SIOUX CITY | Ho-Chunk Inc. has big plans for three former industrial buildings in downtown Sioux City.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska's economic development corporation intends to redevelop the multi-story structures in the 100 block of Virginia Street into a mixture of offices, restaurants, apartments and upscale condos.
"We'd like to duplicate the feel of the Old Market," Ho-Chunk President and CEO Lance Morgan said, referring to the popular historic district in downtown Omaha. "We're excited about the possibilities."
While details are still being finalized, the project likely will be developed in phases over a number of years, starting with updating the facades of all three buildings to a more contemporary look, Morgan said.
"They're going to look real different at the end of the first phase," he said.
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For the interior renovations, the group will first focus on the smallest building, a three-story brick structure that was once used as a creamery. It's envisioned that apartments would be developed on the top two floors.
Next up likely would be a white structure at 103 Virginia St. that was formerly used for cold storage. Apartments are envisioned for the second floor, and condos on the third level.
The final structure to be developed would be a five-story brick structure, known as the Hopper, which once was a furniture plant.
Morgan said the high-end condos would be "unlike anything that's in Sioux City right now."
A projected big jump in traffic on Virginia Street was a major selling point for the project. Virginia, long a back door into downtown, will be much more prominent following completion of the Interstate 29 reconstruction project, scheduled for 2019.
The Sioux City Convention Center and the Historic Fourth District, a two-block district of shops, restaurants and night clubs, are also just a few blocks from the Ho-Chunk site.
Ho-Chunk's Virginia Street redevelopment, with an estimated cost of $15 million, is one of three downtown projects the city included in its recent application for Iowa Redevelopment District funding. The other two are a 150-room hotel the city would like to see built next to the Sioux City Convention Center, and the proposed Bomgaars Ag and Expo Center, envisioned for the site of the former John Morrell plant.
The Reinvestment District program permits cities to establish zones where future hotel/motel and sales tax money can be diverted to big-ticket, unique projects designed to increase tourism and quality of life.
By June, the city will learn if its application scores high enough with the Iowa Economic Development Authority to advance to to the next stage of the competitive program.
In its application, the city is seeking millions of dollars in sales and hotel taxes to help develop a 25-acre entertainment and commercial zone downtown.
Communities selected by the IDEA are authorized to fund up to 35 percent of a private development of $10 million or more with taxes generated in a zone no larger than 25 acres.
