing, unable to
hear) landscape architects who are local to work on the public realm and the streetscape.
The (mumbled) group we've worked with, uh, to do energy auditing and Excel Energy
look at the lead. General contractor, we're proposing to work with you to, uh, come up
with who we think is the best local construction company to ... to build the project. Um,
this might be death by PowerPoint but what's... what's near and dear to us is creating
high - quality public realm streetscape, landscape improvements at Gilbert, College,
Chauncey Park, to create a truly vibrant public realm. Innovative contemporary mixed -
use architecture to build on and strengthen the existing Iowa City urban fabric and
vitality. Transparent and active commercial uses along Gilbert, College, Chauncey Park
to enhance the public realm experience and to build the park as even a more long lasting
place for the Farmers Market, and what's really important is classic city building
architectural design principles, an 11 -story point tower that's actually set back from the
base to allow a two -story podium which relates to the lower street level scale and fabric.
North -south orientation of the tower which. allows solar penetration into the terrace and
also into the park. Innovative dwelling unit design to meet the needs of a full - spectrum
of user groups, and we know that we're going to look at a whole variety of different
users, so we want to make sure that we get that right. Utilizing the existing parking
resources is very important, and we would look to do, uh, sustainable building practices
and a full LEED certification, the exact level of which, uh, will be determined. So
working from the ground up, the images that you see on the right are projects that we've
done, again I can't stress enough the quality of the public realm on east College, south
Gilbert, and overlooking the park, uh, creating a covered arcade from the ramp, uh, into
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the commercial, uh, a dining and sitting area overlooking the park — these are all urban
design opportunities, um, that, um, are ... are very much a part of this project for us.
Boutique office, um, coming up with a transparent, uh, flexible office space is very
important. The slides on the right is a project that we just completed in a very similar
neighborhood to you. It's for the Amer ... American Academy of Neurology, where we
stacked office over street -front commercial to create a very lively work place
environment that helps energize the neighborhood. What we have found in our mid -rise
and high -rise residential is the roof terrace is a hugely important component. It's the
outdoor room, uh, cause the units are getting a little bit smaller. They live big but they're
more efficient. They have large windows but people tend to want to go to a community
space outside the unit so the terrace, and into the city itself — outdoor dining, some water
features, green spaces, and other types of communal spaces are very important on ... on
this roof terrace level. And then the dwelling units themselves, again, uh, the units are
tending to be a little bit smaller but taller ceilings, lots of glass, a high level of fit and
finish is very important in the work that we've been doing. Which brings us back to the
building itself. Um, we'd really like the opportunity to actually design the building with
you. This is a design competition but it's really important to understand that there's key
principles that as we get into this, things may change or be modified so hope that we've
communicated that. A building that has a base that has energy, the tower sets back from
the street, and really most importantly creates streetscape — a public realm on Gilbert and
College that really enhances the livability of the city. So that's a quick overview of the
design, given the time we've got, and George, I'm going to ask you to ... step back.
Sherman/ We're going to talk briefly about financing. Um, you'll probably hear tonight from the
developers that everybody could use about an hour to go through their proposal and not
just the 20 minutes, so we are rushing through parts of it right now. Uh, David, you
know mentioned architecture. Our users, uh, clearly are in the use of the building. I want
to emphasize we have submitted a letter with New Pioneer to be the first floor tenant, uh,
of the project. I understand about four other ... four of the five developers, uh,
consummate that, reviewed the site plan, and they lay out with New Pioneer for this
particular use. Our proposal shows a second -floor office, uh, we are, uh, under, you
know, discussions with users, but has... mentioned to the City that this, uh, would initially
be targeted for conversations with whether the City needed additional office space on this
particular block. Uh, we understand the City's not in a position to commit to that, but as
we move forward on discussions we want to make sure that, uh, that conversation occurs.
Uh, our housing as I wanted ... as we mentioned, is...
Dobyns/ Excuse me, can you move the microphone a little bit closer (both talking)
Sherman/ I'm sorry! I apologize... you could hear most of that? Um, the housing, why we've
used in our proposal the word `workforce' — it is not a subsidized housing. It is meant to
be affordable to people with the ... the downtown jobs that you have. We price these, our
rents at about $1.50 a square foot. Uh, it is, uh, targeted not to be student housing, uh,
but it is targeted to, uh, be affordable to people working downtown at the University of
Iowa, at the medic ... at the hospitals, in the City Hall, and throughout the downtown
workforce. Um, that's our particular expertise. We think the market for that is
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particularly strong. Um, the ... we've prepared a preliminary source and use. We've not
had conversations with the City about what sources of funds are available for... from the
City, so this needs to be looked at. It's very preliminary. I ... I think the City may, staff
may in fact follow up with questions more on the financing. We have completed uh,
numerous projects above $50 million, so we have the, you know, the reason I showed you
the one particular project at $165 million is to let you know that we have the financing
and ability to do projects of that size. Uh, the acquisi ... the source, the uses of funds here
are predominantly construction. Hard construction costs. We are estimating construction
costs of about $170 a square foot for a class -A building. Um, that ... that includes both the
underground parking and the aboveground, uh, space. So this is a building that is not
going to be, uh, cheapened down. It's a building that's going to be high quality. Uh, we
have two levels of underground parking in our program. One level of, uh, commercial
first floor, um, grocery store. One level of office, and uh, then 10 levels, or, excuse me,
11 levels of housing. Interim costs and soft costs include financing, uh, include
architectural fees and financing fees and rent -up reserves. We've not identified all the
different sources of financing that after available. First mortgage identified here as
simply that amount that is supported by the apart ... apartments themselves. Owner equity
of over $6 million. We've discussed, uh, the grocery store wants to buy their space, so
there's been a discussion about a potential purchase price where they would own their
condominium. Uh, the office space would be financed separately, probably by a first
mortgage. We've identified some other sources of funds that are ... that we have used in,
uh, in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, um, Davenport, and Des Moines. Uh, I think those are
open for, uh, conversations, but we wanted to be able to show you that we can put
together a package on a preliminary basis, but it will need, uh, additional work as we go
through it. (several speaking away from mic) (laughter and several talking) Um, boy,
I ... I, so at this point...
Hayek/ If you want to wrap up your remarks, if you're in midstream, you... go ahead and do that.
Sherman/ Well we are, uh, excited about being here tonight. We believe we put together a
quality architectural project, one that can get financed, one that can get built, and one that
could be our key building for downtown Iowa, um, Iowa City. I think our experience
goes a long way, um, we get these projects done, so it is (mumbled) we have in my
knowledge not walked away from a project that we've undertaken with any city in Iowa,
any city in the Midwest, any city! We finish what we tell you. We work with the cities.
We understand that there may be issues that come up. There always are under
development but we have the ... the principles is here tonight, uh, that's me to tell you that
we, uh, we listen and we get through the project (mumbled). Thank you very much.
Hayek/ Thank you! To both of you. Um, are there questions from the City Council?
Throgmorton/ I'd be happy to start. Uh, I wonder if you could describe your vision for
downtown Iowa City, and how your building, uh, your proposed building would fit in to
that?
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Sherman/ Our vision for downtown Iowa City is that this is a urban environment that should be,
uh, alive, awake, and you know, 7 -days a week that has amenities for all the residents
downtown, and becomes a source and attraction to attract other res ... residents, not just
students, uh, which are very important, but residents from, uh, throughout the area to
think about Iowa City as a place to live and work, and uh, get their necessary, um, basic
necessities. We built a lot of downtown urban environment and it becomes a ... if it's
successful it becomes a place of energy, it becomes a place of um ... of lifestyles.
Becomes a place that promotes other development around it. Um, Iowa City is a
fabulous city. It's one of the, um, you know, engines that is driving Iowa itself in the
Midwest, but I think we ... it is missing what I think is an opportunity to ... to provide more
housing for the ... for, uh, the general workforce in Iowa City and from the suburbs
around. But I think it's about energy, it's about offering, um, you know, a high- quality
architecture component, that it will, uh, attract other people and attract other development
around it.
Graham/ I think it's got a very unique, uh, fabric and character of active streets in den, you
know, high density and with the campus, and uh, along College Street to continue that
connectivity back to campus, drawing people down the streets, the public realm, and then
the strategy for this building, I might say, that ... that the height of the building is a little
bit shocking. It wasn't that long ago that nobody wanted tall buildings. I've seen the
whole thing reverse in the las ... maybe it was the recession but I think it's very ... you
have to be careful to put a tall building in this environment. You have to do streetscape
and a podium that relates to the context and the fabric of the city, while also energizing
with additional density. If that answers your question.
Throgmorton/ It helps! I understand the language.
Sherman/ It's about vibrancy for all ages in ... in Iowa City.
Champion/ You talked about mixed, oh I'm sorry (noise on mic) Mixed use, uh, which I agree,
and you kept saying small apartments. What is small mean? Not that it would really
make a difference but I'm just curious — what do you mean by small?
Graham/ Well, in terms of...
Champion/ 500 square feet? 800 square feet?
Graham/ Yeah, um, our average gross square feet per unit is about 1,000.
Champion/ Okay, so it's ... okay.
Graham/ ...which nets out at just under 900, and that's ... we could talk with you about that...
Champion/ No, I was just curious!
Graham/ That's about it. And that ... that's trending on what we're seeing.
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Sherman/ I think, I mean, apartments will range anywhere from, you know, 600 to 1,400, 1,500
but it's ... what a lot of people, what developers are working on is making sure that there
are higher amenities in the units right now (away from mic) the type of kitchen, uh, with
granite counter tops, better cabinets, uh, the fact that, you know, people need maybe work
spaces or desk spaces in their units so that they can, you know, not just work at work but
you know have some space to, um, have a study at home. Um, but it's about quality, the
finishes, uh, that make the spaces a little bit more, uh, you know, they're not ... these are
not 500 square foot units, but they're averaging about 900 but you can offer a lot.
Upgrading the amenities within that space, and offering good common area amenities —
workout rooms, uh, places for people to gather, uh, you know, outdoor spaces, as we
mentioned.
Hayek/ Um, the ... your, uh, you've proposed two options to the City and one of them contains an
office component, um ... above the first floor grocery, um, and as I understand it, your...
that option with ... with the office component would ... would require the City to, uh,
purchase that, uh, that space...
Sherman/ It would not require the City to purchase it. It would require us to either finance it if
the City were interested, the City to purchase us, or us to find a third party to lease it.
Hayek/ Okay.
Sherman/ There are several options there, but it does not necessarily involve the City having to
purchase.
Hayek/ But it ... I ... my...
Sherman/ Right, we did offer two options and we...
Hayek/ Okay!
Sherman/ ...you know we offered ... uh, and we wanted to make sure that it was out there that we
were prepared to move ahead with an office component if, um, but we wanted to prove
up that market as ... as we went forward.
Hayek/ Well, and give me your sense of that market. I mean, um .... do you think there is a
demand for ... for off... commercial office, uh, do ... do you think this site is ... is a viable
one for ... for office space? What informed your thinking in terms of office as it relates to
this proposal?
Sherman/ You know, I think generally speaking office is, uh, tending to be the weakest of the
... of the markets for, uh, con... for development out there. Housing clearly is leading the
way. Retail is doing very strong. Medical use is also very strong. Medical components.
Uh, the ... we are doing office and we are doing office for specialty users, um, but it's... it
basically is not the type of thing that people tend to do spec. Uh, if you build spec office
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it will probably stay spec for a long -term. So our, um, the ... there, the university market
is perhaps one of the strongest, and I'm not talking about just Iowa City. I'm talking
about almost every university market in the U.S. does have need for office uses, other
than just um, you know, government. You have spin -offs from the University. You have
business, or departments that want to go on their own, or professors that are starting up
start-up businesses. I think our ... this location does offer proximity to the campus, but it
also offers, uh, ample parking with the City parking ramp. Um, I think there are strong
reasons to believe it will get done, um, and it can get done, but I think we will want to
make sure that of all the components that that's the one that's tested out the most.
Seriously. Um, the Co -op obviously knows their business. They want to be there. The
housing is very pro ... is well known. Is proven in these markets, and I think we are very
comfortable with the housing component. We want to be able to prove up the office
component. But we are positive about it.
Dobyns/ (mumbled) Minnesota currently the smallest city that you have a development in
(mumbled)
Sherman/ Um ... I'm guessing it would be on the smaller side (both talking)
Dobyns/ My ... my question is it seems like Iowa City is the ... at or the smallest community in
population that you (both talking)
Sherman/ We're doing a development right now in Davenport. We finished up Cedar Rapids,
Waterloo... we're doing ... I ... we're doing a project in Independence, Missouri. That's
certainly smaller than Iowa City. Um ... I, you know, urn ... I could go through our list but
there's probably cities smaller than (both talking)
Dobyns/ No, that's fine. Just get a sense of the experience and the range of municipalities
you've worked in, so...
Sherman/ (mumbled) I've done work in suburbs that were much... in suburbs that are much
smaller than Iowa City, but I ... you're ... you're not a small city!
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd like to follow -up on my opening question. Um, I ... I completely agree with
what you said about the importance of high - quality physical design, especially for a more
dense urban environment like we are tending toward now. Uh, but what I wonder about
is, uh, how you think your building, uh, might enhance the, our city's sense of place,
whether it's appropriate to the scale of, uh, our architecture in the city, uh, and then... as
a tangent from that, uh, I personally am extremely interested in, um, high - efficiency,
high- energy efficiently design and other aspects of sustainability, which you alluded to in
your opening comments, but I'm wondering if you could elaborate on what you think
could reasonably be done with regard to this building. But the first question has to do
with scale, sense of place.
Graham/ I think there's, uh, a strategy wherein, uh, you can place a taller building into a pre-
existing context and I ... the strategy here is to do this two -story commercial base, which
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has a very definite cornice line and everything is stepped back so that you never see the
tower itself hitting the sidewalk. It's always set back and so if it's successful, the
pedestrian sees that urban vitality of the streetscape, and only when they look up will they
see the tall building. That said, I ... personally am ... I am a little, um, surprised at the
height of some of the other entrants and the desire perhaps I'm perceiving on the City's
part to do that, is it has to be done very well, or it can ... it can be a sore thumb, but I think
if...if you create ... the base piece, the two -story with a cornice line, set the tower back,
our footprint is about 12,000 square feet. It's a point tower. It can do both. Um ... but
it's all in the architecture and the streetscape. Um ... the, as far as the energy, we haven't
specified hardware, solar panels, uh, fans, whatever, but we will definitely be going for a
LEED- certified building. Tally up the points — whether it's silver, gold or platinum — I
can't tell you but for sure it'll be a LEED - certified building, um, and we're even doing
wood frame buildings now that are LEED - certified that are coming up with new
mechanical systems that actually allow hot water, domestic potable water to be used to
heat the units so you're.... you're not throwing heat away. So it's ... it's a very interesting
and ... and important part of our design approach.
