An extensive redevelopment project at the former ACT campus in Iowa City has been launched.
Work is underway on the nearly 400-acre property – bordered by Scott Boulevard, Dodge Street and Interstate 80 – to create a walkable community of senior and mixed-use housing, food retail, health and wellness, education, and natural areas.
ACT, Inc. sold the property in April to JNB Iowa City, LLC and JNB Campus, LLC for a combined $17.5 million, according to Iowa City assessor records. The companies are a joint operation between Iceberg Development Group, Salida Partners and commercial broker Riley Hogan of CBRE.
The scope of the project was a little intimidating at first for Steve Long, Salida Partners founder and owner.
“I have to be honest – at first, I was like, ‘no way,’” he said at a Greater Iowa City, Inc. networking event Oct. 29 that took place on the campus. “Despite its beauty and the amount of space, it’s a very challenging project, but we have creative…architects, engineers and investors that are allowing us to do this right and thoughtfully for the community.”
Architect firms Shive-Hattery and Slingshot Architects have been tapped for the project, along with structural engineer Shoemaker & Haaland and construction company DCI Group.
First phase to focus on senior housing
The project’s first phase tackles a trio of existing buildings at 200 ACT Drive. Two are being converted to a 44-unit senior housing complex, with one-to-two bedroom units ranging from 1,100 to 1,700 square feet. ACT is leasing the third building, maintaining an office space for the approximately 75 employees employed on-site, according to Iowa City Planning and Zoning documents.
ACT’s former conference space and attached cafeteria, the sprawling, 29,093-square-foot Ferguson Center, lies west of the buildings.
“We’d like that to be the hub of the neighborhood,” Mr. Long said.
The developers are in talks with food service contractors to provide dining for the senior community. Nothing has been finalized yet, but JNB Campus is envisioning several uses for the Ferguson Center’s cafeteria space, Mr. Long said. With the conference space, developers are picturing a venue open to the public for events, while the smaller rooms on the upper floors will be dedicated to senior wellness and the dining service.
At the intersection of Dubuque Road and Scott Boulevard, Iowa City-based retirement community Oaknoll will expand its footprint with the construction of a 141-unit senior living complex, composed of five interconnected buildings. The development will be adjacent to its existing 66-unit senior living complex, Oaknoll East, at 2660 Scott Boulevard. Hodge Construction will lead the building effort.
At 60 ACT Place, just southeast of the Iowa City Community School District’s (ICCSD) Center for Innovation – the former Tyler Building – The Iowa Housing Fellowship is leading the construction of nine two-bedroom homes and a 35-unit apartment building geared for income-restricted seniors.
The development, called “The Iris,” was awarded $1.3 million in federal tax credits from the Iowa Finance Authority in May.
Oaknoll’s project start date is yet to be determined, Mr. Long said, but the existing buildings at 200 ACT Drive – with the exception of the leased building – are currently undergoing renovations, and the senior living community at 60 ACT Place will begin construction in spring 2026.
Commercial development includes grocery, restaurants
A 34-acre commercial development is planned for North Dodge Street and Harvest Road, with a grocery store emerging as the first confirmed tenant after submitting a letter of intent. The developers say the project has drawn interest from additional retailers, including restaurants, an investor and a financial institution. Plans for the site also call for a small fast-casual drive-thru space of just under 2,200 square feet.
“We’re trying to have (the retail space) accessible to the neighbors as well as to Dodge Street. So we’re trying to push the grocery closer to the neighborhood than it is (to) Dodge, and we’re trying to make it safe for pedestrians,” Mr. Long said, declining to name the grocery store for contractual reasons.
To make way for the emerging commercial district, ACT’s first office structure – the Lindquist building, named for the company’s co-founder, E.F. Lindquist – is undergoing demolition.
The 28,529-square-foot building at 101 ACT Drive is “a fortress,” Mr. Long said. Constructed with asbestos-based building materials and sitting empty for five years with no operating HVAC has left the 57-year-old structure in poor condition.
“We looked at turning it into residential (housing) but it didn’t work,” Mr. Long said.
Commercial build-out will be on hold until the city extends ACT Drive to Dodge Street, a project with an estimated start date of spring or summer 2026. The two roads once connected, but the connecting portion of ACT Drive was removed in 2002.
Organic farm and spa
Plans for an organic farm and spa on the campus are taking shape, though it will take some time before those plans can translate into action, said Chris Grebner, one of the farm’s co-founders.
The farm – Brightside – will be located on a 10-acre plot immediately southeast of 200 ACT Drive.
“We’re looking to do a cafe marketplace with a bakery and a small dinner restaurant with an attached farm, as well as a spa and a handful of villas (for) overnight stays for visitors,” Mr. Grebner said, adding that the farm will supply the produce for the cafe and restaurant.
