BETTENDORF, Iowa — Downtown Bettendorf looks a bit of a mess right now, what with multiple cranes, piles of fill dirt and orange cones almost everywhere. But city leaders want you to know that when the construction work ends, a practically brand new downtown will emerge from the dust.
Working with engineering firm Shive-Hattery and RDG Planning – which helped create the city’s downtown master plan approved in 2016 – the city created a virtual “flyover” video that shows what the new gateway into the city from the currently-under-construction I-74 bridge and newly developed central city will look like when the bridge project wraps up.
Jeff Reiter, the city’s economic development director, noted that every element in the flyover video – from water features, the new Jetty Park, various buildings and a new urban park – are budgeted for and will be built. The only element in the video that is even somewhat in question is a new mixed-use development building next to the Bridge Lofts, but even that has a committed developer signed on who is working on a final rendering.
Elements featured in the flyover include:
- The new bridge and the Leach Park elevator structure that will take pedestrians and cyclists up to the bridge’s walk/bike path.
- The Bridge Lofts – A pair of apartment buildings on the site of the former Twin Bridges Motor Inn. Building one is currently under construction.
- Updates to City Hall and the Bettendorf Fire Station and an adjacent City Hall Plaza incorporating landscaping and fountains.
- Ascentra’s new headquarters, which will be built between 20th and 21st Streets and State and Grant Streets.
- Jetty Park, a $1 million new park area underneath the new bridge featuring fishing piers, docking access for pleasure boats and bike path connection.
- Water features, including fountains, adjacent to the new road configuration leading into downtown.
“These projects accumulate more than $115 million in private investment in our downtown,” Reiter said. “There’s definitely new life and new investment coming.”