Sherman/ You know, since we own our properties, we, um, are very focused on energy -
efficiency. We end up paying the utility bills and we watch them go up as utility rates go
up. There is a picture on the cover of our resume of a small two -story building that
is ... we built for, um, the City of Minneapolis, as the developer. It's totally geothermal,
um, for heat and air conditioning, and has, uh, you know, no outside need for either
paying for heat or air conditioning. Um, obviously it was a gold - certified building, so we
are ... we're familiar with what it takes to get to that level. We don't, uh, envision that
this will be a geothermal building, uh, because of its size. It could very well have some
aspects of it, but we will be, uh, pushing hard for, to get the highest LEED- certification
we can. That's what we do with all our new buildings.
Hayek/ Can you, um, can you speak on the ... on the housing issue to ... to, uh, your decision to
include, uh, all rentals as opposed to all owner- occupied or ... or a mix, uh, to this?
Sherman/ Um, we've done, you know, we clearly have done a lot of, uh, for -sale condominiums
in the last 30 years. I think it's several thousand, so we have had experience doing for -
sale. Uh, you know, we ... we think that there is a, uh, a challenge to being able to bring
that number of units online at one time, and um, and have it be successful. Uh, the
markets are clearly absorbing still some units in Iowa City but as a whole the un ... the
U.S. market, um, has struggled and financing for homebuyers has struggled. We think
that there is a bigger, it is clear right now that the biggest demand for housing in the U.S.
and I think it's also the case in Iowa City is market -rate rental for people that want to
have options other than for -sale housing. Um, the ... we, um ... we do know that there's a
plenty amount of student housing being built. We don't think that you need to be... that
this site needs to be dedicated to student housing. We think it should be dedicated to
housing that is af...affordable as I said to the working population downtown. Not
everybody downtown who is ... not every employee of every, uh, at the City or every
employee at the hospitals can afford or wants to buy right now. And rental is an option
that they very much have, and ... and are looking at. So I think it ... right now, it's a
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preferred option for what ... if you were to survey the downtown workforce, people
earning between $40,000 and $80,000 it would be a preferred housing option for them in
downtown Iowa City.
Graham/ One key design principle that I'd like to point out is that a building like this is going to
be around a long time, and it has to be durable, uh, which is to say we don't necessarily
distinguish between market -rate rental and ownership. They're durable, well- designed
residential buildings and who's to say over the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years how many
market cycles, so you have to design a really high - quality building that perhaps could
shift with the market and be converted, um, and focus on really good design with ... with
good livability and not try to predict the market.
Sherman/ And I don't want to necessarily promise this, but there were plenty of buildings that
we've done in last ten years that were high - quality apartments that we completely gutted,
tore down, and made into for -sale condos, and so this ... I don't want to ... we want to build
this with a high - quality but that doesn't mean that this has to be rent -to -own 20 years or
in, you know, 30 years. There are... buildings like this, if you build them right, and you
put the quality in, you put the number of elevators in, the right number of amenities that
communities face, may even in fact change over time from rental to owner- occupied. I
think it is the best way to get the project built given where the market is today.
Hayek/ Thank you for that. Any other questions? How we doing on time, John? (laughter and
several talking) Okay, well, appreciate your travels to Iowa City and the time you've put
in on this.
Sherman/ Encourage you to call the cities that we've been involved in, uh, small or large. I think
you'll hear the same thing that we are, uh, high - quality developer who finished up their
projects and does high - quality project ... a project that you will be very proud of,
architecturally and for the next 40 years, 50 years. Thank you very much for taking the
time.
Hayek/ (several talking) Thank you, gentlemen!
Yapp/ Uh, the next group that will be coming up is Chauncey Gardens.
Chauncey Gardens:
Karr/ You have revised documents that were sent out to you today regarding this proposal.
Allen/ (several talking away from mic) (laughter)
Throgmorton/ ...turn the lights off? (laughter and noise on mic)
Dobyns/ Is that recyclable? (laughter and several talking)
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Allen/ Hello and greetings. I'm Jessie Allen, Speaker and President of Chauncey Gardens, LLC.
Iowa City has a strong tradition of creating unique spaces for the entire community to
live, work, and play. Our vision to intery ... interweave these types of spaces throughout
the building. For example, wine ... a wine garden at the upper most level gives all the
people the opportunity to enjoy the view of the city. Again, I'm Jessie Allen, a
Representative of Chauncey Gardens, along with my, uh, developer team members, Tom
Kaut, John Rummelhart, and George Wagner. Our architects you'll hear from in a
momen ... moment, Neumann Monson Architects — they're sitting over here — and uh, our
construction services is Knutson Contractors, 150 years and growing strong. Together
we are a team of Iowa City residents and companies who are committed to Iowa City's
future and believe in the power of public spaces to enhance the, uh, fabrics of the city.
Here are a couple of slides representing our combined experience here in the city, areas
(mumbled) proximity to our site. As you can see, we bring a local team with local
experience and we also bring a fresh approach. With that, I'll hand it -over to Dwight
Doberstein and...
Doberstein/ Thanks, Jessie! So what you see up here on the left is the proposal that we initially
submitted, so just to make this clear, um, this is ... we submitted the proposal on the north
side of the block where Chauncey Swan Park is located now. We think there's a lot of
advantages to putting it over there, urn ... um, foremost being that it doesn't cast a big
shadow over the park. Uh, creates a nice, great big green space that the Recreation
Center could use, and it moves the New Pi uh, grocery store back over to, uh, to the
Washington Street, close to where it is now. Uh, we were asked by the City to, um, move
our proposal to the south side so that there could be an apples to apples comparison, it
would be fair to all the other proposers, and so we did that. No small task, mind you
(laughs) but we ... we were able to get that flipped over and redesigned, and that's what
we're presenting tonight. So really we think we have a vision that works for both sides,
and what you'll see is the one on the south side tonight. So, that vision is fairly simple.
We propose to engage the public in a series of project- design meetings, uh, we know that
if the City's going to ... going to, uh, provide some financial assistance to this project, this
community will want to have some input in that process. They will be here wanting to be
involved, and we welcome that! Uh we think that, uh, that will strengthen our proposal
because we need to bring them in, have them tell us what they think should be in this
facility. What it should look like. We're proposing a ... a framework tonight but it's all
open for that discussion during those public design meetings. The rest of our, uh, vision
is to integrate those public spaces and community gardens throughout the project to
expand Chauncey Swan Park into the building and create a larger park and ... and town
square, uh, provide vibrant commercial amenities, attract long -term residents, both uh,
both the workforce housing and uh, and seniors, families. We think we want to get a
stable, owner - occupied, long -term people here. Um, and ... we will have a sustainable,
iconic project. It'll become a ... a healthy development and set an example for the rest of
Iowa City development. So here's some slides, some pictures, some snippets of what our
proposal is. We're proposing a green space where, uh, Chauncey Swan Park is now.
That leads right into the building. It'll have a, uh, access to New Pi at that, uh, at that
level. We might have, um, spaces for, uh, expanded Farmers Market. On the Gilbert
Street side we. expect that that'll be a vibrant, uh, street front, attracting people day and
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night to this site. Here's the corner of Gilbert and ... and um, College Street. You can see
the entrance to New Pioneer Co -op thee and then above that is what we're proposing as
an extension of the park, kind of a town square space. Up above we have integrated
gardens, community gardens throughout and they just are an extension of the park. So
Khalid Khan is here and he's going to walk you through some of the details of the project
so you can see how it's put together.
Khan/ Thank you, Dwight. Um, just want to orient you. This is the project site. This is the, uh,
Chaunc ... Chauncey Swan, uh, Swan Park, as it exists. This is the pedestrian mall.
Currently as it exists. So, in terms of what Dwight was mentioning, the idea of moving
the building from the north to the south, again we took a step back and I think we were
thinking about ... a conceptual idea that's consistent for both projects, and so the idea, the
big picture idea was to create a building that becomes a connector for the downtown core
itself. I mean, you can see the, you know, there're park amenities within the pedestrian
mall and the Chauncey Swan Park itself that serves the downtown core in terms of green
spaces. So we thought the idea of using ... go back ... so the idea of, uh, using the site, our
site as a connector and to use that as, in terms of creating a loop that connects the existing
pedestrian mall, takes you to Washington tree... Washington Street and then brings you
back to the ... to the pedestrian mall. We thought as a flow in terms of a progression of
spaces, retail spaces, it helps connect, uh, the idea of a city, the downtown core. We
thought that was important. Uh, the other critical part that, you know, uh, that's, uh,
really unique to this site is the amenities that's already existing, and I think utilizing those
is a great opportunity. We have the City Hall, we have a parking ramp, and we have the
Recreation Center. So how do we integrate this into our building? I think that was ... that
was sort of the ... the concept that we wanted to preserve throughout, no matter what the
building looks like, those ideas of connectivity and the idea of a communal space was
very critical, as we formulated the design. So you can see that we're using the first level
retail as again a filter, it has glass on, uh, the south side and the north side, so you can
essentially flow through the building, inside, and it's connected from College Street to
the Chauncey Park Garden. There's a progression there and then you can move up, uh,
through the building too, and then access it from the parking structure, uh, again a...
provide paths from the corners, from both corners, uh, northwest and then the southwest
corner, as well, so we're allowing people to filter through the building and then at every
level we're trying to create opportunities for green spaces. That sort of create a sense of
community, a place where people feel welcomed. Uh, the other thing to focus on was to
provide, uh, access to the retail spaces from multiple directions. So the building,
basically you can enter the building from any angle you want and it's ... it's open and it's
accessible and it provides a, you know, more marketable product that way. As you move
up, uh, the second level, we were looking at that space primarily as a mixing area, sort of
a public square, if you would, where you could have, uh cooking classes and then people
can wait, uh, and sit and eat there while having views to the outside, or they can even
move outside to the, uh, terrace spaces and have a view of... of the park itself, or hang out
here in some ... some of the more private spaces too. Uh, so ... so the connection to the
park terrace is the retail seating. Again, we're creating a sense of community that's
vibrant throughout. As you move up the other thing we were talking about was this
creating a sense of a street wall, which again, uh, the previous developers talked about
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this, creating a sense of pedestrian scale to the building, or podium, and then the tower
itself is recessed back. Couple of things that this site actually gives us the opportunity, it
helps us provide some natural light into that level. Use the roof of that space as a public
garden space, that people can come in, or specific maybe to the tenants, the residential
tenants within the building too. So there's a lot of opportunities, again, to bring people
up through the building as they move, uh, vertically through the building. Uh, again
we've also talked about if there are ... if office space is being a concern that we could
bring in somebody, uh, potential partners that we've talked about, like Riverfront Theater
or, uh, the UNESCO, City of Literature idea, again creating the sense of communal
activities that could happen that people can participate in. As you move up the residential
core is looked upon as for the creative class and you know recent graduates too. So this
idea of creating a mix of people who want to be in an urban setting and pro... basically
providing them a... amenities of connectivity. So every level has shared public spaces
that they can congregate if they want to, or you know, go down into a more communal
space too, or they can have the opportunity to create their own private gardens if they
choose to. So this idea of...again the concept of creating multiple levels of experiences
of what a garden means. It's public, it could be private, it could be semi - private, and
creating people... giving people these opportunities to create venues where they can
participate or choose to be private (coughing) same time. Uh, one of the things that,
again, we had looked at that was really crucial for us was this idea that you looked at the
footprint of the original Chauncey Park itself and then how do we translate that into a
vertical space itself. So you can see the layers as they ... as we build the ... the cake, if you
would, this idea of creating every level having that opportunity to ... to have a green
spaces, as we move up, and then the rooftop terrace, again, as we had mentioned. We
were thinking instead of giving it to a private owner, giving it back to the public so they
have the opportunity to see the vistas of Iowa City and really get to enjoy the city which a
lot of high -rises don't give you that opportunity. So we thought that was critical. So
again, because of the location of the building, we thought it was critical to create these
kinds of opportunities within the space. So that's what helped shape the mass of our
building, and I think it was critical for us that the building essentially becomes a
backdrop for these kinds of spaces. So the negative space, the spaces people occupy,
be ... uh, become more important, and significant. Uh, and now Matt will lead you
through the sustainable aspects of the project as well.
Krieger/ Thank you, Khalid. So (mumbled) in pulling the, uh, building mass back to the
southside of the site, compared to the north where we originally had it, uh, presented an
issue with potentially shading the ... the park. Uh, so we decided to pull the mass of the
building, the tower, back to allow as much solar access to that park space as possible.
And in looking at the tower we also looked at more of an east -west orientation, which
provides more north and south - facing units. This helps with solar heat gain and ... and the
ability the ... ability to more easily shade those units. Uh, and control thermal comfort in
a better way. Uh, this gets back a little bit also to, uh, energy efficiency and ... and almost
the idea of social equity. You know, what we do right now in setting this building up is
going to impact all of those residents and those tenants in the future, and they're ... the
utility bills that they're paying. So we want to make sure that, you know, we're making it
affordable for them, as well. The, uh, the broad south exposure also provides the
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opportunity for a foldable (mumbled), uh, providing clean, renewable energy on site. Uh,
in dealing with some of the other harsher light that's more difficult to control on the west
face, we have a screen protecting glass that could be vegetated, uh, and then also using
more solid materials, uh, to also filter that sun exposure. In looking at the, um, the wind,
tall buildings have the potential or possibility of negatively impacting the public space at
the street level. Um, and so stepping back the building, like we've done here, and also
providing variation on the fagade helps slow down those winds and pre ... create a much
better, uh, public space at the street level. Also the narrower footprint of the tower, and
the north to south dimension, allows for, uh, natural ventilation should that come up
during the discussions and ... and part of the project goals. We've already discussed the
idea of community gardens, but urban agriculture is a growing trend across the nation.
Uh, it's already being incorporated here in the city, uh, through Backyard Abundances'
use of, uh, the garden space here and within the ped mall. Uh, I think we want to ... in
other parts of the city that's being incorporated into city parks. Wouldn't that be great to
have that in downtown Iowa City on a larger scale? We have the wonderful opportunity
for synergies with New Pioneer Co -op and with the Farmers Market, uh, to do that. And
then additionally the green spaces throughout the project help reduce the urban
(mumbled) effect, uh, (mumbled) contributing in a more beneficial way to the city at
large. So storm water management I think is a big issue in our town, that we know well
from flooding, but flash flooding occurs more commonly, and all of those green spaces
help infiltrate water on site, rather than letting it run off to the creek nearby. In fact we
would be reducing the overall runoff from the cr... from the current condition. Uh, where
we have more hardscape surfaces like sidewalks, paving, and the ... and those sorts of
things, we could collect that rainwater potentially and use that for irrigation of those
community gardens. Another idea that we would like to have included in the discussion,
specifically more for the commercial and retail spaces is this idea of using the
subterranean area below the park for a geothermal heat pump system to help with the
energy efficiency of those spaces. Additionally, Khalid spoke about the pedestrian access
to the site but there are other ways to access the city at large and for the city to come back
to downtown, uh, and to this site. The bus stops are right nearby, uh, adjacent to the
building, uh, we would be incorporating, uh, abundant bicycle parking. There's even the
potential for, uh, a space here below this amphitheater that was created that you saw in
those renderings, uh, for a potential bike rental space or a welcome center. Uh, that space
could be developed during those community discussions. I'm excited as a, uh, as a board
member of the U.S. GBC, U.S. Green Building Council, Iowa Chapter, to be
hearing... having all these teams discuss LEED. Um, and ... LEED is a ... a great tool and
it's a... it's a great program. Uh, we have the experience on our team of providing
ceritfica ... certified projects at all levels. Uh, and we have the experience to be able to do
that on this project. And we are dedicated to that on this projected. One thing though
about LEED certification and about developing a project is that you want to start with the
project goals and priorities, uh, that we would be doing with the integrated approach and
in ... involving the public. So we get all that onboard and then see how it fits in to the lead
system. And now I'd like to turn it back to Dwight.
