Construction of a new 463-space parking ramp in the Kingston Yard development in Cedar Rapids is expected to begin this fall, after the Cedar Rapids City Council approved a $17.8 million bid for the project at its meeting Aug 13.
The new ramp, combined with 337 off-site parking spaces within a 3-5 minute walk, is expected to meet the current 800-space parking demand for the Kingston Yard, which includes the Big Grove Brewery, Pickle Palace and a central courtyard.
A multi-story mixed-use building is also under construction at the site, and a new 123-room AC by Marriott hotel at the development was announced this week.
The new parking ramp will be owned and operated by the city. Construction will be funded through multiple channels, including $6 million in hotel, motel, sales and use tax funds through the Cedar Rapids Central Reinvestment District Plan approved in 2022 and the remainder from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds between fiscal years 2023 and 2026.
Cedar Rapids city engineer Ken DeKeyser said that based on the Urban Land Institute’s shared parking model, the new 463-space ramp, along with 337 off-site parking spaces, would meet the area’s current 800-space parking requirements. However, It does not include other present or future nearby developments in the area, such as a planned river recreation site near Kingston Yard.
Councilmember Marty Hoeger asked if the new ramp could help alleviate parking demand for other area venues, such as weekend concerts and events at the nearby McGrath Amphitheatre.
“It certainly would, not only on weekends, but during the week,” Mr. DeKeyser said. “There are still a number of events that occur during the week, and they bring a significant parking demand to the area, so even if it’s not the peak weekend evening that’s shown here in the study, that could certainly alleviate a lot of the parking issues that we see on First Street and in the area.”
Councilmember Ashley Vanorny, however, said she feels it’s important to further study parking needs for the area, which “hasn’t even been fully (developed).”
“The great thing is that the Kingston yard area is really less than a year old, and it’s already as full as it is, and there’s a whole other side that has to be built out, and we have river recreation in front of it,” she said. “So the reality is, we do have this capacity in this specific area.”
“I don’t think this is going to alleviate the issue,” councilmember Dale Todd said. “The issue is going to continue in a way that I don’t think we fully understand yet, which is a good thing to have. But as we saw the other night with the Bush concert, the entire quadrant over there was saturated, and that’s a good thing to see. This is going to help, but it’s not going to alleviate some things.”
Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell termed the parking ramp, and associated parking demand, “a sign of a growing community.”
“I think when a lot of us travel to other cities, we don’t complain about a three or five minute walk,” she said. “In fact, we expect even more than that. So I think this is yet one more outward sign of the growth of our community, and certainly our downtown.
The project’s approved bid of $17.8 million is more than $2 million under the engineer’s cost estimate of $20 million, city officials noted.
The new ramp – the first parking ramp on the west side of the Cedar River – should be completed by December 2025, according to city officials.
