Although The Mill at 120 E Burlington St. in Iowa City is set for demolition after attempts failed to revive the iconic fixture in the area’s arts and entertainment scene, owners say a new performance venue will rise again at the location.
Marc Moen, a partner in the Moen Group which has owned The Mill since 2002, applied for a demolition permit Dec 21 and is waiting for the final approval of the permit which may come this week.
He released the following statement this week regarding the site’s future:
“A new development is in early design stages for the Mill site. Like many community members, we were dismayed by the Mill’s closing in 2020.
Looking ahead, we are now sharing publicly what we have been working on privately over the past year. We are fully committed to including a purpose-built intimate performance venue as part of the new development on the Mill site. Since we acquired the property in 2002, we did everything we could to assure the Mill continued to operate.
Beginning in 2002, our commitment to the Mill owners was to incorporate the Mill into a new building when the site was developed. While we cannot preserve the old structure of the Mill, we will carry forward its values and build a venue that nurtures the local arts culture, acts as a community gathering space, and attracts up and coming national performers.
We are thrilled to design a space that will be artist, audience, and venue-operator friendly. A state-of-the art performance venue. We have much work to do and will share more information soon. In the meantime, we are in active conversations with several local arts administrators to help shape the direction for this new cultural venue. We are pleased to report that the response has been singularly positive.”
The CBJ will provide updates to The Mill’s developments.