Doberstein/ We'd like to spend about, uh, the last three minutes showing you the model and
some images of our ... our total development here. You can see here how we've tried to,
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uh, bring the community gardens, the ... the idea all the way up to the roof garden at the
top. Um (speaking away from mic) model. This shows the, uh, again, shows the site
from... College Street, a very busy intersection. We hope to have the Gilbert Street with
two entrances to New Pioneer, by very lively and active, bringing people down day and
night. This is the, again, Chauncey Swan ... Park and we hope to be able to use that to...
to draw people right up through (coughing, unable to hear) floor, creating an
amphitheater, uh, might be expansion of the Farmers Market, um ... we can also, uh,
envision that there might be a sculpture garden there, um, Summer of the Arts might have
venues and activities there. (unable to hear person away from mic) And so we think it
can be a very fun, public space, uh, center for Iowa City. So, um, this is our model and
uh, basically it should give you a sense of scale, you know, compared (away from mic)
Hayek/ You know what, gentlemen, I actually think one of you is going to have to speak form a
mic.
Karr/ Or just use the (both talking)
Doberstein/ uh... so the idea...
Hayek/ Pick it up! Thank you.
Doberstein/ (noises on mic) Great. Uh, so the idea of this model was to show the relationship of
the downtown core itself, and I think the concern maybe with the massing of the towers, I
think if you see that in relationship with the other buildings, uh, one is going up currently
and then the existing buildings that are there, you can see that the relationship is, uh,
palatable, and it sort of creates this nice, uh, triangular sort of connection between these,
uh, important nodes within the city. So you can ... you can see this idea of connectivity
that I had talked about originally that you can create this really nice loop through the
downtown core and sort of interconnect, uh, the retail spaces and create this really vibrant
space. And again, one of the things that I think that image sort of, uh, helps clarify is this
idea of the building as a backdrop. That it's the public functions that happen within the
park, within the building itself that are important, and the building would take ... what
shape it takes, where's the end after we go through the discussion processes with the
community, with the Council, uh, I think all that could ... would shape, help shape the
building instead of the ... the building sort of shaping its environment. I think that's very
crucial to keep in mind as we move ... move through the process, so thank you.
Allen/ So with that we have our full team here and we can answer any questions that you might
have. (noises on mic)
Hayek/ Can you talk, uh, more about the ... the specific housing you would include in this?
Allen/ (several talking away from mic) So as ... as far as the housing needs of the city, the way I
see it at this point is we looked at the 2007 Ameritech study, wherein that study it says in
the next four years, there's approximately 1,200 condos that would need to be filled... fill
the needs of...of the current city's growth patterns, and in the last, uh, two years Tom
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Kaut put together some numbers for me. There was 56 condos sold in and around the
downtown area and the Peninsula was one of `em, ranging in from $75,000 to $400,000.
So, um, and as far as the rental aspect, there's approximately 2,400 rental units in the next
three to four years that would need ... need to be filled for the Iowa City and surrounding
area. We feel this project would be a great project to fill some of those needs and to
prevent some of the urban sprawl to the surrounding neighborhoods of Iowa City, uh,
great, great way to put, uh, some workforce housing, some retirees, some people that
want to really live in and around this ... this space that we've created and ... and that we
put together as far as the park, the community feel, but also help a lot of the downtown
businesses ser... survive bringing more of the local economy to the downtown area, um,
we're also bringing the class -A office space, which ... which we feel would grow the
downtown area, putting... putting in new ... new space into perspective.
Hayek/ So a mixture essentially, owner- occupied and rental.
Allen/ Yep.
Dickens / Any idea of percentages?
Allen/ Um ... we were thinking probably a percentage of workforce housing, maybe 10% to start
off, I mean the market's going to determine what the needs are, based on the ... the studies
that Tom has put together. There's a lot of... a lot of people want to live in and around
the downtown area, so we feel there's going to be a high percentage of owner- occupied,
that's what we're going to be pushing for. You know, but as some of the other proposals
are kind of referenced in their packets, you know, some of `em will have to be rented
right away to get ... to get the project off the ground. But our goal is to have people living
in the building, taking care of the building, using ... using the gardens that we're providing
and that will create a sense of ownership in the building.
Throgmorton/ Jessie, one of the fastest growing, uh, dem, uh, demographic groups in Iowa City
and nationwide is, uh, the elderly, people over 65 or thereabouts. So I'm wondering what
...what you have in mind with regard to, uh, providing housing for people over 60 or 65,
probably retired, uh, but who are not wealthy, so low to moderate - income, um, elderly
people. Uh, do you envision providing some percentage of the residential units, the
condos, for them?
Allen/ definitely. I see a lot of elderly people that ... that we're going to be contacting if this
proposal's accepted, and we will be able to provide housing for the elder... elderly
making units accessible and friendly for their needs.
Throgmorton/ But ... but you wouldn't be in a position right now to commit to some fraction of
the units, I suppose.
Allen/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ Like, I mean, you know some specific fraction, like 10 %, 15 %, 20% or you know.
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Allen/ Yeah, we could ... we could commit to 10 %, 20 %, it would just depend on, you know, the
need and ... and the units that are available in the building ... for the needs.
Doberstein/ I think that's something that we would address (unable to hear)
Throgmorton/ Right, I would think so.
Doberstein/ (away from mic) ...large number of people that are 60 and over that want to live
downtown (away from mic)
Throgmorton/ ...I was going to say, might be some in the room! (laughter)
Dobyns/ This is an area of the central business district that is closest to current residential areas
of the city. Um, it's tall, it's metallic, which, uh, can you comment on how that might,
um, be appropriate for this section of the central business district closer to residential
areas?
Allen/ Um, I think what the architects have put together is a sense of civic presence. They use
the City Hall, the Robert E. Lee Center, and the parking ramp, and they're trying to tie
into civic presence to the downtown feel. Um, we're trying to introduce some glass.
We're stepping the building back to soften it, to make it more like a residential appeal.
Khan/ And actually what you probably don't notice, uh, on ... on the terraces, we're thinking
those are wood slats that (both talking)
Dobyns/ Could you point that out to me?
Khan/ So the negative spaces where you don't see the glass is actually a wood fagade. So it's,
uh, a rain screen system that works, that's integrated within the glass. So again, if you're
in your balcony, you want that sense of, uh, intimate spaces that you can touch and feel
and get a sense of warmth when you're in those spaces. So I think even though you are
higher up above to create ... bring in natural materials is ... was very critical to us and then
the same thing that we're thinking would be, uh, the trellis that we have here is
essentially a screen, so it could be any material we want it to. I don't think we
necessarily are claiming that this building is all glass and steel. The base, again, the base
is well ... though you can see here we were thinking it's a much more heavier...
(male)/ The base is softer.
Khan/ Yeah, limestone sort of presence, and again, that could be integrated, uh, through a, I think
in some of the other spaces, especially on the south side, again, we were looking at, uh,
wood as a ... creating a trellis to soften the light coming into the space too, so
that's... that's the way we have conceived the building, again, we understand that creating
a sense of warmth is very important and then the core itself too would be you know
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something more natural of a material that's ... that filters through the vertical aspects of
the building too.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Doberstein/ Just wanted to reinforce that we want to minimize that west exposure, so we expect
to see a lot more on that side, more of that ... those panels that would be warm, not glass
there.
Throgmorton/ I'd like to follow up on Rick's question, uh, by referring to the 3- dimensional
scale model which is really fun. I'm really glad to see it here. And you rightly pointed
out how there's, uh, similarity in scale between Plaza Towers, the proposed building, and
a few others downtown, but if you look at the proposed building itself in relation to the
buildings that are immediately adjacent to it, you see a ... quite a large, uh, differential.
So it looms over those buildings and what that makes me wonder is, uh, what I wondered
about in my opening question for the first developer. How do you see this building
fitting in, uh, your vision of downtown Iowa City? In other words, what's your vision,
how does the building fit into it?
Khan/ Well I think from a pedestrian scale, the idea of stepping back the tower portion itself, I
think that's the strategy, I think when ... I think the wall that we were, we had shown in
our diagrams, this idea from a pedestrian scale, that's primarily what you will see. So
that scale, if you can scale that data line, matches the scale of the buildings around it.
The tower itself, again, it's ... it's separated again, so that core that people at a pedestrian
level would be able to access. Now from the City Hall looking back up, yeah, you'll get
that sense of perspective, but I think that ... having that as a backdrop, but then an iconic
presence on the skyline, I ... I see that as ... as a way of luring people into that space more
so than being a detraction to the space itself, so ... the scale again, depending on you know
where our financial mix falls, those levels could vary in height, but the idea, I don't think
the tower is necessarily a negative ... for us.
Allen/ Um, I just wanted to share a little bit of my vision, for ... for this project. My vision, my
job in the community is I build homes for people. I look at this project where I'm
providing housing to people of all ages and I'm ... I'm building a building for my
neighbors in the community and I ... I see this as a destination point for people all around,
um, the following communities. I see they'd want to come to this building, say that
they've been to the top of the building, you know, we're creating a destination point,
we're creating a vibrant... vibrant commercial corner for Iowa City that's... that's going
to be here long after ... after I'm around. So when ... when we put this thing together, the
proposal, we're trying to inter... interweave the park throughout the building so that it
creates green space for the residents, to where it's an attractor for ... for people from
different towns. Seattle, you know, California, New York, and they're gonna want to
move to Iowa City to live in this building. They heard about it, you know, we're gonna
create a destination point for Iowa City.
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Throgmorton/ (mumbled) trying to get at with my question is ... is that the building is important
in its own right but it's also important because it signals a ... the direction of Iowa City's
future, at least for the downtown. So if we think about it incrementally, what we can
imagine is more and more buildings, echoing, uh, this one, so ... I ... I want us all to be
thinking about that as we decide what to do here.
Dickens/ Just a quick question on the geothermal, you talked a little bit about using the park. Is
that land then ... checked into whether it would be suitable for drilling (mumbled) or is
that just a...
Krieger/ No I mean I think it needs to be included as part of the studies and... and even how that
ownership takes place, as well, so I think it just ... we're proposing that there are many
ideas that the project team has that we would like to investigate, and that's just one of
them.
Dickens/ Okay. Thank you.
Champion/ Jessie, what price point do you see these condos at, or apartments? As far as
workforce housing goes?
Allen/ Um, I think the work ... the workforce housing in and around the downtown area as ... as
far as rental or for sale, rental in the past — it's been, um, upwards of $1.36 a square foot
for rent per month, and as far as for sale, we're looking at $3.25 a square foot. So that's
the comparisons in the studies that we've done in and around the downtown area. That's
kind of how we're going to hit the ... the target market of the workforce housing.
Champion/ Do you as a developer, I mean ... we see a need for this, studies have shown a need
for this. As a developer do you see a need for this? I mean you are building something
to sell it or rent it. You don't want it to sit there.
Allen/ Yes. Yes, most definitely. We ... we see a need. We ... we see a lot of people that want to
live in and around the downtown area, um, I also see a need for class -A office space, a
strong need ... when this proposal came out, we ... we kind of went around the neighboring
businesses downtown and... and surrounding areas of Iowa City and we kind of, you
know, we're feeling out the market, per se, and we got strong interest in the class -A
office space. We ... we got strong interest in ... in the theater possibilities, um, the outdoor
spaces that we're going to create, and in doing that, um, there's going to be very strong
resources for people that want to live in the building.
Hayek/ Are there other questions for the developer team here? Okay, well thank you. A very
comprehensive, uh, presentation. We appreciate your time thus far and your presence
here tonight.
(male)/ Thank you.
Hayek/ Thank you.
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Yapp/ Thank you. The next team is The Chauncey. They also have a model to, uh, bring up if
there's interest in a few minutes of...of a break.
Hayek/ Sure, uh, why don't we adjourn for three, four minutes here and come back.
The Chauncey:
Hayek/ We'll resume the work session and move on with our third proposal.
Yapp/ Uh, the next group is the team representing The Chauncey.
Rohrbach/ Good evening. This has been interesting to sit through out competitions' interviews
tonight (laughter) Um, I'm Steve Rohrbach with Rohrbach Associates and on behalf of
our development team, thank you for shortly... short- listing us and we're excited to show
you The Chauncey. Um, our agenda for our interview tonight is I'm going to talk about
our team and The Chauncey building and sustainable design and then Andy Brodie is
here from FilmScene and he's going to talk a little bit about their organization and
involvement with the project. And then Marc Moen, our developer, is really going to
come up here and talk about our goals and commitments. So we've kind of got this in
reverse from what you saw in the first two interviews. Um, several months ago I
approached Mike Hahn with McComas - Lacina and Marc Moen, an old friend of mine,
um, about joining together in a local team to develop this project, and we've ... come
together, uh, with The Chauncey LLC, and we are purely a local team. Um, we've got a
lot of experience over the years, both in design and construction, and Marc you know
well from the development and management side of his projects. So we've got a very
sound local team. You saw in our proposal that we've got financial letters from local, uh,
banks, um, so we're hoping that all the goods and services that we'll provide you will be
all local and uh, turned back to the community. We've got a lot of experience with multi,
uh, use development in Iowa City. Uh, you know Marc's projects, you know our
projects. We've got an extensive background in LEED and sustainable design, and a
strong commitment to make this project ADA- accept... accessible around the Universal
design concepts. So we truly want this to be a successful downtown project. So let's talk
about The Chauncey. Um, The Chauncey brings new arts and entertainment venues to
downtown for the downtown community. It consists of two theaters for FilmScene. Um,
two and three - dimensional art and sculpture space. Two 6 -lane bowling alleys. And cafe
space that will support both of them. Along with that we have a hotel which will
complement the, um, other hotels in the downtown area, as well as new businesses and
residences that will come as part of the building. This building was originally conceived
by our design team as being a 16 -story building. But we thought if we're going to go 16
stories with all the urban sprawl that we're seeing, let's push the envelope and see would
a 20 -story building work on this site or not, and that's what we're presenting you tonight.
But if it's deemed too tall, as many of us have ... as you've discussed previously, then we
know we've looked at it as a 16 -story building. We reflect in the architecture the uses of
the building. On the two lower levels at the pedestrian scale are all glass and reflect the
retail and vibrance of the arts and entertainment theme that we have in the building. The
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three floors above that with the light, or darker gray metal, or aluminum and glass, are
our class-3 ... class-A office floors, three of `em. As others have done, we've stepped
back the tower to let more light go into the park and above that, we have our residential
tower, the first three floors are hotels, and the balance of `em are ... are condominiums.
