Marion council approves Belltower Lofts plan, but parking concerns raised

Even as the Marion City Council voted unanimously last week to approve plans for the Belltower Lofts redevelopment project at the former Marion United Methodist Church, council members pointed to an ongoing issue: Parking concerns in Uptown Marion. “Parking has been a hot topic in Uptown and will continue to be a hot topic in Uptown,” council member Gage Miskimen said during the council’s March 7 meeting. “We know people care about this and have this perception of what parking is like in Uptown … a lot of communities, in Iowa specifically, would wish that they're in the place that we're in, to worry about parking in our downtown or Uptown areas.” The redevelopment project, with a total cost of $10 million to $11 million, will transform the former Marion United Methodist Church at the corner of 12th Street and Eighth Avenue into a 55-unit residential complex, dubbed Belltower Lofts, with on-site tenant parking, offices, a workout room and other amenities. Marion city planner Dave Hockett said plans for the project include 22 on-site parking spaces and 13 leased spaces in the nearby Farmers State Bank parking lot, for a total of 35 dedicated spaces. The plan also identifies 34 public parking spaces and 72 on-street parking spaces within about 300 feet of the development, with 21 of those spaces limited to four-hour or two-hour parking sessions. In total, Mr. Hockett noted, 141 parking spaces would be available near the Belltower Lofts project, including the Farmers State Bank spaces, which are being leased for three years with a five-year renewal option. The number of available spots in the area will vary by the time of day, Mr. Hockett noted. “In the downtown parking environment, there's always going to be that car shuffle,” he said. “If you get home late, (you) park a little further away, and in the morning you reshuffle the cars. It’s a pretty standard practice in Uptown living environments.” A preliminary Marion parking study, expected to be reviewed by the council later this spring, showed that the Belltower Lofts project would increase public parking utilization from the current rate of 60.6% to 65.8% of total available spaces, Mr. Hockett said. The upcoming Broad and Main on 6th apartment project would have a minimal impact on public parking, since most parking for that project will be on-site. At that point, utilization would be about 68%, which would still be considered underutilization by the parking consultant’s standards, Mr. Hockett said. However, once the former Marion Public Library site is redeveloped, presumably for retail or restaurant purposes, the utilization rate could climb to 91%, “which basically is approaching capacity,” Mr. Hockett said. Council member Grant Harper said that while current plans don’t provide any “trip wires for us that are problematic” regarding parking capacities, the new parking study will provide criteria for evaluating the parking impact of future projects. He also expressed overall support for the Belltower Lofts project. “We've got a very historic structure in the uptown and we've got to find a way to save it, and this project does that,” he said. “As the project goes forward, I think that we're going to be in a much better place to appreciate the parking framework that we need to consider for Uptown. Council member Steve Jensen concurred in his support for the project, but reiterated his longstanding concerns about parking provisions, particularly regarding the time-constricted Farmers State Bank parking lease. “Am I in favor of saving this church? The answer to that is absolutely yes,” he said. “But I've also had a number of people resonate the issue about parking. While we do have some updated information about the parking study, which they've indicated is preliminary, we have not had a chance as a city council to see the final details and to see if there's going to be further changes … We're going to have a lot more discussion about parking in the Uptown area over the next couple of years. And I think this lease needs to absolutely accommodate a timeframe in which that can be reviewed and brought into place as it relates to the bell tower project and other uptown projects.”

The redevelopment project will keep the original church structure largely intact, architect Kyle Martin of Martin Gardner Architecture said, but the more modern classroom addition will be modified more extensively, and the drive-under awning will be removed. Mr. Martin also noted that a variety of approaches will be used to restore the church’s stained glass windows – some will be restored or modified in place, while others will be removed and taken off-site for renovations. A final development agreement for the project is expected to come to the council for approval in April or May, and the project is expected to have a construction cycle of about 18 months. The building was the second First Methodist Church in the Uptown District, according to city documents. Begun in 1895, the building was completed and dedicated in 1896. The building was designed by the well-known architectural firm of Bell and Kent of Council Bluffs, while a Marshalltown firm served as the contractor. The stained glass windows came from the Kansas City Art Glass Company. The building remained as a Methodist church until its sale in 2017 to the First Pentecostal Church of Cedar Rapids, and then more to 1277 8th Avenue LLC, a development partnership between Conlon Construction and High Properties. Developers say they hope to begin asbestos abatement and other site work this spring, with a potential goal of completing the project by the end of 2024. Since an estimated $2.595 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds will be used to help fund the project, at least 27 units in the project will be income-restricted, reserved for tenants at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). The Belltower Lofts project marks a dramatic change for the future of the landmark church and its soaring bell tower, which had been targeted for complete demolition on several previous occasions, most recently after sustaining significant damage in the 2020 derecho. But Marion Mayor Nick AbouAssaly led a campaign to save the church from the wrecking ball, pursuing several development leads before Conlon Construction agreed to purchase the property for redevelopment in 2022.