Hiawatha Midtown Development Scrapped
A $72 million mixed-use development proposal for Hiawatha has been scrapped, according to a Cedar Rapids Gazette report.
The project was first proposed in March 2019 and would have included three patio homes, 58 townhouses, 203 apartments, 18 condominiums, 10 live/work spaces and 66 senior living units, plus 36,300 square feet of commercial and retail space, near Hiawatha City Hall on Emmons St.
Those left wondering whatever became of the plans for "Hiawatha Midtown", as it was to be called, recently learned it was quietly taken off the table three months later.
It was to be a privately-funded project, and developer Keith Billick essentially said he couldn't find all the funding, and he, the city and all the investors who were on board couldn't all get on the same page. He also discovered he wasn't going to qualify for a possible federal grant due to a lack of matching funds from the city of Hiawatha.
The small suburb of Cedar Rapids is ever-growing, but what would have been Hiawatha's biggest development to-date has evidently been dropped in its originally intended form.