On either side of the building, north and south, are the key elevator and elevator ... and
stair towers. We've clad those with a warm terracotta rain - screen material which brings
out the warmth of the community, the downtown brick, as well as the residential area on
the, um, east side of the building. So we've really tried to warm up the building so it
doesn't appear to be all glass and steel, as sometimes it projects. Our site, we're very
committed to the bus, um, site, bus depot side of the site, primarily because of the drop -
off, and covered drop -off that we have for our hotel and theater goers, as well as the, uh,
customers we have for our bowling alley and restaurant. So we feel strongly that is the
right site, um, bringing around the glass around the, uh, College Street and, uh, Gilbert
Street side, we have another entrance along the, uh, the north side, uh, which connects to
the park. Our project will redevelop the park. I'm not going to get into a lot of details
about that, we don't have the time, but we want to han ... enhance what's going on in the
park now. We believe that that shouldn't be disturbed. We believe the park should stay
where it's at, and we'd like to enhance it to be more open and more useful, and to
contribute to nighttime cinema that we'd like to bring in a complement our arts and
entertainment theme and our building by installing a temporary, uh, screen on the parking
ramp that would be stored in our building. Our building starts on the, uh, parking level,
which connects to the Chauncey Swan, uh, parking ramp. We have enough parking here
to take care of our residential need, as well as, uh, commercial and... and uh, retail venue.
Um, at the northside of the building or the left side of the building is another main
entrance. Uh, we are going to accommodate bicycles and bicycle storage as well as, um,
potential, um, toilet rooms, public, for the activities that may be in the park as well as the
residential elevators that take residents that park at this level up to their floors. Our main
retail levels are the level 1 plan on the left at the street level, and the mezzanine level 2 on
your right. On the plan on the left, you can see on the right hand side is our public, um,
entrance, our drop -off covered entrance which leads into a public lobby, community
lobby, that provides access to the two FilmScene Theaters, um, the restaurant /cafe, as
well as the bowling alley. We have purposely located the theaters to the bottom side of
the plan, or the glass enclosed side of the plan because they ... we want them to be
architectural, sculptural elements that appear through the glass so the people inside and
outside can appreciate the architecture of them. We've provided public space around the
theaters for the display of art and sculpture. So the whole floor is a public community
space that's, um, involved with the theaters. To the upper part of the plan is one of the
six -lane bowling alleys. The main entrance is off that main lobby, and there's internal
circulation that takes you upstairs to the other six lanes, right directly above it. In the
green in the upper left hand corner is a cafe that will support the needs of both the
theatergoers and bowling goers. Uh, has outdoor dining and has a great, uh, look over the
park. At the main entrance is the main hotel desk and elevators that, uh, take you to the
commercial and hotel floors. At the north side of the building, or to the left, are the
residential elevators that take you to those floors. Going to the right hand plan you see
the open two -story space that's around the theaters, um, above the sculpture and art space
as well as a, um, another lobby that provides access to the upper floors of the theater and
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the upper levels of the bowling alley. This space is also going to be a pre- and post -
function for FilmScene and the educational process that they have as part of their theater.
In the upper left hand corner is a education center that FilmScene plans to offer classes to
the community about film and ... and theater, um, all day long. And then on the upper
part of this plan is the other six -lane bowling alley, uh, that connects vertically from
below. At this level in the upper right hand corner is a enclosed connection to the
parking ramp so our tenants and visitors, uh, have an enclosed connection to the building.
This lower level that we talked about pedestrian scale, many of you in the previous
interviews talked about this scale issue, and we've developed this glass enclosure which
is really is the vibrancy of the building. It makes it ... a iconic statement, and you can see
the theaters that will behind there, the sculptureness of those theaters, and you'll be able
to see the art and sculpture that will be a part of that open space. Above that is the office
space, produces really a two -story and a five -story type of pedestrian scale building, and
many like the others have proposed, the tower is stepped back so that we don't have that
high -rise feel from the street. You have the lower two ... two-story and three - story, uh,
amassing. Inside, uh, we're showing the two -story types of galleries that we have
adjacent to theaters. A grand staircase going up to the mezzanine, and the activity and
lounge space that can happen as part of the theater and bowling type of activities. Our
third, fourth, and fifth floors are our class -A office space. Uh, a single 18,000 square foot
tenant or divided into a quarter which would have multiple tenants on it. Our levels sixth
through eighth are the hotel floors. Specifically on the sixth floor is a fitness center and
conference center that can be shared by the hotel and our residents that live here, as well
as an exterior roof garden. As many have talked about, we're bringing that garden, that
green space up into the building to be enjoyed by both the hotel and um, residential, um,
people that live here. Our levels nine through twenty are our residential floors, workforce
housing, uh, efficiency through two - bedroom type of size, um, units that will be laid out
on those floors. This is a view down in the first floor lobby looking at the main entrance.
The car under the drop -off area, um, desk to the hotel and concierge on your left, um...
natural light flooding into this area from the two -story walls. This is looking to the north
in that same lobby, again the display of art that we will have as part of the spaces. Um,
the entrance to the theaters and their concession booth, uh, which will serve, uh,
beverages and food for consumption in the theaters as part of that cinema (mumbled)
event, and then further to the north you see the north entrance, and to your right is the
glass wall entering into the bowling alley. This is a conceptual idea for the theaters. Um,
both 100 -seat and 150 -seat with a shared projection booth on the mezzanine floor. And
this is our concept for the bowling alley. A very upscale, vibrant type of atmosphere on
the first floor that can serve all age groups from young children to adults. On the upper
floor we're going to provide a different atmosphere for this six bowling lanes, uh, little
more exciting, a little more dramatic in terms of its shape and ... and how it feels next to
the sculptural, uh, theaters. Uh, you can see this space as being social groups that could
rent it for the evening, um, or sororities or fraternities or whatever having a good time up
here. But whatever you do when you come to The Chauncey to bowl you can have a
different experience, depending on what floor you bowl on. This is the cafe, um,
overlooking the park with exterior, um, dining; view of the City building. Um, provide
services for everything that's in the building. Sustainable design, we just don't have
enough time to talk about everything, but we feel what's important here, as many have
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said prior to us, is that we've got to do it, and we've got to do it successfully. Um, what
our group has done is everything that you see on that list there is in our budget. We've
reviewed it with McComas - Lacina and we feel very confident we can reach a high level
of LEED as we talked about in our proposal. But what we think is important is what is
realistic for this project. The success of the project overall as a whole is what is
important. So we need to provide a valuation for each one of these systems and make
sure they're payback and the economic value they have makes the overall project a
success. Because we can have all the sustainability in the world, but if the project doesn't
succeed, it doesn't matter. Now I'd like to introduce Andy Brodie, talk a little bit about
FilmScene.
Brodie/ Thank you, Steve, um, I'd also like to thank and acknowledge FilmScene co- founder
Andrew Sherburne and our entire Board of Directors who are listed on the slide above, a
really excellent group of people who've been working hard to make FilmScene happen.
Well, FilmScene is a non - profit organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural vitality
of the Iowa City area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form. Our
primary goal is to operate a full -time cinema in downtown Iowa City to showcase the
best in contemporary cinema, including American independent films, foreign films,
documentaries, and classic film programming. Other key FilmScene program areas will
focus on community development and arts education. If you'd like more information,
you can visit our web site at icfilmscene.org. FilmScene will give cinema the same
prominent position that other arts enjoy in our community, and provide Iowa City with a
movie -going experience that is currently missing and that the community deserves. We
know there is a demand for this based on market studies which have previously been
done on behalf of the City and the University of Iowa, and underscored by a large amount
of positive feedback we've received since founding FilmScene. There are also successful
models for FilmScene around the country with a growing number of non - profit dedicated
art houses in cities of all sizes. Without such a venue, Iowa City remains behind the
curve. But we can change that! FilmScene represents an opportunity for Iowa City to
become a leader in the state of Iowa and beyond by creating a home for film lovers and
filmmakers alike, and reinforcing the City's position as a home for the arts. A prominent
downtown location will allow FilmScene to have the greatest cultural, artistic, and
economic impact. FilmScene and The Chauncey will help build and reinforce downtown
Iowa City's status as a destination for arts and entertainment. F ... excuse me (clears
throat) FilmScene has been a part of The Chauncey team from the very beginning. As a
loyal and committed team we have shar ... a shared vision for a marketable space that is
both thoughtfully and carefully designed. FilmScene's theaters themselves are striking
architectural features that will help make the cinema and The Chauncey a marquee
addition to downtown Iowa City. Finally, we have worked hard to lay the groundwork
for FilmScene by building community partnerships and alliances. We've set down and
personally spoken with basically every other art's organization in the community, who've
indicated their support for FilmScene. We have also developed a strong relationship with
the University of Iowa, having met multiple times with student leaders and top -level
administrators. FilmScene will create opportunities for students to work closely with us,
and daytime use of the theaters by the University has also been discussed. The
University of Iowa supports FilmScene's vision and has indicated a strong interest in
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being apart of this project. To close, I'd like to share a quote from acclaimed director
and personal favorite of mine, Martin Scorsese, who says that now more than ever we
need to talk to each other, to listen to each other, and understand how we see the world
and cinema remains the best medium for doing that. On behalf of our entire Board of
Directors, I'd like to thank you for your consideration and I'd now like to introduce
Chauncey team member Marc Moen.
Moen/ We're very pleased to be, uh, one of the, uh, finalists for this very important development
site in Iowa City. It's critical to our developments to have a committed team, including
an architect, contractor, the commercial business owners, and the management of the
building once the building is built from the, uh, very inception of the project. It's
important to have each of these key pa ... players involved from the beginning, because
each brings a unique perspective to the project. In this case, FilmScene has been a valued
partner from the very beginning. They were con ... they were, uh, consulted during the
concept phase of the project and have been involved in the design phases, which have
gone fru ... through several iterations to get where we are now. We retained a bowling
consultant to do a market study and review the two -level layout of the bowling plan. We
believe these cooperative efforts have resulted in a spectacular proposal for downtown
Iowa City. We have experience in downtown Iowa City, in fact we've elected to develop
exclusively in downtown Iowa City, and it's our love of this community that's the driving
force behind what we do. Many of our projects are historic and we see the preservation
of historic properties as crucial to the preserving of the fabric of downtown Iowa City,
but we also see innovative ideas and modern, cutting -edge architecture as a critical
component to keeping people here and to attracting new people to our community. We
manage all of our properties ourselves. We provide hand -on, day -to -day management.
Every tenant, every owner, every business in every building that we own has our cell
numbers and we're available 24 -hours a day. That's an important... that's an important
part of our projects, and it's ... and it's part of our commitment to everybody that's
invested in our projects. A well -run, mixed -use building becomes a real community. To
create this environment, it's absolutely critical to have this level of management and
dedication. The entire team is committed to downtown Iowa City. Rohrbach Associates
will own 20,000 square feet of space, if we are awarded this project. And will move their
offices to this building, and FilmScene will operate the cinema at The Chauncey. (person
speaking away from mic) Okay. The Chauncey, uh, meets the goals that have been
articulated by the City. Obviously it increases the tax base from zero on this corner to
taxes, uh, in the neighborhood of $1.3 million a year. It redevelops the blighted, uh,
corner which has the old bus depot site and John Wilson's Sporting Goods, and the
MidAmerica, uh, substation, but what it brings is new, creative, dynamic environments
downtown, centered around cinema, entertainment, and arts venues with 60,000 square
feet of class -A office space, a quality hotel, and diverse permanent housing. We're
fortunate to have a lot of ideas brought to us, but most don't materialize. Once in a great
while an idea is presented that strikes on all chords, an idea that's so compelling it makes
you say `we have to do this, this has to happen!' That's how we felt when FilmScene
approached us almost two years ago, and that feeling has strengthened over time. We
strive to make our downtown better, more exciting, more relevant, more energized, and
more attractive to everyone. It's important that we appeal to a creative class of people.
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That's how a city retains and attracts the best and the brightest. We need to fill gaps with
exciting new destinations. It's very important that we work together to build on the
foundation that does exist downtown by encouraging businesses to locate downtown that
do not currently exist. We've ... we've looked at the market studies that have been
commissioned by the City several years ago and more recently a... a study that was
commissioned jointly the City and the University. Both of these studies strongly support
cinema and bowling as things that are missing downtown and things that are most asked
for by residents of Iowa City. The Chauncey combines these uses with the dynamic
gallery space, a first -class hotel, cafe, large amounts of office space, and quality
residential units. Twenty percent of those residential units will be within workforce
housing guidelines. And it incorporates Chauncey Park with upgrades for more
community activities. What happens on the commercial levels of a building of a mixed -
use building drives the success of what happens on the residential levels, and we've
carefully selected those uses in this building. There will be an inviting gathering space
for film community, film lovers, and filmgoers alike on the mezzanine level. That's
important for community building around FilmScene and there are beautiful open gallery
spaces and lobby spaces on the main floor. This will be a gathering space for community
members, an area for live music, place for artists to show their work. There's ... this two -
story glass area provides a striking, active space that's visible from College Street, from
Gilbert Street, from Washington Street, and from the Chauncey Park. Positive energy in
a mixed -use project is critical. The beautiful open public areas in The Chauncey will
provide a sense of community. Those familiar with Plaza Towers know the community
environment that's been created there. It's that feeling of community that is so important
to a downtown, and it's critical to attracting residents to a building downtown. And to
the overall success of a project. The Chauncey is a major, long -term commitment for us.
We started Plaza Towers ten years ago and we're just now ready to start another major
project. We've enjoyed a long and trusting relationship with the City. The City's been a
valued partner in our projects, and we have always delivered on our promises. The
availability of this high - profile site presents one of those rare intersections of the right
people at the right time and the right place. We're asking for your help to make this
happen. We need to work with these businesses to make sure they locate downtown and
don't go elsewhere. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Hayek/ Thank you. Questions?
Dickens/ I just have a quick question for Andy. (several talking away from mic) As far as your
theaters, are they just going to be strictly film, they're not going to be live performing arts
or are you going to have space for lectures or what ... what's the plan there? Cause we
have the Englert and Hancher's going to be coming along. I just was worried about too
much live.
Brodie / Right, we're exclusively dedicated to cinema, which ... that's what ... we're working to fill
a gap that currently exists in Iowa City's cultural fabric. You know, we have spaces for
theater, for literature, for music, uh, the performing arts, but we're lacking a full -time
dedicated space for film, and we think that's a really, really big gap in our community's
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cultural fabric and to sort of complete that arts picture we need a dedicated space for
cinema.
Dickens/ Thanks!
Brodie / Any other questions for me or...
Throgmorton/ Uh...
Brodie/ I'll stay!
Throgmorton/ In other words you're not going to sing karaoke or something (laughter)
Brodie/ I could do some vaudeville! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ You ... you all have rightly em ... emphasized the importance of community, as
have the previous speakers, but, uh, I wonder if you could point out specifically which
aspects of the building would be accessible to members of the general public?
