Brownfields Project Wins National Award

DETROIT, MI – This month the City of Waterloo received a Phoenix Award at the National Brownfields Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The honor recognizes the Jefferson Street Corridor for extraordinary brownfield redevelopment. A brownfield is a former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination.

The City’s project included the former Grand Hotel site (now Grand Crossing I and II condominiums), the former Waterloo Bowl-Inn site (now the Hawkeye Community College Van G. Miller Advanced Learning Center), the former Wonder Bread Bakery (now SingleSpeed Brewing Company) and smaller buildings ravaged by the 2008 flood (now the Cedar Valley SportsPlex).

Utilizing and partnering with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for grant sources, the City was able to do review work on these sites to look for environmental contaminants and to prepare them for redevelopment projects to bring residential units, jobs, and new tax base to the City of Waterloo.

“The City of Waterloo is very honored to receive this Region 7 project award. In all, the projects have brought over 114 new residential units to Downtown Waterloo, expanded educational opportunities to Waterloo’s population, as well as expanding recreational opportunities for all Cedar Valley residents,” says Noel Anderson, Community Planning and Development Director.

Anderson adds that the success of these projects helped bring the next wave of public and private investment to the area, including by Hawkeye and the University of Northern Iowa at the TechWorks Campus, Lincoln Savings Bank’s fintech project adding over 200 employees to the area, a yoga studio and Black Hawk Gaming Association’s partnership in streetscape improvements. The amount of total investment is near $100 million in the area.

The redevelopment team includes: