Gazette Daily News Briefing, April 5
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 5.
It'll be breezy again Wednesday, but we'll swap in colder temperatures instead of severe weather. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with temperatures falling to around 40 degrees by 10 a.m. The high temperature will settle in at about 51 degrees. It will remain windy throughout the day, with gusts as high as 35 mph. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 29 degrees.
Severe weather mostly missed Eastern Iowa Tuesday, but of course last week we weren’t so lucky.
Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity’s warehouse in southeast Iowa City is a “total loss” after last week’s tornado outbreak in Eastern Iowa.
The 5,760-square-foot warehouse was the organization’s main storage space for everything necessary to build and repair homes, including construction tools, safety equipment, new appliances, vehicles and trailers, the group said in a news release Tuesday.
Habitat for Humanity’s warehouse, built in 2016 at 4764 420th St. SE, also was used for volunteer space and workshops in addition to storing materials and other needed items. The nonprofit works to provide affordable housing in Johnson, Cedar, Iowa and Washington counties.
Construction Manager Christy Shipley added how the warehouse was “my dream project for more than a decade.”
It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Hawes said it is likely a tornado hit the warehouse and the group’s neighboring HabLab classroom during the March 31 storms.
The neighboring HabLab facility still is standing but “sustained significant damage” and will need “several critical repairs,” the release said. This building includes a classroom, kitchenette, bathroom, staff office and additional storage.
A massive reorganization of the executive branch of state government, proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and informed by a consulting firm, was signed into law Tuesday.
Reynolds signed into law the nearly 1,600-page bill, Senate File 514, which reduces the number of cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16 and eliminates scores of vacant state government jobs.
Reynolds and supporters of the realignment note that Iowa’s state government has not undergone a structural review in roughly 40 years and said the proposal will make state government more efficient in its operations and services to Iowans.
Critics have asserted that it places too much authority with the governor and have described it as a “power grab” by Reynolds.
A project to convert the upper floors of the Iowa Building in downtown Cedar Rapids into multifamily housing got a $5.5 million boost from the state last week.
Developer Steve Emerson’s redevelopment of the Iowa Building, located at 211 Fourth Ave. SE, received historic preservation tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The program supports projects that rehabilitate historic buildings while keeping their character-defining features.
Emerson will convert the third through seventh floors of the Iowa Building into downtown housing units. The first and second floors will be renovated into office space. Jimmy John’s will continue to operate on the first floor.
Once complete, the project will add 41 market-rate rental units — all one-bedrooms. Emerson said work started in January and is slated to wrap up late this year or early 2024.
The IEDA also previously awarded $975,559 in workforce housing tax credits toward the Iowa Building’s redevelopment, as well as $750,000 in brownfield/grayfield tax credits. Both awards were announced in 2021.
This is Emerson’s only active downtown Cedar Rapids housing project, but he said he is contemplating other projects in the urban core.