Rohrbach/ Well if I could quickly go back to, um ... the, uh ... ground floor plan which isn't
quickly going back to ... um ... excuse the slowness of this, couple more here ... these are
the main floors here. Um, all of the, um, street -level plan and all of the mezzanine -level
plan would all be community space. All accessible to the theaters, accessible to the
bowling alleys, restaurant, um, those are the primary amenities, along with the arts and...
and sculptural spaces we'll have around it. So both of these two floors are ... are all
community accessible.
Throgmorton/ Right. That's what I thought you'd say. Thank you. Um, so I'm looking at the
model, uh, it's really lovely. Like the previous one it's fun to see but I ... I wonder if, uh,
one of you could talk about, uh, the scale of the building, uh, relative to the other
buildings around it, and how that scale relates to your vision of Iowa City, cause as I said
in our last presentation, we have a city in transition, so this building, if it's actually
constructed, is going to create a model, a ... it will signal what ... what's forthcoming for
Iowa City. So, you know, the building really stands out. It's a ... it's a very large entity,
uh, surrounding a lot of pretty small buildings so...
Moen/ It's ... in my opinion, it's one of the few sites downtown that is large enough to accept a
building of this size, which is why we ... when we were looking at the various massing of
the building, we looked at various heights, and the one that fit best for us that we felt the
best with was this one. It can be scaled back. Um ... it has the, uh, benefit of the large
open area, which is Chauncey Swan Park. It has, uh, the large half -block area which is a
parking garage. So it ... it's anchored by those things around it. It's very unusual to find a
site, uh, with those amenities that have that much open space. So it has that going for it.
It has the massing of the building was done in a way so that the first five floors, first two
floors of, uh, which are largely glass with the sculptural elements behind the glass, are
... are then stepped back for the next three floors, and then the towers are stepped back
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even further. And so when you're ... when you're walking in this area what you see is
the ... is that two -story and that five -story section, and it's like when you walk by Plaza
Towers. If you get a distance away from it, you see the size of it, but when you're on the
pedestrian plaza, it feels very comfortable in ... in juxtaposition with the Library, which is
only, you know, two stories! So I ... I think that can be accomplished through design
techniques which all of the proposals have talked about. You know, the trade -off is we
are trying to attract, uh, the best and the brightest to downtown Iowa City. We're trying
to keep people in Iowa City. We're trying to attract people who are retired living in Iowa
City. And ... and ... and what people are after I don't think anybody knows the downtown
market and lives it and breathes it more than I do, in terms of... of residential real estate
downtown. They're not after huge spaces. What they're after is ... is a dynamic
environment, a community feel in the building, open spaces and lobby spaces on the main
floor and in this case on the first two floors. That's critically important to people that are
living in those buildings. And ... and ... and that feeling of community, and what they
want in their residence is a lot of glass and a lot of great views. And that's what we sell,
and that's what's attracting people downtown. And we've ... we've sold a lot of units in
the new building that's going up, and that's... and that's what they're after. So we're
responding to that market. And we've tried to be sensitive to the buildings around it.
We've used colors that are warmer, um ... you know, but we can't get around the fact that
it's tall. And ... and if we're going to try to attract that group of people and keep those
people in Iowa City, we need to respond to that market, in my opinion. The idea that
there're going to be a whole bunch of these popping up, I ... I'm not so sure about that. I
mean these are ... these are enormous projects, um ... there's a, you know, the ... the City is
the size it is. We've got 69 residential units in this building. Um, we would anticipate it
selling at least half of those initially. The goal is to sell all of them. But we have to be
very careful how many of these we put on the market at one time. So I ... I don't share the
idea that you're going to see a whole bunch of these 20 -story buildings popping up. You
know, it's ... how many have been built in Iowa City?
Hayek/ To ... to follow up on ... on Jim's question about scale relative to neighborhood. We... the
high -rises that we have to date are all fairly well embedded within the central business
district, and this represents the biggest step outward, um, to ... to the edge and maybe
slightly across the street from ... from the central business district, with a lot of residential
to the east, and there's... there is a ... a demographic in Iowa City that, uh, is scared of
something of this height, um, adjacent to a ... a more traditional residential, uh,
neighborhood, and... and you know, we do hear from people who say, you know, four,
five, six stories — that should be all you do, etc., and um, and I ... at some point it becomes
a matter of...of philosophy or ... or design and I think these differences of opinion are
probably irreconcilable for some people and we simply have to decide...
Moen/ I think that's right.
Hayek/ ... what ... what to do. Um...
Moen/ Well, and I've heard that, as you might imagine...
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Hayek/ Right.
Moen/ ...every day for many years (laughter)
Hayek/ But if...but if we ... we, let's say we don't see future gro ... you know, a lot of, or any
more high ... high-rises and this ... this sits out there, whether it's 20 stories or 15 or, you
know, something like that, um ... talk about its relationship to, uh, really the ... the
structures to the east. I mean you've, cause right around it is either City Hall or the Rec
Center or the stuff across the street, but to the east you get into those residential areas.
Moen/ Well I ... I, I mean coming down, and this is a matter of personal preference, you know,
but coming down College Street from the residential areas and seeing Plaza Towers, to
me is very exciting. To see the lights, to see ... that that's part of the fabric of downtown,
to have somewhat of a skyline, I think that's a ... I think that in juxtaposition with historic
buildings is to me the most dynamic feature that ... that you could imagine architecturally.
And as I travel we look at ... we look at projects all over the world, and ... and the idea of
having historic buildings of a smaller scale next to ... to well -done, architecturally well -
done modern architecture, to me ... to my eye is extremely appealing, and I think it's, I
mean, we ... we lease and sell units to people from all ... from all over the world, and
we've attracted a lot of people at the hotel in Iowa City who comment on that, and... and
it's extremely appealing to a ... to the people I think we're trying to attract in Iowa City.
But I understand it, I mean, I'm sympathetic to it. This is everybody's town and ... and so
...to my way of thinking, having large urban dense developments in the central business
district is the pl ... is where they should be and they should not be encroaching into the,
you know, large -scale buildings sh... should be left to the central business district. Our
discussions with staff is that they ... they, that this is going to be part of the central
business district and they wanted a dense... development in this area, so we tried to
respond to that. But I ... I understand it and I'm sympathetic to it. (several talking away
from mic)
Dobyns/ Marc, an earlier presenter suggested that perhaps there wasn't that high demand for
class -A office space in the central business district. Um, you... appeared... your group
made a different decision with having three. Could you comment on that?
Moen/ I agree with the earlier comment that it's the ... it's the highest risk. Um, if you're going
to look at housing and the retail component, and ... and office space. You know, I've read
the market studies. I read the Ameritech study, uh, carefully. I talked ... I talked several
times with the authors of that study. They conclusion I came to and when we did, when
we proposed Park at...at 201 and when we took the Vito's building and did the, the
second floor office space, you know, those are risks but ... but in talking to the authors of
the Ameritech study ... I came to the same conclusion they did. There's a ... there's a large
amount of office users ... and we're... and... and more coming, and we're not going to be
able to attract them unless we build the office space. It's not ... it's not a situation where
you find the user and then you build the space. People want to move too fast when
they're looking for office space.
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Dobyns/ What ... what is the current interest in your soon- to -be, um, occurring 201 office space?
Moen/ It's ... we don't have any signed leases or purchases on the office space, but we have ... we
have what I would call very strong interest, and... and I don't... and I mean, that's a
relatively small amount compared to this. It's 2,300 square feet or so per floor. Um, and
we're talking closer to 20,000 square feet for three floors. The fact that Rohrbach
Associates is committed to buying and moving their offices to this building is a huge...
that ... that's big, that's huge for us, you know. I mean ... that's a third of the office space.
Our discussions with the University is that they're always interested in ... in quality office
space. We have ... we have very little of it downtown, of class -A office space. (person
speaking away from mic) And... and, well, ICAD has talked, I mean, we've talked to the
Iowa City Area Development folks who say they need space of this size to market. So
it's ... there's a risk factor, but I feel comfortable with it. And I feel more comfortable
with a third of it (laughter and several talking)
Champion/ Um, the auditoriums, um...
Hayek/ You gotta put your...
Champion/ Oh, I'm sorry! The ... the auditoriums, the movie theaters, whatever you want to call
`em, they're encased in these kind of cocoon things? (laughs)
Rohrbach/ Well, I call `em sculptural elements (laughter) but you can call `em cocoons (several
talking and laughing)
Champion/ No, I think it's really attractive. I just didn't know what to call them. I ... is it all
right...
Rohrbach/ Well, we ... we like to think of this as the sculpture that is the iconic part of downtown
Iowa City. People will come by this building and they'll see that. It'll be a ... a
destination point for `em, so we really want the theaters as the theme of our arts and
entertainment...
Champion/ But is that where the seating's going to be, inside the cocoon?
Rohrbach/ Yes! Right. As we show on the floor plan here, the, uh, cocoons are those (laughter)
two major elements on the lower part of the floor, which have the 150 -seat in the ... in the
right one and then 100 -seat in the left one.
Champion/ Right.
Rohrbach/ And they're two - story, they go up to the mezzanine level where you can enter at both
levels.
Champion/ Thank you.
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Moen/ Can I make one comment about that...
Champion/ Make fun of me!
Moen/ No, no! (laughter) The area around these...
Hayek/ That's our job!
Moen/ ...theaters is ... very active. That's... that's an area that will be available for live music, art
shows, where artists can show their work, sculptures. It's ... and that's critically important
to this corner to have activity there. The University has also expressed great interest in
having these facilities available for programming during the day.
Rohrbach/ So... so we see activity during the day here with both the bowling and cinema
functions. So our activities are just not focused on the evening. We see this being a
lively building at all times of the day.
Hayek/ Okay, gentlemen, thank you for your presentation. We ... appreciate your presence here
tonight and commitment to the process.
Yapp/ Uh, the next group we will invite up is 4 Zero 4. (several people talking away from mic)
4 Zero 4•
Dwight/ Good evening, how's everybody doing?
Hayek/ Great!
Dwight/ (several talking) well, um... first want to start off and say thank you for, uh, the Council
and Iowa City for hearing these proposals. I think there's a lot of exciting stuff that's
happening in our city and uh, and um, they're all great, and good luck to everybody that,
uh, submitted and congratulations being in the top five, um, it's been... it's been, uh, for
me it's been a fun year and a half of working on this project. Um, before I introduce my
partners I'm going to just kind of give you a little run down of how I became involved.
Um, I own a property south of town and I was thinking about doing some development
and I heard that New Pioneer Co -op had an opportunity to maybe move, and they wanted
to expand their business, and one of the hardest things on a mixed -use project is that
tenant on the residential, on the street - level. That's a very, very important piece to this
and having them, uh, excited about making that move across was ... is great for a
developer, because it gives you an opportunity then to build above them and to build
excitement around them, because they are very dynamic group and it's ... I think it's very
important for us to ... to understand that this corner will be activated a lot by them,
because they have so much movement that happens throughout them. Um, so I want to
build something here in Iowa City and had an opportunity to look at it and I said, this is
going to be a great building! And as I've moved out of football and into renewable
energy, I've learned there's ways that we need to start developing differently. And Iowa
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City's ... we've seen great development that Marc's done and I want to take that to the
next level. I want to bring in energy efficiencies. I want to make it our core focus on
making this building a net -zero building. This is happening across the world, and there's
no reason why it can't happen here. And we've got the expertise on ... on this team that
can provide that. And we're seeing that across and it's proven technologies that
are ... that are being applied in ... across our world on a daily basis. So it's been ... it's been
a long road, uh, to uh, to get to this point and I'm very excited to kind of showcase what
our project has and what it entails. Um, but through that long road you run ... you run
across different individuals, and you have different visions on what you have, and what
you want to see. And, uh, you know, traditional building's been around for a long time,
uh, and some of these new ideas and techniques and technologies, they're being
integrated now into our... our buildings, are being more and more available, but there's
less and less people actually doing it. So it's hard to find those people and over the last
couple of months I found those people that now can implement these technologies and we
can work together to really make this project feasible and doable on our level. So, um,
understanding development, I don't have a whole lot. I've been around, as you all know,
I've been around Iowa City, I've done some projects here, um, in this community and
brought some value, but with this project I want to bring a lot of value and a lot more
value than what I've done here, and so with that, uh, I'd like to introduce Jake
Christensen. He's, uh, a developer out of Des Moines, um, really has a lot of, uh, good
instincts on development and has done a lot of work within the city core, and uh, I think
that's what we're really talking about here tonight is how we can enhance our city core,
so, uh, Jake, and then also Justin Doyle, um, he has a lot of engineering, really interesting
guy, lot of intensity, and also Mark, uh, Seabold from Shive Hattery as architect and
you'll see how dynamic this group is as we've, uh, we've kind of planned this project and
developed it over the last couple... 16 months. So...
Christensen/ Thanks, Tim. It's hard to follow Tim. Everybody knows Tim. Um ... so just two
seconds on me and why I'm standing here. Uh, like Tim I am passionate about urban
development and renewable energy. Um, my entire career since 1999 has been focused
on urban development. Uh, some of the buildings I've done, um ... the Zombie Burger
Building which is, I named it E300 but I knew that the anchor tenant would actually
name the building at the end of the day. Largest geothermal system, uh, building,
privately done in the state, uh, the Hyatt Place, which... historic development and in -fill
development in my opinion are the two most responsible things that can be done for
development. You're either re -using or re-use ... either re -using existing infrastructure or
re -using space, and that's why we're here to re -use space, uh, for a new purpose. Um, I
think in my career I've done over $150 million worth of projects. My partners and I still
own over 90% of those projects, and make a long -term commitment to the real estate, and
that goes into the entire delivery of the building. Many of the speakers have talked about,
um, sustainability, long -term vision, uh, my career mimics those, um, that approach. If
you're going to own the building for a long time, you want to make sure that it ... the
systems are done right the first time, uh, one of the speakers talked about having his cell
phone number given to tenants. My tenants, uh, generally know me by first name and
have my cell phone number, and you want to do it right so you can look `em in the eye
and make sure they have a great place to be, whether it's a residential tenant or an office
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tenant. So ... with that I think we'd like to spend the bulk of our time to talk about the
building and what we ... our vision for this site and uh, with that I'll turn it over to Mark
Seabold.
Seabold/ (laughter) I'm short! Uh ... so, uh, in -fill site, very important to understand dynamics.
Um, so we have a New Pioneer Co -op is obviously an important fabric of our
community. It provides opportunities for local farmers as well as, uh, surrounding
farmers in the area to provide, you know, local foods and we've seen this industry's
extremely growing at a extremely fast rate so when you look at in -fill developments, it's
important to look for players in the area that are having success. And possibly providing
them the opportunity maybe grow that success, and we feel that with the expansion of
New Pi moving from their location currently to over and expanding out, we feel that
there's going to be very vibrant, very ... uh, great opportunity for not just Iowa City on a
sales tax and a property tax basis, but also brings more value in what these services they
can offer. Not just in what they offer now because of the space. Um, they also looked at,
uh, you know, what other uses could be there? Well, the Bike Library's there right now.
