Hearings scheduled to establish reinvestment district for Jasper County

It’s not often an agenda item for the board of supervisors meeting takes up four pages, and funnily enough it took less time approving the action than it would have if vice-chairman Doug Cupples had been required to read the whole thing. Thankfully, county officials and audience members were spared of that pain.

Supervisors on Sept. 5 set public hearing dates to formally establish the Newton Legacy Reinvestment District under Jasper County on Sept. 19, 26 and Oct. 3, during the regularly scheduled board meetings at the courthouse. The description of the reinvestment district was included in the board agenda.

Which is why this past week’s agenda — without the supporting documents — was unusually long. Typically, board agendas are one to two pages. Cupples, who was running the meeting while chairman Brandon Talsma was away (though he still attended via Zoom), was thankful he didn’t have to read the list.

Jeff Davidson, executive director of Jasper County Economic Development Corporation, told Newton News in a followup interview that the boundaries for the reinvestment district were already established by the City of Newton. But the county had to set public hearings as it is now the recipient of the district funds.

When the reinvestment district is established, about $14 million of state funding — in the form of future sales tax and hotel/motel tax revenues generated with the district’s boundaries — will funnel through to Jasper County and be distributed in regular payments over a 20-year period.

According to a map of the reinvestment district, the largest portion is the entirety of downtown Newton, followed by the DMACC and Legacy Plaza properties. The small portion surrounded by the DMACC-owned area is the location of the $35 million project by Christensen Development, which will use district funds.

“The project wouldn’t happen without that (Iowa Reinvestment District) program,” Davidson said. “Despite the fits and starts that we had in just trying to put together the project and get the financing all worked out, without that IRD program I would speculate it wouldn’t be happening.”

Jasper County will be selling bonds this month. Davidson said the developer will make draws on that from the county. The project is expected to take a little more than one year to complete. From there, the county will begin making payments to repay the bonds that were sold.

“That money will come from this district as new sales and hotel/motel tax,” Davidson said. “…If for some reason the money was short to make our repayments, we can actually draw down TIF funds at the end of the project, including the cost of financing. So there’s no risk to the county.”

Christensen Development has started taking contractors through the buildings. Newton News previously reported in May that DMACC had sold nearly four acres of the Legacy Plaza property (Maytag Buildings 1, 2, 16 and 50) to the developer to build a 58-room hotel and a 70-unit, market-rate apartment community.

The developer is contracted to start the project by Oct. 1.

“I really think it’s a game-changer project for the community because it’s introducing housing and hotel event space that is of a type that’s not here currently,” Davidson said.