Kevin Hardy

kmhardy@dmreg.com

Coralville officials put one hurdle behind them Friday in their nearly $200 million effort to build a new arena, sports center and museum.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority committed $12 million toward key additions at the Iowa River Landing, a 180-acre development south of Interstate 80, between the Iowa River and First Avenue in Coralville.

IEDA board members last month balked that the city-led project did not include much involvement from Johnson County. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors responded to the criticism, committing $200,000 last week.

Plans call for a 6,216-seat ice arena, proposed to be the home of the University of Iowa club hockey team, the Iowa Ice Hawks and local youth leagues. The project also includes the two-story Iowa Fitness and Sports Performance Institute, which would include a field house and a sports sciences area for a "human performance lab."

A mixed-use building will house retail, condominiums, the Antique Car Museum of Iowa and the Johnson County Historical Society Museum.

The area also will get a $35 million Drury Inn and a $23 million Staybridge Suites, according to state documents. The 120-room Staybridge will be connected to the Iowa Fitness and Sports Performance Institute.

"This is a multifaceted project that's not only going to benefit Coralville and Johnson County, but the whole region," Coralville Mayor pro tem Mitch Gross said.

Gross said the $12 million award from the state was key in moving forward with the project, which was designed around the state's Reinvestment District grant program. The grant process allows cities to create geographic zones, and redirect hotel and sales tax money created in those districts to finance large projects.

"It's a key piece we've been banking on for this to move forward," Gross said.

Aside from hosting professional hockey, the arena and adjacent 40,000-square-foot field house will fill an unmet need for a sports and events venue, said Josh Schamberger, president of the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena in nearby Iowa City is not air-conditioned, rendering it useless during the warmer months. And aside from sports, the new arena in Coralville will host concerts and other events.

RELATED: Johnson County puts $200,000 toward Coralville arena complex

"We don't have something like that operating in Johnson County right now," Schamberger said.

The rest of the arena funding will come from a combination of money from naming rights to the arena, a $4 million new market tax credit allocation, almost $10 million in land sales in the area and brownfield grants.

"The city of Coralville is not going to move forward the arena unless the funding for the entire arena can be secured and it opens debt-free," Schamberger said last week. "That’s been stated from the beginning, and that’s the plan."

The IEDA award is contingent upon the selection of the hotel developer/contractor by Oct. 31, and documentary proof that construction financing has closed by June 30, 2017.

Several Iowa cities were competing for the remaining pot of $41.5 million in Reinvestment District funds. Aside from Coralville, Grinnell, Mason City and Sioux City have proposed projects.

The under-construction $100 million Des Moines convention center hotel received $36.4 million in funding from the state program in 2014.

"They’re not all going to get what they ask for," said IEDA Director Debi Durham. "But we feel like we have enough to make a fair distribution."