Well why not incorporate them back into our building? So that's another important
aspect I think that's ... that we've looked at is how can we find local players that are
having great success and bringing them back down ... bring them, keep them in Iowa City,
keep them downtown, and that's what we've kind of done is ... is talked to the Bike
Library about them being ... coming back down into the space. They' having great
success with their rental program, and we feel that they're a very in ... intricate part of this
... of this community on pushing more bicycle, people getting out, more active, and
bringing more value, and as you see, as I've engineered and designed this building, all
these aspects from just, not just the solar and the geothermal and the low VLC paint, but
even the ... even the stairs on the front of the building, there's reasons why we placed that
there. So there's a lot of value (mumbled) so looking at the Bike Library, obviously the
office space has been touched. Iowa City doesn't have a whole lot of class -A office. We
need to build these spaces so we can bring in talent, whether it's local, whether it's
national, or whether it's even international. We've got a very diverse group in ... in Iowa
City. It's a lot more diverse in Des Moines, even in Minneapolis, so I think it's very
important for us to build these spaces. So as you look at ... we have office space on our
building on our second and third floor. Very great opportunity for people, not just locally
but also nationally, internationally to do that. We find that as the green aspect, that you'll
get higher rents for that, and it's true. There's mark ... market studies out there that if you
add green attributes to your building, you'll bring in more qualified, uh, tenants and also
maybe even possibly bring in more revenue. So that's very important. Uh, as we see in
our last couple levels, urban ... urban living. I mean, we've seen some development over
the last number of years in Iowa City where's it focused somewhat on student housing
and we want to bring people back down into the core. We need to do that. We need to
provide this opportunity where people can walk to a coffee shop, not drive their car. Can
walk to a grocery store. Can walk to the cinema. Can walk to University. Can walk to
the job. And we don't have those opportunities for a lot of people. So providing the
urban and the ... the size of efficiencies and one - bedrooms and two - bedrooms is very,
very important so it's affordable for people, and I think you see in our financial of
our ... of our presentation, is that we are doing that, I mean, I think we provide the biggest
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return on investment, as well as the least amount of, uh, City investment at the beginning
of our projects. So a lot of things have been designed in this building to create that
community aspect. We feel that New Pioneer Co -op is a huge one, uh, we feel that
they're going to really excite that ... that corner, as well as Chauncey Park. We have a lot
of ideas of integrating that, uh, and you've got the office space, which we all know that
we don't have a lot of, class -A, and urb ... urban living, so I mean, looking at this building
and how we've designed it as well, as it sits, and you'll see in Mark's presentation of how
we've designed this building. It's integrated on the way the grade should roll into the
center core of your ... of your, uh, of your community. Uh, there's a lot of buildings out
there that, you know, are up ... have ... have some tall, uh, stories to `em. We feel like our
building sits kinda nestled in where it needs to be. How that natural grade comes from
the east side of the neighborhood and up into our city core. So there's a lot of things in...
in our project that's got a lot of value to it, and I think it's very important to showcase
what this building's going to do for Iowa City.
Dwight/ Okay, I'm just gonna, um, run through kind of our concept for the architectural design
and really, uh, start with a ... an analysis of Iowa City. You know, we're looking basically
at Iowa City, looking at the downtown core. Um, there's a lot going on in a really small,
you know, fairly small area. It's largely divided by Gilbert Streets and Burlington
Streets, um, and as we just kind of went through the analysis, our site is landing right in
the middle of that, which really is right on the edge of the formal downtown and
University of Iowa Campus. Um, those are largely the uses to the west, across Gilbert
Street. To the south of course is the Iowa City Riverfront Crossings district, which is the,
kind of the next wave of development where that's going to start to occur. Uh, the
project site's right in the middle of kind of a public core, this building and uh, the Robert
E. Lee Rec Center, to the south. And that's surrounded on the east side by a residential
with some limited commercial, including the New Pioneer Co -op space. Uh, when
you're talking about Iowa City, really the city center and has been identified I think in a
number of presentations as the pedestrian mall, and it's the pedestrian mall that, um, kind
of anchors, or the Public Library anchors that pedestrian mall along the College Street
area, and it's that College Street area that really is the pedestrian connection then into the
eastern areas of Iowa City. Um, you know, the center of town's not only defined and
planned, but it's really defined in section, and this has come up I think, Jim, that you've
mentioned — what is the appropriate scale for a building on this site? Uh, looking at, um,
just the general topography of the buildings of downtown, you know, you see the center
of town is really where the higher buildings are located, and fantastic buildings are
located, um, I guess we're taking the approach that we should have a more transitional
building on this site, because this is basically the general building height of that 35 -foot
maximum height that's happening in the residential areas and light commercial, uh, to the
east of our building. So we're trying to be a little bit responsive to that. Uh, in our
design. Um, this is the corner of College and Gilbert Street. Has a lot of...basically I
think all of the projects have done tonight, we've identified that kind of two- to three -
story volume, capped that off, pushed our building back — again that's a... a very effective
method to be responsible to a, uh, overall building scale. As we step our building back
we're also incorporating sliding wood, uh, screens that morph and change over time so
the building, again, becomes a little more ethereal. Uh, we're looking at, um, you know
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ways to, um, just make it a little more dynamic from the upper port ... uh, upper part of the
building. When you're looking at any building, you know, of size we ... we went and did
a quick solar study on this site, so this is for our 9 -story building. Uh, in the middle of
summer you can see really the sun impact and the shading impact isn't as great of course
the sun's the highest in the sky at that point. Um, in the winter time, of course, any...
anything on that corner's going to be shady, but again, this is a 9 -story building. At
10:00, again at noon, and then at, uh, 2:00 in the afternoon. You can see even at 9- stories
it is ... there is some impact on the park, but really minimal impact on the, uh, City Hall
building. Uh, taking a look at the site, this is the existing site there at the corner of
College and Gilbert. Uh, we've identified Chauncey Swan as one of the main amenities
of this site, and it's not just our amenity. It's an amenity to City Hall, uh, providing kind
of a great front lawn approach to the front of this building, off the ... off the entry plaza.
Um, it's also an amenity for the Iowa City Farmers Market. Um, a lot of the market
happens underneath the shelter of the parking garage, but it's starting to spill out. The...
the market's growing, it's the number one in Iowa, it's top 20 in the U.S. It's spilling out
onto Washington Street. We want to make sure that we can accommodate for that
expansion, and tie it in to our building by providing, uh, step pedestrian gathering areas in
between our building and the, uh, Farmers Market site. Uh, as Tim said we're also
working with the Bicycle Library to bring them back into the core, into the center of
town. Great group, um, that's really done a lot for cycling in Iowa City, and we want to
bring them back down there, and we feel by doing that we'll get this type of activated
park space at Chauncey Swan, right in the front door of City Hall, with a retail
component that's down on that lower level, and then as you go up to the College Street
level, uh, that's where it's crucial to have a ... a partner like the New Pioneer Co -op. Uh,
looking at their building, or their space within our building, the way it reacts to the park,
gives us a great, uh, more naturalized setting for, uh, entry and exiting along the north
side, as well as a very urban, uh, anchor on the corner of College and Gilbert Streets.
Again, with that connection to the pedestrian mall. Uh, having... having the ramp next
door is ... is great. I mean, any urban ... any urban shopping center without having the
sprawling parking lot needs to accommodate itself in a... in a parking structure like that,
but we're also providing some short-term, um, on- street parking, some diagonal parking,
similar to what the Co -op has now, as well as maintaining the parallel spots on the other
side of the street. Uh, I can't imagine another use, I mean, Co -ops open 7:00 in the
morning till 11:00 at night every day. Uh, this corner of College and Gilbert's also our
main entry point for our commercial office spaces, from the downtown area. This is a
corner that's going to see, well obviously a lot more activity than it does now, but a really
heightened amount of activity. Um, and we really feel that along the corner of College
and Gilbert Street this is going to be something that really activates that site, all day,
every day uh, as well as on the back, um, basically allowing the patrons of the Co -op to
spill out, having people come down for lunch. It's kind of stepping into this urban oasis
that is the Chauncey Swan Park. It's a little bit different character from the ped mall, and
now we're providing other venues along that park space. And again, this is looking from
the front door of this building, front door of City Hall, maintaining that front law and just
providing a nice backdrop that still allows the sky to show to ... to show through. Uh, just
looking a little bit at the planning of the building. We incorporating materials that are
seen downtown, brick, uh, concrete, stone, glass, as well as using some more naturalized
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materials to kind of blend us into a more uh, lower scale setting, a little warmer palette.
Our planning basically has a parking garage on the lower level with the Bike Library,
trash and recycling areas; again our New Pioneer space on the corner of College Street,
looking out from this upper story area across exterior dining and park plaza dining to the,
uh, Chauncey Swan Park. Again a very, um, strong urban corner with our entryway to,
uh, the Co -op, our commercial office spaces, as well as our other buildings. See we are
also showing a lightwell starting to spill through. That lightwell and mezzanine area on
the Co -op's (mumbled) teaching kitchen with access to natural light. Lightwell extends
up through our second floor commercial level which ties into the parking garage. Goes
through the commercial level on third floor, and then this is where our residential
building steps back. We have apartments circling around what will become a light ... a
light core. This is now a u- shaped building. So that then we can start to have, um,
natural light coming in. This is the section through the building, coming in vertically
down this space and you can see here's College Street coming out, and then stepping
down into the existing grade of the Chauncey Swan Park. Our other residential levels go
up from there. They're all two - bedroom, one - bedroom, and efficiency units, all, uh,
smaller size, more sustainably sized. With two larger units on the top, overlooking the
park space, underneath a solar canopy that's... that's, you know, the main, um, one of the
main features of our building, but you can see here, uh, in our rendering from the ... from
the, uh, from the parking garage. I guess with that I'd like to turn it over to Justin Doyle.
He'll go through some of the more sustainable aspects (speaking away from mic)
Doyle/ Good evening again, my name is Justin Doyle. I'm a principle at Modus Consulting
Engineering. Uh, as ... it's brought me first to Iowa City. I'm very happy to have opened
our, uh, third office, uh, just up the street at, uh, Marc's second floor Vito's. We're very
proud to be here. Uh, our business growth has been largely based on our specialty in
highly energy- efficient buildings. Uh, and ... this has been a great partnership with ... with
Tim and Jake because this is something we live and breathe every day in our career. So I
want to talk for a brief moment about how we're going to attack this project. Um, we,
uh, very strongly believe in achieving LEED platinum for this project. I know that's a
very strong statement to make. This is something that we do every day. We have 55
projects under our resume right now in various states of LEED certification, all the way
to platinum, uh, in I think nine different states, uh, for this particular project, we've gone
through and we can comfortably say that we're going to be able to ... to achieve most of
85, uh, points. We only need 80 to achieve platinum, and there's a good share of ones
that we believe we'll be able to have a fighting chance at. Uh, this is something we've
done before. We're looking forward to doing it again. Something to talk about very
briefly in building construction. When we're, uh, looking at the entire building and a
way to tune the building to the site, tune the building to the most energy- efficient
utilization, uh, there's different theories in the way that building shells are constructed.
On one hand if a building has no windows, uh, you have to spend energy for artificial
light and there's no day light and uh, there's actually a fair amount of mechanical cooling
needed. On the other end of...a traditional construction, between 15 and 75% of the
building is windows, there is a large amount of heat loss and gain through different
seasons, and oftentimes that amount, uh, that amount of glazing makes it daylighting
difficult. You end up shading it most of the time. So we took that concept of 4 Zero 4
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and we tuned the building to approximately 25 %, uh, of glazing, specific (person
speaking away from mic) Fair enough! Got a rock! (laughter) Uh, an example of
feedback, we want this to be an educational experience for everyone inside the building,
and so we're providing feedback to every user in the apartments and the commercial
space to see what their building is doing for them. Uh, very quick highlights — uh, there
are 1,300 solar, uh, photovoltaic panels in this building. That produces 320 kilowatts
worth of energy. This'll be the largest, uh, photovoltaic array in Iowa. It would produce
over 500 megawatt hours a year worth of energy. Uh, in additional to regional materials,
there's a ventilation system that's using old concepts applied in a creative new one, uh, to
have no mechanical energy for ventilation, and as a result, the renewable energy system
and the energy- efficient, uh, strategies allow us to not only produce enough energy every
year to offset the entire apartment use, the upper level residential, all of the office, and all
of New Pi, if it weren't for the commercial kitchen. So, I ... we can't technically say net
zero, uh, but we call it net zero living, uh, because short of the kitchen, uh, we're there.
And with that, thank you for my 30 seconds. (laughter)
Christensen/ From the financial approach of this building, we ... we've been taking a responsible
approach to all aspects of the building, in our opinion. Scale, sustainability; we've also
taken a ... um, responsible approach to the financial aspects of the building. We want to
make sure that the City's investment achieves the same kind of return that the
development team would expect. And so, we feel that what the city gets in return for this
is not only a, um, an investment in ... in return dollars and the tax revenues of about
$400,000 a year. But you also get a net zero building and a long -term viability building.
Um, along with that we have workforce housing. We have ... we have managed our rent
structure within this building to be between $600 and $1,200 a month for individual, uh,
persons living there. So that we can encourage, um, all aspects of people to come — the
creative class, the working class, so that more and more diversity can achieve, be
occurred, uh, in downtown Iowa City. And uh ... I'll just reiterate our responsible
development encompasses all aspects of...of a building that's going to last long ... long
past our team's, uh, span here on earth and so we want to make sure that this building
speaks to what we believe in long past that time, so ... with that I'll pass it to Tim.
Dwight/ Well, I think you can see what our project kind of entails. Uh, a lot of thought's gone
into this, a lot of, uh, studies, a lot of, uh, education on, uh, how to really build an energy-
efficient net zero living space, uh, that has a lot of different partners. Um, but very
important partners, I believe, that uh, need that opportunity to expand other services, as
well as add more amenities to downtown Iowa City, as an office space — class -A, and
some urban dwelling. Getting our residents to come back down into our core, so now we
can integrate more as a community. So um, thank you again. Um, we appreciate the
opportunity and uh... (several talking away from mic)
Hayek/ Questions?
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd like to probe the sustainability components. Uh, one of the earlier, uh,
speakers, um, I ... this is my own language, not the speaker's, uh, expressed considerable
worry about having to invest too much money in ... into sustainability features because the
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payback period would be too long. So, but you're foregrounding, uh, these sustainability
features. So what's your response to this worry about the payback being too long?
Doyle/ In my professional experience, a payback is not too long. Uh, that ... the design
community oftentimes builds safety upon redundancy upon safety and you end up
creating very bloated buildings that are so robust to be able to ever possibly avoid any,
uh, risk of being accused of anything go wrong in it that they price these systems out of
contention. Uh, in ... in my own personal development projects, residential and
commercial, uh, what Jake has done in his experience, and what Tim lives every day, uh,
that's working proof that these are financially viable, and we don't view these, uh,
appendages to the building, uh, we don't view them as appendages. That
they're... they're items that in and of themselves have a rate of return, and so as an
investor don't have a good reason not to do this.
Dickens/ If we would accept your proposal and, uh, if we want something a little bigger, would
the energy efficiency be the same if it was say two or three more floors? You know, you
went to 12 instead of the nine?
