Efforts have started to bring new life to a large, long-vacant building in midtown Council Bluffs, an area that’s already seen recent developments.
The interest is focused on the building located at South Sixth Street and 10th Avenue, which was part of a two-building operation by the International Harvester Company years ago. More specifics on the project should come forth within the next six months.
A new arts and entertainment center proposed for downtown Council Bluffs would include a 245-seat theater.
The new Pottawattamie Arts, Culture and Entertainment organization wants to convert the second Harvester building on the south side of downtown into the new center, members of PACE told the Council Bluffs City Council at its afternoon study session
Estimated renovation cost is $18.5 million, said Judy Davis, PACE’s interim director, with the Pottawattamie County Development Corp. having donated the land and building already.
The plan is to send the design out for bid later this year with construction starting late next year, she said.
Much of the center would occupy the currently vacant Harvester II building, directly west of the renovated Harvester Lofts building, located at the corner of South Main Street and 10th Avenue.
Possible plans for the Harvester II building include a cafe on the main floor with space for traveling exhibits. Rehearsal space for plays and classrooms could make up a portion of the second floor, with more exhibit space and a community area for large gathering on the upper two floors.
A public lobby would be separate from the building with a 245-seat theater for local plays, ballet and musical performances.
Agreed. That area is probably my number 1 urban planning wet dream in Omaha.iamjacobm wrote:Impressive. Those buildings look pretty reminiscent of the boarded up brick buildings north of the stadium...one day.
Plans for the PACE arts and cultural center in Council Bluffs took a major step forward with the announcement on Monday of a $2 million lead gift from Ted and Polly Hoff of Council Bluffs.
http://www.nonpareilonline.com/news/loc ... t=headlineThe estimated renovation cost for the building is $18.5 million, with the Pottawattamie County Development Corp. having already donated the land and the building. The Iowa West Foundation committed $7 million to the initiative for the proposed renovation.
After 54 years in the same place, the Chanticleer Community Theater is moving to a new home in the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center planned for downtown Council Bluffs.
The theater will join two other local arts organizations — Ballet Nebraska and the Kanesville Symphony — in relocating to the renovated Harvester II building on South Main Street when it opens in 2019. Since 1963, Chanticleer has been in a remote area on the outskirts of the city.
Officials of Pottawattamie Arts, Culture and Entertainment, the organization behind the center, announced additional plans for the $18.5 million project at a press conference on Tuesday morning. The four-story building will hold rehearsal space, classrooms, an area for traveling exhibits, a cafe and the 245-seat Polina and Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center for plays, ballets and musical concerts.
Egads, who wrote that? Perhaps it was a "remote area on the outskirts of the city" when it was first built, but today it's less remote than, say, Iowa Western Community College and is closer to the center of town than Mall of the Bluffs. Perhaps a bit hard to find for out-of-towners, but certainly not "remote."skinzfan23 wrote:Since 1963, Chanticleer has been in a remote area on the outskirts of the city.
Betsie Freeman / World-Herald staff writer wrote:Work on the $27 million center at 1001 S. 6th St. began in June 2018. Tenants — American Midwest Ballet, Chanticleer Community Theater, Kanesville Symphony and the Kitchen Council, an incubator for entrepreneur chefs — started moving in shortly after 2020 began and are beginning to settle in while workers put the finishing touches on the 95,000-square-foot building.