DAVENPORT, Iowa — Located on the corner of 2nd and Perry Street, Urbane210 is the newest apartment complex to pop up on the Davenport skyline. The project has been in the works since 2019 and officially opened in August of 2021.
Merge Urban Development Group designed the building. CEO Brent Dalhstrom says the company picked the area because of the apparent boom in efforts to revitalize the area.
"We only put our buildings in core areas, and Davenport's a great city," Dalhstrom said. "And we believe that we're right in the heart of where the exciting part of Davenport is."
The project was a 10-month build, and there are other complexes not far behind it.
400 River Drive is scheduled to open in the next year, and Downtown Davenport Partnership executive director Kyle Carter says that building is moving quickly.
"It's all related. This isn't an accident. You know, this work was very intentional and it takes time," Carter said.
In the early 2000s there were only a couple hundred apartment units in downtown Davenport. That number jumped to anywhere between 800 and 1,100 in 2013/2014. It's up now to 1,589 with another 100 or so under construction.
"It's a good mix of both market and income restricted type stuff. And we're just happy to have a good balance," Carter said.
The efforts to make downtown more residential are ongoing. For Carter it's a matter of building up all aspects of the space. It's not just about providing the buildings, but things to do for the people who live in them.
"Residential and entertainment and arts and culture are the future of downtown's," Carter said. "And we've been doing that for literally almost 20 years at this point."
There's a push to keep offices coming to the area as well. Carter described it as "day traffic".
"It's having walkability. It's having a good balance between office, residential entertainment. You don't want all bars and restaurants, you don't want all apartments or all office," Carter said. "The blend is really what you're shooting for."
That blend is what Durham hopes to achieve by opening up Urbane210's bottom floors to shops.
"It's really important for us to activate that ground floor space. That's what makes downtown's great, to see those storefronts," Durham said. "If you just have a residential building, you run the risk of not really being integrated, or part of the of the downtown. The building is only accessible by those people that live in the building. And so you've shut yourself out to anyone else in the community."
In addition to that, more than 20 businesses have opened up shop in downtown Davenport in the past year.