Doyle/ Well, right now with the renewable design that we have on there, uh, there would be
some increase in, uh, energy generation. If we go vertical, because we'd have more
southern faced ... some more panels up, um, the ... there would become a point in which
we start getting away from the balance of the building design, the concept that we have.
Uh, a couple stories I don't think is a problem, but there's clearly a limit to what we can
do on the site, uh, responsibly.
Hayek/ Can you speak to the, uh, on the ... on the housing side, the rental versus owner- occupied?
Is there a particular reason you chose what you chose? Is it your background, do you
think the market is such that that's the better way to go? Etc?
Christensen/ I think a couple things informed that decision. Um, in my... in my career I've
developed both for -sale condominiums, as well as rental housing. And ... in Iowa City, I
think one of the other speakers said it, well, I think we're having a shift in... in how, um,
the new, um, group of people who are coming into rent apartments view their living
arrangement. Everyone has talked about creating dynamic living spaces. We've talked
about what we think we can do to create dynamic living spaces, and adjacency to ... to the
impact of what downtown Iowa City is. Along with that, those people are more inclined
to rent as opposed to, uh, purchase. And I think having a mixture of those within...
within the building is important, but the predominant portion of our building is ... is for
rent, for workforce housing, based on... on what we see in terms of market demand. I
think, um, in developing a building that is both sustainable and uh, with the intent of
holding it long -term, it can be, um, modified pretty easily. We will be constructing this
building to condominium standards. So that in the event that market, uh, conditions shift,
it can easily be converted to more for -sale housing.
Hayek/ Thank you.
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Dobyns/ Tim, you've grown up in Iowa City. This is a question that actually applies to, uh, three
of the other groups as well, but ... there's a concern about potential competition with
Bread Garden just down the road by moving New Pi incrementally closer to that area.
Um, depending on how you look at such ventures, that could be seen as a positive, a
negative, or a neutral. I was wondering if you could comment.
Dwight/ Well they always say competition is good for everybody in the market space. Uh,
especially in the industry I'm in! Um ... not a whole lot! Uh, you know, I think there will
be some ... some, a little bit of, uh, affect. Any time that, um, you get two spaces or two
entities that provide the same services, uh, you get a little bit of competition, especially if
you move them closer. Um, so I'm sure that there's going to be some of an effect, uh, as
New Pi expands and gets bigger.
Dobyns/ Uh -huh.
Dwight/ Um, but ... you know, it's a ... I think it's an opportunity for them to do that. They've
been down in that location for ... as long as I've been alive. Uh, and they're fighting
floods every, uh, three to four years. So I think it's a great opportunity for them to, uh, to
move out of the flood waters and move to high ground.
Dobyns/ Thank you.
Hayek/ (mumbled) questions? (mumbled) losing a little steam here!
Throgmorton/ Ah, speak for yourself!
Hayek/ Yeah, I know. That ... this is your bailiwick, isn't it?
Throgmorton/ I guess I would like to ask one really simple question. With regard to the images
that we see, like this one in particular, wh ... what are the gray panels? Are those the PV
panels or are they something else? (coughing, unable to hear) I haven't been able to tell.
Seabold/ Gray panels, all.the blue panels...
Throgmorton/ The south - facing stuff, on the, what looks to me like gray or blue, I don't know.
Seabold/ Uh all of the blue panels, kind of cascading down the face of the building, those are all
the photovoltaic or the solar panels.
Throgmorton/ That's what I was wondering. Okay.
Seabold/ Um, you know, these ... these grayer panels, that's just an insulated wall panel. Where
again we're balancing our exterior shell with an insulated shell, as well as those windows
that are going to offer the spectacular views, but we're just being a little more efficient in
the design of our exterior shell of our building.
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Throgmorton/ Okay. And the ... the photovoltaic panels are, uh, tilted somewhat I suppose,
they're not, uh, vertical?
Seabold/ The whole roof is... is at an optimal degree, to capture that solar, uh, solar energy, and
then of course the ones on the ... on ... on this face, uh, below that brow are angled. The
ones on the other, uh, kind of on the stair tower, uh, are horizontal, which decrease the
efficiency a little bit, but we're still utilizing that landscape for power needs.
Throgmorton/ Uh -huh. Okay.
Hayek/ There ... there appears to be a, somewhat of a setback once you get above the office
levels, um ... first, is that so, and secondly on how many sides of the building do you ... do
you set it back?
Seabold/ Yeah, the building steps back on... it would be on the north -south and uh, west sides.
Hayek/ Okay.
Seabold/ Then the balconies protrude off the, uh, east side, toward the parking garage.
Hayek/ Okay.
Seabold/ We have a path in between our building and the parking garage to access the park, and
the balconies protrude over that.
Hayek/ Right.
Seabold/ But other than that everything is stepped back... somewhere.
Hayek/ Okay. Thanks! Okay, well, hey, thank you, to all of you and uh, we appreciate your
efforts thus far and your presence here tonight! (several responding)
Yapp/ We have one more proposal. Is there interest in a break or keep moving? Keep moving?
Hayek/ Just keep going.
Yapp/ Okay. Uh, the next group is, uh, Ryan Companies and Iceberg Development. (laughter)
Ryan Companies / Iceberg Development Group:
Gullickson/ Should we dive right in then?
Hayek/ Please do!
Gullickson/ Well thank you for allowing us to come and present tonight. My name's Marc
Gullickson, and I'm one -third of the team here tonight. I'm with Ryan Companies and
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Jim Bergman on my left and Brad Brown from, uh, OPN is behind me. They (mumbled)
they'll be talking in a few minutes, but ... sitting out and watching these presentations I
think the development Gods were watching cause it gave me a great analogy to talk about
our presentation. If you think back to the late 60s, early 70s, one of my favorite TV
shows was Monty Python, which also dates me (laughter) and at some course during the
show when they needed a transition, uh, Terry Gilliam or ... or Eric Idle would walk out
and say, "Now for something totally different!" So we're going to talk about something
totally different. Maybe you'll, um, not see that, but I think it is drastically different. So
just a couple of other comments, uh, prefacing our actual formal presentation. Lot of
conversation tonight about being local. Uh, we are local. Ryan is local; we have an
office in Cedar Rapids, we own ground in Coralville and in Iowa City, we own projects
in town, so we know what that means. OPN has done a lot of work here, uh, my co-
developer Jim Bergman's done a lot of work here. So we are very local. Um, secondly
we are part of a different, and you're going to see why in a second, but I think I need to
tell you why we got there. I think it's important to know why we're different and the
logic and process that led us to outcome B rather than outcome A. Um, we ... have spent
a lot of time with New Pioneer over the last 12 months. We've met with the City, uh,
we've met with the University. We've met with, uh, ICAD and the development folks,
try to get a sense for what the market was for the various, uh, potential part ... uh, parts of
this project. And we've reached some conclusions, and that's one of the things that's
different about this particular project. We've also done a lot of planning — urban
planning in terms of understanding what's being, uh, for ... foreseen for the City and how
our project might fit there. One thing we've not done is had a lot of public input and
that's something we would want to do in the next round if we're still involved and that's
meet with the public and make sure they like what they're hearing. So with that as
background, I'd like to, uh, touch on what our formal agenda is. The team, I briefly
touched on ... on me already but Ryan Companies, eight offices in the United States. We
do $700 million a year. We are ... we are developers, we are construction managers, we
are constructors, so the pricing you see is our pricing. We know we can deliver it. We're
owners and we are also property managers. So we wear a multitude of hats. Um, we do
every kind of project, uh, out there, but we do a lot of residential and we do a lot of...a
lot of office. Just a few projects to touch on here, to give you a sense of that creditability.
Uh, this is 222 Hennepin, right on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, 500,000
square feet, 286 apartments. It has a 40,000 square foot Whole Food store, so think of
what we're talking about tonight, put it on steroids, and that's 222 Hennepin.
$70,000,000, and we'll talk about that a little bit more later. Midtown Exchange, a
project that George Sherman mentioned. George was involved in this project, it's
actually our project, uh, a hotel, office, residential, uh, also a grocery store. Very
successful, big award - winning project that Ryan is quite proud of. Thomas Place and
Thomas and Glenview projects that Jim Bergman and Ryan have done together.
Nicolette Mall, if you look at all the tall buildings in Nicolette Mall, uh, they're projects
that Ryan has largely done. Everything from Target Center to U.S. Bank, so again just in
terms of creditability, we understand urban development and we understand, uh, mixed -
use development. Water Tower Place, a residential project that OPN recently did. So all
of that creditability, background, team — we're done with that now. We want to talk
about the project! We had specific goals as we dove into this project and they're
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articulated here. We wanted this to be affordable. That meant we needed a construction
price point that allowed us to get it done, get it built. We need it to be financeable. That
means we couldn't have a lot of speculative space in it. We had to have known
commodities, something very important to a project like this ... like this is to go to the
bank and say this is what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, give us our
financing. We wanted it achievable in two years. Uh, we think there's a lot of energy
and momentum for this now. We know New Pi needs their space quickly, and we feel
personally that the climate for financing's going to change outside of 24 months, and we
want to catch financing when it's low. We ... we need to have this project successful for
New Pi. They have 26,000 members. They need to move what Tim said about them and
their flood issues is absolutely right. They need to be in new space, whether they move a
block this way or that way, those people are going to continue to shop there, and we need
to solve that problem, and to solve it in an affordable way. As the project gets more
complicated it gets more expensive, which isn't good for them or for us. We'll talk about
sustainability and then we're going to talk about urban planning in just a bit too. The
major variables that affect those goals in our minds are the number of users, the number
of owners. So you may have only two uses in the building, which is what we have —
residential and we have, uh ... uh, the grocery store. That means only two owners to deal
with, or only two users to deal with. In this case we're only talking two owners also, one
owner for the grocery and one owner for the residential. And I think the Mayor is going
to be asking me about why there are no condos. I'll wait for that for the question and
answer session. Uh, construction finishes, and then we're going to talk about the
massing. Now when I said we're different, let me just summarize it this way. We only
have two uses, we only have two owners, and we don't think this building should be
taller than about six floors. Those are the main differences, so focus on that as we go
through, and I'll ask Brad Brown to, uh, talk a little bit about the urban planning question,
the massing question. Excuse me, let me ... I want to set this up a little bit differently.
Uh, this ... the 222 project that I talked about, the 286 apartment building, this sat vacant
for seven years as other developers considered vertical, a more verticality in that site in
downtown Minneapolis, more verticality and more uses, and what they centered back on
two owners and two users, and seven floors. Cheaper construction because you're not
going to steel and concrete construction, and a mass that allowed you to get it done and
get it financed. So, Brad, please go on.
Brown/ Uh, good evening, as Marc said my name is Brad Brown and I'm a principle with OPN
Architects. Uh, we're an 82- person firm with offices in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines,
and uh, if you were to look at our web site, our portfolio work, we have a diverse, uh,
style of projects or diverse project types. A lot of work here at the University of Iowa.
We do a lot of public work, public libraries, K thru 12 schools, uh, higher education,
corporate work, etc. But I think if you also look at our web site we have a very diverse,
uh, style of aesthetics and we believe that the project should be driven by the contextual
relationship of the site should inform the project, uh, very strongly, and so we ... we began
this project working with, uh, Marc and Jim and their groups, and talked about the ... the
program for the facility, uh, number of floors, number of units, etc. Where they were
looking at it from a financial aspect, we were looking at it from an urban design aspect,
and so to start with, uh, we have a site plan on the screen. I think, uh, the previous
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presentation talked about the downtown district. It's about an 11 -block area, uh, right in
the core of downtown. This is the, uh, high - density, urban part of Iowa City. To the
south of Burlington Street there's been a master plan developed for the Riverfront
Crossing, but as we look at the site for this facility, you know, adjacent or south of the
Chauncey Swan Park, this is kind of a transitional site. It's ... it's adjacent to the high -
density, urban downtown district, but it's also adjacent to a very wonderful historic
residential neighborhood with small - scale, you know, very simple two -story facilities,
and so we looked at the site from, uh, from that aspect and we began to explore two
different scenarios for the project very early on. We looked at, uh, what we defined as a
mid -rise facility which has a single floor of commercial space for New Pioneer. It would
be a higher first floor, taller space, almost a two -story space for New Pioneer, and then
four stories of...of residential space above as a mid -rise solution and contrasting that we
looked at a facility that had four stories of commercial with fourteen floors of residential
above. So we looked at kind of a mid -rise and high -rise solution, and I'm going to run
through a series of images that ... that we looked at for this transitional block and looked
at the impact on the community. So we ... we very simply modeled downtown Iowa City
and some of the adjacent residential areas, and started to look at our ... our project site and
these two options from various vantage points. This was an aerial view that you saw
from kind of a southeast direction, uh, now if we look at a... a view from Gilbert Street,
so driving north along Gilbert Street you can start to see kind of the more, uh, urban
aspect of downtown to the left and the lower -scale buildings to the right. You can see the
mid -rise solution, contrasting that with the high -rise solution. If we continue on, uh, kind
of looking down College Street now driving from the east, so driving through the, uh,
urban part of downtown, you can see the mid -rise solution, contrasted with the high -rise.
Uh, same concept now driving south on Gilbert Street, the mid -rise solution and the high -
rise, uh, looking at College Street and also driving from the residential area, the historic
residential area back towards downtown, you can see, uh, the mid -rise solution and the
high -rise, and uh, an aerial view from, uh, as if we were in Plaza Towers looking towards
the northwest, you can see the mid -rise solution and the high -rise, and this is where it
became very apparent to us as we start to look at some of these lower -scale development
areas, it's ... it's one thing to look at the building adjacent to the downtown urban core,
but we also need to look to the east, to the historic neighborhood. Um, kind of an aerial
view from across the Pentacrest looking back beyond, and so we started to look at a
number of things. We did, uh, we did the sun- setting analysis. We looked at a number of
different solutions. We as a group started to rate these internally and I won't go through
all of these aspects but I'll just highlight some of the ones that really stood out to us. We
started to, uh, kind of score these, if you will, on a number of factors. One is ... is this
contextuality. You know, what's a good neighbor for this building? How will this
neighbor ... how will this building impact all of the uses around it, and we felt very
strongly that the mid -rise option was the right idea. Uh, there's definitely a perception,
we believe a perception of ..of a parking, uh, issue in this part of town, and ... and it may
very well be a reality of... of a parking situation, and we believe that the mid -rise solution
provides a much friendly, uh, aspect or impact onto the parking within downtown Iowa
City. Uh, we looked at the City's Master Plan and we believe that really as you look at
the Master Plan on this urban ... urban core and then the Riverfront Crossing
developments of the south, we felt that this site should be looked at as more of a
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transitional space, and so we thought that the mid -rise solution was more in line with the
City's Master Plan, as well. Marc talked about the complexity of the owners and the
users, and we also felt that the mid -rise solution was appropriate there. From that
standpoint, as well. So, um, now to look at our actual solution. So we ... we settled on a
mid -rise option, uh, to orient you with these images Gilbert Street to the left, College
Street, so north is ... is toward the top of the screen. You can see the Chauncey Swan, uh,
Park. We looked at filling that entire, uh, section and then placing the residential tower
along Gilbert Street, and as we looked at some of the sun studies, we felt that if it was
oriented a different way it would impact the park more dramatically from uh, from
shading aspects and so we felt that that north -south orientation was appropriate. Uh, we
also liked having that relationship with the taller portion towards the urban downtown.
