Community Notes: Advances continue in the city on multiple projects

By Dean Andrews, Mayor, Charles City

It’s been a busy summer in Charles City.

Omnitel has been placing fiber optic lines in the downtown area. They are pleased with how that process has progressed and are interested in expanding further into the community. What will encourage them to do further expansion is to see further demand for their product.

Areas or neighborhoods that show the most demand to get this high-speed internet will be considered for buildout. To register for possible service, go to Omintel.biz and enter your address.

The NIACC Academy building seems to be changing shape weekly. The local office has moved to a space in the first floor of the Union House while construction continues. The facility plans to be ready for the start of the 2024 school year.

Pure Prairie Poultry continues with its expansion. The new facility will add additional cold storage to allow production to operate more efficiently and to be more profitable.

The other half of the expansion will be upgraded employee spaces. This will include larger and more up-to-date locker and breakroom/lunchroom spaces, as well as expanded reception and front office areas.

If you have seen the architectural drawing of the building, you can see what a welcome addition it will be to this area of town.

The Sherman Creek Townhome project on Illinois Street is also showing progress. The project will provide nine upper scale townhomes for purchase. Its location across from the historic Sherman Nursery Building and right along the recreational trail will provide more housing options in town. The plan is to have the first townhomes available yet this year.

I recently had a phone conversation with Shawn Foutch who is developing apartment spaces in the old Middle School on North Grand. He has had crews the last couple months doing deconstruction work, and said the asbestos mitigation is almost complete.

He has acquired his building permit from the city and hopes to begin framing in new spaces soon. He plans to have the project of approximately 37 apartments completed by next summer.

The city, in conjunction with the Area Development Corporation, is in the process of applying to be a State Thriving Community. This is a new program developed by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

The program encourages cities to present housing projects to the authority. The projects that are selected would then be designated as a Thriving Community and would meet with developers at the State Housing Conference in Cedar Rapids in September.

Selected projects would provide contractors with state tax credits, making these projects more attractive to developers.

The project we are proposing would be a multi-family apartment facility near 11th Street in the area of the Southwest Development Park. The land owned by the Area Development Corporation would be provided free to the developer as an incentive.

This area is close to several of our industry sites, but is also close to residential areas. It is the hope that this would be an additional option for industry workers who currently have a difficult time finding adequate housing in Charles City.

We will find out if we are a selected community sometime before the September Housing Conference.

This is just a sample of all the things going on in our town. I could go on and on about progress in Charles City, but I will continue in my next Community Notes.