Drake University benefactor Bill Knapp sat among about 50 people today listening as Marty Martin, the university’s president, announced Drake’s partnership with a Cedar Falls firm to redevelop a two-block area east of campus.

“I think one of the things we want to recognize today is that what’s happening here is a continuation of a vision Bill Knapp has had for the Drake neighborhood for decades,” Martin said before announcing details of the $63 million project that includes construction of apartment buildings, townhouses, commercial space and a parking garage in an area bounded by 24th and 25th streets and Forest and University avenues.

Construction is expected to begin next summer with completion by 2023. 

Knapp, a Drake trustee emeritus and founder of Iowa Realty Co. and Knapp Properties, described the proposed project as “fantastic.”

“I’m so very optimistic about what’s going to happen here and that it’s going to be good for everybody,” said Knapp, a large financial contributor to Drake.

Drake currently owns nearly all of the land in the development area that the university will sell and lease to Cedar Falls-based Merge Urban Development. The firm focuses on real estate development in Qualified Opportunity Zones, of which the Drake neighborhood is a part.

The two parcels the private university does not own – the building that housed the Varsity Theatre that recently closed and the U.S. Bank drive-thru – will be retained, Martin said.

The project, designed by Slingshot Architecture of Des Moines, will include:

• The construction of six five-story apartment buildings between Carpenter and University avenues. The buildings will include an estimated 300 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Rents will be a mix of affordable and market rates.
• A total of 30,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space in four apartment buildings located along 25th Street and University Avenue.
• A parking garage with between 600 and 900 spaces on the south side of Forest between 24th and 25th streets.
• Townhouses built along the east and west sides of the parking garage.