That also gives us a little bit of separation for views from residential areas out to the
parking garage to the east. Uh, on the remaining portion of the roof above the New
Pioneer Co -op then we're proposing a, uh, urban landscape garden, kind of, uh, vegetable
garden if you will with a rooftop terrace. Uh, in the basement level we're looking at 30
parking stalls with access off of the existing parking ramp. If you look at the street level
fagade or street level presence then we've got a 20,000 square foot space for the New
Pioneer Co -op. We've got the main entry to their facility off of College Street. We've
got two different entrances into, uh, the condo towers so that they have separate, defined
entrances. We do have an access off of this, uh, higher level of the parking garage into
the space that can access New Pioneer, and kind of an enclosed patio space that ... that's
usable by both the tenants of the residential space as well as the New Pioneer space that
provides access then into the condo space and even through to Gilbert Street. Uh, within
the residential tower we have a... a, uh, we think a pretty good mix of two - bedroom units;
we have 11 two- bedroom condos; 24 one - bedroom; and 24 studio condominiums. On the
second level space, uh, those facilities are ... you can see the ... kind of north -south
orientation. We did carve out this one, uh, area above, uh, or kind of along College Street
to be residential amenities and we could foresee that being perhaps fitness space, game
room area, community room type space that would help to activate that rooftop garden.
Floors, uh, three through five would then be the same studio, one - bedroom, two- bedroom
breakdown. The one thing we also like about the north -south access, from a true
sustainability and shading standpoint an east -west orientation may be a little bit more
appropriate but what we like about this for a housing aspect is every unit gets direct
sunlight at some point during the day, so the units facing to the east, uh, get that morning
sun. The units to the west get the afternoon sun, where with a north -south orientation you
have a lot of units to the north that don't get any direct ... uh, sunlight into the facility.
Uh, from a building section I think this is very important. Now you can ... similar to those
3 -D massings, you can start to see how the building relates to, uh, the uses directly across
Gilbert, placing the higher portion of our unit along Gilbert allows the building to step
down towards the east with a nice, uh, kind of datum line relationship to the parking
structure. Uh, the four -story condo facility, we are introducing some raised roof elements
to help break down the scale of the building, and also to, uh, allow some kind of loft -like
feel for the upper floor units. Uh, within our fagade, as you look at our outside design,
we ... we tried to find that balance between something that was appropriate for the urban
area, but also appropriate for the residential area for the urban scale or this transitional
space, and so we wanted to break down the scale of this building even though we are the
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smallest building, we felt that was very important to break down the ... the materials. So
we've got three different primary materials. We have, uh, some ... some wood panels, we
have some metallic panels, and then some pre -cast concrete masonry elements. This is a
view from Chauncey Swan Park looking back toward the facility and we just felt it was
important that we break down the massing of this facility to relate also to the residential
areas to the east, um, I think, you know, if we were to phrase this, we'd... we'd probably
call it more of a, kind of an urban, or a European contemporary kind of feel to the
building with the choice of materials. Uh, this is a view now looking down College
Street, um, so superimposed onto a current photograph, and you can see the Library down
in the background. Uh, as we looked at the architecture of the building also we wanted to
differ... differentiate it from some of the other, uh, brick apartment buildings that have
been built within this area. We felt that it was a little bit more important that we ... we
have a building that is a stronger transition towards the rest of downtown with the choice
of materials, but we liked the way that in this image you can see the datum line that
comes across at the parking facility. The building starts to step up towards downtown.
Uh, we talked about sustainability as a team. We have targeted LEED silver design, uh,
for the facility. Like a lot of the, uh, people that have presented tonight, we've done a
number of sustainable projects. We have over a dozen LEED certified projects of all
different levels, uh, up to LEED gold. We currently have two LEED platinum projects
on the ... on the boards as a firm. Uh, some of the things, some of the strategies we've
looked at, and I won't run through all of these, but we've looked at the roof garden and
the urban vegetable garden aspect, uh, some potable tank arrays on the element, uh,
above that community space on the second level. We've looked at storm water retention
aspects with perhaps, uh, collecting rainwater with a cistern to help land, or help irrigate
the, uh, the roof. We've looked at perma- street paving, uh, with Ryan Companies we've
done a number of projects that have, uh, deferred over 95% of the job site waste from the
landfill. So a number of strategies as we would pursue a LEED silver, uh, rating. Before
I turn this over to Jim, I did want to highlight this last image. This is actually a
photograph we took from the 8t' floor of Plaza Towers looking to the east, and then we
placed a ... an image of our building within that. I just think it's really telling as you look
at this beautiful tree -lined area. That's an actual photograph from, as I say, the 8`h floor
of Plaza Tower, looking toward that residential area to the east, and that's just why ... why
we landed on this mid -rise solution as what we felt was an appropriate answer to this site.
Bergman/ Hello, as Marc indicated my name is Jim Bergman. I am the sole owner of Iceberg
Development. Iceberg has been involved primarily in, uh, residential development
ownership for 25 years. Uh, probably a total of about 100 communities and 3,000 to
4,000 units. Um, when we formulated the financing goals, we really came up with five,
uh, elements in our plan. The first element is cost - effective construction, which as we
worked through the models pretty much dictated that we work on the mid -rise as opposed
to the high -rise, uh solution, uh, that we were looking at. The second element is that we
ended up with two users and two owners. We felt that that was critical in terms of the
cost and the timing, uh, of the project, so that we got it done in a ... in a quick manner, uh,
and in the current financing environment that exists. The third element is that we end up
with a market rate return for the equity stack that's associated with the project. The
fourth element is that we obtain both construction and permanent financing commitments
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at competitive rates very early in the process. And the fourth is that the request that we
have for the TIF, um, is predicated or modeled on potential other soft funds that might
come about in the future as we work further on this project. Um, in terms of equity
commitments that ... that commitment's currently in place at a market rate I ... IRR of
about 6 %. So that's done, that ... that, you can check that off. In terms of bank financing
we have a two -year construction commitment in place. We also have a $7.1 million
permanent loan commitment in place. But what we're hoping to do is work on financing
packages that are apparently more attractive, um ... it's stuff that we've done in the
fut... in the past so... so we think that we have, uh, that available to us but it's not
available currently because we're not far enough along in the process to really but those
applications in place. We also think that there's a possibility to provide additional, uh,
soft money grants, credits, uh, that again our group has done a lot of in the past. We're
simply not far enough in the process currently to be able to put those applications in
place, but we're really looking at our... at our TIF request from the City to be a needs-
only request. So to the extent that we get some of that financing, that we're talking about
or those soft funds, we're going to reduce our TIF request. We wanted to put together a
project that's currently viable, that currently has all of the financing in place, and then
continue to work on it as the ... as the, uh, process continues. Um, the last thing that we
just wanted to point out, I know it's part of our ... our package that we put together as is
all of the sources and uses. I don't want to bore you with the details, but the last thing we
just wanted to indicate is that we're looking at the City to contribute the ground.
Gullickson/ That is our presentation. Be happy to answer any questions. The key again, uh,
smaller footprint, height wise, which allows us to build less expensively, two users, and
two owners, and with that, we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Hayek/ Well, I'll start. Marc, you forced my hand on this. I'll have to ask you about the housing
component, um, so if you could speak to that and also speak to what your thought process
was on ... on whether office should be a part of this. Obviously this ... this proposal lacks
that.
Gullickson/ I'll answer the second question and start on the housing and see if Jim wants to add
to the housing. Um, I own office space or our company owns office space right now in
Coralville, in a very nice bioventure's facility. Uh, we've had a lot of square footage
vacant there for almost three years. Uh, the University's been a good tenant, but we'd
really hoped to get more private users. My comment is there's a lot of interest in class -A
space, there's not a lot of interest in paying class -A rate, and we have that problem across
the state. People are used to $11 and $12 rents and class -A space, once you build it now,
is $14, $15, $16 or up and I think there's a problem there. Um, George Sherman said
earlier it's very difficult to do spec office space. It's impossible. If I go into the bank
and I don't have, uh, the office space leased, it's discounted totally in the ... in the
proposal, in the proforma, and everybody else has to carry the weight of that, which
means if I put two floors of office there and don't have it fully leased, I have to go back
to New Pi and ask them to carry part of that carry -cost, and right now carry -costs could
be a couple of years. So I think you could get office rented, leased; I think it would
delay the project, get us outside our two year time horizon for ... for good competitive
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rates right now, and complicate the project. I go back to Hennepin. Uh, it sat seven years
where people tried to put office in it. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? Maybe. Is it a
guaranteed bet? No. On the housing side of it, uh, we agree with earlier presenters that
workforce is rental housing right now. Uh, the other problem that I don't think has really
been mentioned is that if you did go to condos, and these could be converted to condos,
and uh, then had potentially 20 more owners, you'd have 20 more people that have or 20
more individuals that have to get financing and you have to ... you cannot again go to the
bank and put the whole deal together and tell all those pieces together. So it complicates
financing, it complicates decision making, and the market in our minds is on the
residential side, excuse me, for the rental side. Anything to add to that? (person
speaking away from mic)
Hayek/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ It won't surprise you to hear my question, I think. Some people might say that,
uh, by, uh... focusing only on residential you're foregoing an opportunity to do something
exciting by providing, uh, as, uh, Marc Moen's group has, by providing bowling lanes, by
providing, uh, space for FilmScene or some other theater, by providing some other, uh,
cultural opportunities like that. What ... and I know you've gone through the thinking
about this and have chosen to focus on the residential, but how do you respond to the
claim that you ... you're foregoing an opportunity here, or we would be if we chose you.
Gullickson/ Well uh, two comments. We ... I mentioned Hennepin project. We're doing another
project in St. Paul, mirrored much like Hennepin. We have found across the country that
a grocery /residential is a great match. Uh, it brings a lot of vitality to a ... to the
neighborhood, um, the hours were talked about earlier by Marc Seabold I think and it's
true. They're there open, the lights on, many hours of the day — it works well. So we like
that combination. The second point I'd make though, I would make though, is I was
careful in stating that this could be, I think I said, uh, five or six floors, because we can
build five floors with the kind of construction we want on top of New Pioneer, and still
stay within a lower cost construction price point. So in theory we could go up one more
floor and if a commercial use came along that we thought was appropriate, add to it. We
don't think that compromises the mid -rise approach or the mass ... the urban massing. It
keeps our price point down. We just didn't feel comfortable committing to it, uh, without
a little more of a bird in the hand.
Dickens / And what were the price ranges of the rental units that you're looking at, an average?
Gullickson/ We ... we put a number in the proforma of $1.75 a square foot, so you're looking at
units that are anywhere from 500 to 950 square feet. And we see rentals around the
country go anywhere, in larger facilities, they can be, um, $1.40, $1.50 and we see `em as
high as, in urban areas, $2.50. Our market information tells us that $1.75 is good in this
town, it's reasonable.
Champion/ So you're saying that the rental and the grocery store are a great winning
combination.
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Gullickson/ Residential and grocery, doesn't necessarily have to be rental in our case we think
that's a more effective way to approach the project. Residential... residential rental.
Champion/ Okay, and don't take this wrong, so this would be basically very risk -free for your
investment.
Gullickson/ Risk -free, uh, (both talking) is risk free. You still have to get it priced. You still
have to get it built. You haven't, you know, there's a lot of work left to do on that
project. We ... we fashioned this such that if things turn out better than we project, uh, it
doesn't get better for us. It gets better for the City, because we're looking at bringing that
gap financing piece down, um ... I think any developer would prefer to have something
with as little risk in it as you can and still gives you a reasonable return. I'm certainly
not ... we're not an exception to that.
Champion/ Right, of course. Thank you.
Gullickson/ I think this two -year period is something that, you know, we mentioned pretty
clearly early and it's something you need to thought about, uh, there can be a lot of
exciting ideas but if they can't be done or if they ... they take a lot of energy and sap
energy and then you're three years down the road and suddenly rates are no longer at 2
and 3 %, we've missed a real opportunity.
Hayek/ Is ... is that the essence of...of at least that portion of ..of your argument, that, um, or
pitch rather that this represents a more viable, uh, achievable, uh, project...
Gullickson/ I think it's a very viable. I think it's very achievable, but had we been convinced
that we could go 14 or 15 floors here, and make it work in a residential perspective, we
would have been happy to talk about that because we still could have kept with two users
and two owners, cause we think that's part of it but we just think from an urban massing
perspective, that's wrong. We think there's going to be more than enough demand for
the number of units we have. We ... I mean, in theory we could have another floor of
residential still. So I would say it's the combination of viability and feasibility and the
fact that the massing really forced us to think of a smaller facility. Does that...
Hayek/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Let me toss in an urban planning softball your way and give you a chance to hit it.
Uh, with regard to the first presentation, I asked what the developer's vision was for
downtown Iowa City, and for how they saw this particu ... their particular project fitting
into that vision. I wonder if you could articulate what your team's vision is for
downtown Iowa City and how this project fits into it.
Brown/ I can try to answer that. I think as we look at the downtown urban core, as defined, you
know, the City has it defined on a number of images on their web site. It's kind of that
11 -block area, which is the high -dense urban core. This is outside of that, and it's a
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transitional block between the urban core and very small scale historic neighborhood.
And so we felt that it's important to recognize that as a transition block. We aren't part
of that downtown urban core, and the City has a very, kind of robust and well -done
Master Plan for this Riverfront Crossing which I guess I interpret that to mean that a ... if
some of that core development's going to expand, it's going to go to the south, not to the
east into these historic neighborhoods.
Hayek/ Any other questions? Okay, gentlemen, thank you for your time (several responding)
for your interest. Okay, um... as you can tell the questions from the council were, did not
get to the ... to the numbers, to the ... to a financial, uh, aspects and um, that ... that's
essentially because we're at the design and concept stage and uh, you know, once we
proceed to greater detail with ... with the selected developer, that's where you get into
more of the financial analysis, the ... the gap funding, the underwriting that, you know,
and the hard, uh, questions on... on numbers. Uh, tonight was more about broader
concepts, design and whatnot. So, um, John unless you've got something you want to...
Yapp/ Oh, just to, uh, reiterate to the public that we do have all the proposals on the City's web
site at icgov.org/cgproject uh, and there is a email link to accept email comments, and
we'll have that open until December 10''. And we will have an agenda item on your
December 4th meeting to, uh, take any verbal comments.
Hayek/ That's right. So we are opening up all of the channels of communication and ... and uh,
hope and expect that we'll hear from the public on ... on this. Um, I want to thank the
developer teams for the work they've done to date. We have five compelling, uh, choices
before us, um, and I think this will be a very difficult decision, but one that we will make
knowing that whatever we go with (noise on mic) we'll see a vast improvement to this
project and a ... and a great addition to downtown. So, thanks to all of you. Thanks to
those who are watching, uh, and with that we'll adjourn the meeting. Good night!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special
work session of November 26, 2012.