By Pat Shaver
IOWA CITY – Marc Moen quietly observed the public input at a handful of city council meetings.
Not all of the input during the past few months was positive, though.
Mr. Moen, a well-known downtown developer and owner of Moen Group, was proposing a 20-story high rise project at the corner of College and Gilbert streets. There were initially nine proposals considered for the city-owned land, which was later narrowed down to three.
Mr. Moen’s proposal made it to the top three and was eventually selected as the preferred developer at a city council meeting this month. The other two proposals would have featured long-time Iowa City grocery store New Pioneer Co-op. The city decision garnered much public interest; there were many who supported a project with New Pi and many who supported Mr. Moen’s project.
The 20-story building will feature two movie theaters and two six-lane bowling alleys, as well as a café, offices, hotel rooms and housing. The 283,322-square-foot building will cost about $53 million. It will include class-A office space, a 35-unit hotel, along with 12 floors of residential units. Mr. Moen has designed and built several large development projects downtown.
“The criticism is fine, the debate and public input, that’s one of the things I love about Iowa City. I’m not complaining about it, I know it’s part of the drill. For every personal attack there’s 10 times more support,” he said. “Of course I’m biased, and I do have feelings.”
Mr. Moen’s team for the project includes Iowa City architecture firm Rohrbach Associates PC, FilmScene, and McComas-Lacina Construction.
“The vision I have and many people have is pretty basic and pretty simple,” he said. “The goal has always been to find what’s missing. What happens on the main floor is hugely important to what happens upstairs.”
There were discussions about the risk of FilmScene, a relatively unknown business, anchoring a building that will hopefully last decades. Because of Mr. Moen’s many downtown development projects, some critics also thought the council should give another developer a chance.
“By joining forces with me there was that baggage, if the council liked our project the question was, would they be able to politically choose us,” he said. “I didn’t know if the quality of the project would carry the day or if the city council would say ‘we have to go with someone else.’”
After he made sure his team was committed to the project, they never wavered on the uses they wanted for the building.
The Chauncey’s main entertainment tenant is FilmScene, a non-profit movie theater. The organization, founded in 2011 by University of Iowa graduates Andy Brodie and Andrew Sherburne, plans to operate a full-time, community-supported cinema in downtown Iowa City that will showcase American independent and international filmmaking.
“I’ve talked about a downtown bowling alley forever,” Mr. Moen said. “It’s an absolute crime that there aren’t movie theaters downtown.”
The Chauncey group has not determined who will manage the bowling alley or the details of the restaurant.
“Bowling is the largest participatory sport in America. It took in $6 billion in the U.S. alone (last year),” he said.
“There’s a very active bowling community.”
From Mr. Moen’s perspective as a developer, he does not believe the site could support his proposed uses as well as a grocery store like New Pioneer Co-op.
Residents and one council member voiced concerns about the height of the building, noting that 20 stories was too high and wouldn’t fit into the character of the neighborhood.
“There were people who said it shouldn’t be more than five stories,” he said. “If the city asked for a six-story building at this site, I would be fine with that, I just wouldn’t be a part of it.”
Mr. Moen said it’s difficult to determine how many high-rise housing buildings the city can support. It depends on the market, he said.
“I think we have to be very careful about how many units can be delivered downtown. We’re very mindful of that,” Mr. Moen said.
The city put out a request for proposals (RFP) for developing the College/Gilbert space. Mr. Moen said he was among a number of developers contacted about the RFP. Anyone who wanted to was able to submit a proposal.
In the request, the city outlined several items it wanted included in the proposals, Mr. Moen noted. His proposal catered to the city’s goals for the site, he said.
“For me, reading some of the criticism was that this was my idea or that I dictated this to the city,” he said. “That is not at all accurate. I wanted to put my energies into the project, not the politics.”
City staff will now enter into negotiations with the Chauncey team, which will likely begin next month. If those negotiations fail, the city selected the Chauncey Gardens as an alternate. The Chauncey Gardens proposal includes an 18-story building that would house the New Pioneer Co-op on the first floor, another floor dedicated to retail and restaurant space and two floors for offices.
Plaza Towers, one of Mr. Moen’s other large developments, is a mix of commercial uses and upscale housing in downtown Iowa City. Levels one through six include a luxury hotel, convention center, restaurant, fresh food market and deli, center for holistic healing and massage therapy and a 24-hour health club.
The apartments and condos at Plaza Towers, on levels seven through 14, provide light-filled spaces ranging from 550- 2,200 square feet. The living spaces have commanding views with balconies and roof gardens. Secure underground parking, with elevator access to the residential towers, is available.
The Plaza Towers project was originally proposed as a 20-story building, but the Federal Aviation Administration would not approve a building with that elevation on that site.
Mr. Moen said the same thing could happen with the Chauncey, and there are still a lot of unknowns until the negotiations begin and detailed decisions are made.
“We’ve got these uses I’m committed to, just as I was committed to a grocery store in Plaza Towers, and that failed,” he said. “But there are ways to make those things work and we’ll make them work.”
When Mr. Moen asked for funding support for the Plaza Towers, the city council wanted a downtown grocery store, which he provided by partnering with Bob Tait, who ran a grocery store in Des Moines for 18 years. Mr. Tait closed his Iowa City store after a year-and-a-half of slow sales.
“It’s not going to happen if you don’t try it. Is it a risk? Yes.” Mr. Moen said. “But we’re not going to build a $50 million theater and bowling center and not make it work.”
Mr. Moen has several other developments ongoing, including renovating the Vito’s building and constructing a new mixed-use building in the pedestrian mall.
After those and the Chauncey are up, Mr. Moen realistically does not see himself dominating further downtown developments.
“My time is limited. I’ll be well over 60 once this building is up. I’m not going to be doing this forever,” he said. “It took a lot to get (Plaza Towers) open and it took a lot to get it running the way I wanted.”
“People can rest assured I won’t be doing a bunch of these (high rise buildings),” he said.
The fire that changed it all
If it wasn’t for a fire that destroyed a downtown building, Mr. Moen may still be practicing law in Iowa City.
The trial attorney-turned-developer started buying and rehabbing historic buildings in Iowa City as a hobby.
“I came to Iowa City to go to law school in 1976. I thought I was going to be moving into a bigger city when I came here, but I practiced law here until 2003,” he said. “My wife (now ex-wife) and I starting buying real estate in Iowa City as soon as we could afford to.”
They would buy downtown property and restore it themselves during their free time.
“The goal was to do decent housing for students. We had a real interest in historic properties,” Mr. Moen said. “We wouldn’t rent anything we wouldn’t live in ourselves.”
In 1999, a fire destroyed the Whiteway building, 210 S. Clinton St., which included apartments and the former Mondo’s restaurant. It now houses Joseph’s Steakhouse. Mr. Moen bought and restored the building.
At the time, the city was doing a major reconstruction of the pedestrian mall.
“In the midst of that, there was a big hole in the ground. I really thought we had to do something,” he said.
They quickly constructed a new 6.5-floor building there with commercial space and studio apartments.
“That became our niche. There are a number of students, and not just students, who really want to live downtown alone,” he said.
After that event, Mr. Moen decided to take a step back from law and focus on redeveloping the Whiteway site. During that time, he discovered his hobby was more of a passion. Moen Group started in 2003.
“It’s hard to give up a lucrative law practice. I had this dream of development and I realized I could do that,” Mr. Moen said. “I practiced trial law for a long time and it was time for a change.”
