Building boom expected near former Rath site

Feb 3, 2010 — Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

Tim Jamison

Feb. 2, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WATERLOO -- Residents living around the former Rath Packing Co. should be seeing a lot of heavy construction machinery this spring.

Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously Monday to approve a loan for a $4 million expansion of Crystal Distribution Services on the former meatpacking plant site.

With the previously announced renovation of the former Rath Administration building by a California developer and the planned construction of a Human Services campus -- including a new Operation Threshold headquarters, women's correctional facility and Northeast Iowa Food Bank distribution center -- the Rath Brownfields Area is in line for substantial investment this year.

"It could be a really exciting time for that area," said Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson. "That could be the busiest area in the city" when the construction season arrives.

There was no discussion and no objections were lodged when council members approved a $2.2 million loan to Crystal from a pool of federal funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The low-interest loan will help Crystal construct a new cold storage facility south of its existing cold storage building at Vinton and Sycamore streets.

Council members nearly four years ago approved a development agreement for the project. But delays in the demolition of the former Rath maintenance and cooper buildings and the 2008 floods -- which heavily affected the Rath area and Crystal Distribution Services -- led to delays.

The financial arrangement is part of a Section 108 loan and Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) grant the city received through HUD in 2002.

The city had to borrow and pay back $8 million through the Section 108 program to receive the $2 million BEDI grant, with all projects required to benefit a low-income neighborhood. The city has already spent the BEDI grant on home rehabilitation, improving Lafayette Park and setting up a debt payment reserve.

The city has loaned itself money to pay for downtown river wall construction and street repairs in the Rath area. The loan to Crystal, based on rehiring laid-off workers and the creation of new jobs, is the first loan to a private development.

"We have more money to loan" in the brownfields areas, Anderson said, noting the loan amounts are tied to job creation.

In other business, council members approved a request from Contemporary Urban Development to rezone land on the northeast corner of Idaho Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for the development of a convenience store. Developers have agreed that alcohol sales will represent less than half the net profits from the business.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0150-41738504