North of the cafe and restaurant will be a Scandinavian-inspired spa, and a nearby pond will serve as a nature escape with several villas available for overnight stays. The project’s plans are still in development, but Mr. Grebner estimates they will be open for business by either 2027 or the start of 2028.
“We feel like we’ve got a pretty strong concept here, and we’re incredibly
excited to get it started,” Mr. Grebner said of himself and his partners – Erin Morrison, Ben Weber and Addison Mittelstaedt.
Mason’s Light House
Northeast of the farm and spa on the concept map’s master plan is a placeholder for Mason’s Light House, a pediatric hospice and respite care home. The proposed facility is named for Mason Sieck, a 7-year-old Grinnell boy who died in 2021 from Gardner’s Syndrome, a rare disease that produces malignant and non-malignant desmoid tumors.
Mason’s parents, Shanna and Curtis Sieck, are raising funds for the project through their organization by the same name.
“It’s such a great fit with the (UI Stead Family) Children’s Hospital here,” said Brianna Wills, Mason’s Light House board member, at the Oct. 29 campus tour.
It will only be the fourth pediatric and respite care home in the U.S., said Ms. Wills, who lost her son, Calder Wills, from T-cell lymphoma in 2017.
“This is something that I feel pretty passionate about. The difference between adult hospice and children hospice is all these are suites meant for a family to be there and stay,” she said.
Mason spent his last days at Crescent Cove Respite and Hospice Home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“After Mason passed away in March of 2021, we knew instantly that every kid who needed hospice care or respite care deserved to have a space of their own,” Mason’s Light House said on its website. “A home to feel loved, safe, receive the best medical care, and be as happy as possible in. A place to make memories and take the time they need with their family and friends beside them. A place for families not to have to worry about any cost while staying there.”
While Mason’s Light House has been in talks with the developer for acquiring land, “it’s not signed in blood yet,” Ms. Wills said.
COVID-19 pandemic caused shifts in business models
“After COVID, all business life really changed,” said Megan Alter, Iowa City council member and director of Academic Content for English Language Arts at ACT, during the campus tour. “The fact that this acreage can be used in a way that can help this particular neighborhood, I think, is really exciting.”
ACT, Inc. began reducing its footprint after the pandemic, selling the Tyler Building to the ICCSD in June 2022. Many of ACT’s employees were opting for hybrid or remote locations, former ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a 2022 press release.
“After the pandemic, many of our team members opted to stay connected and work off-campus in remote or hybrid locations, so we determined that we could consolidate and make better use of the space on our campus,” the release stated.
In May 2023, the company laid off 106 employees, 40 of whom were located in Iowa City. The following spring, ACT announced a strategic partnership with Los Angeles-based private equity firm Nexus Capital Management LP, followed by the announcement that it planned to sell its Iowa City campus to Iceberg Development Group.
The ACT layoffs were part of an “edtech spiral” in Iowa City, with Pearson closing its 40-acre campus at 2510 N. Dodge St. before laying off 50 Iowa City employees in December 2022 and an additional 37 Cedar Rapids employees in May 2023.
The closing was attributed to hybrid and remote working options as well, Pearson said in a statement.
“In another effort to prioritize and deliver the hybrid work experience that our employees prefer, we recently closed our North Dodge facility in Iowa City and opened opportunities for employees to work in one of our Cedar Rapids facilities,” a Pearson spokesman said in 2022.
The campus has since been purchased by Quad Cities commercial real estate development company Geifman Group and is undergoing renovations.
Revitalizing these properties is an opportunity for residents of the Northeast District to have access to new amenities, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague said.
“I think this really does give us a breath (of fresh) air to dream and to bring in some opportunities for this side of town that [aren’t] here right now – we’ll have some senior living opportunities and grocery stores and…opportunities for wellness for people in our
community,” he said.
Reimagining the Northeast District
The remaining 300 acres east of the organic farm will be a mix of residential housing, commercial and natural areas.
There is also a placeholder on the concept map’s master plan for the ICCSD for a future elementary school, though “we have not acquired any property or asked the board to consider any property acquisition in this area,” ICCSD Superintendent Matt Degner said in an email.
The natural areas will comprise approximately 40% of the remaining 300 acres, Mr. Long noted.
“A lot of the natural features will be preserved which allows commercial, mixed-use, and residential uses to be organized around the district’s existing environmentally sensitive features and use them as amenities,” Shive-Hattery wrote Iowa City Neighborhood & Development Services May 28.
The remaining 150 to 200 acres will be reserved for future commercial and residential developments, both single and multi-family housing.
“We’re excited. It’s been pretty quiet,” Mr. Long said, of Iowa City’s Northeast District. Business model shifts from major employers like Pearson and ACT left buildings empty. “We went from having over 2,000 people working in that area to 75… just to see this part of town reimagined and reinvigorated is exciting.”
