For the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART), Wednesday’s presentation of a $10 million check felt like scoring a touchdown.

That was the analogy DART General Manager Brad Miller used in his opening remarks to an audience of about 50 people before welcoming a list of big names to the stage, including U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff. Martha Willits, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie and state Sen. Matt McCoy also spoke during the event.

DART was presented with a $10 million check from the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete funding for a $21 million transit hub to be built south of Cherry Street between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street downtown.

“It’s somewhat of a miracle really to have this all come together,” said DART Commission Chair and Polk County Supervisor Angela Connolly.

Construction on the new facility is scheduled to begin in early 2011. DART had planned to start the construction with or without all of the funding, as it had already received a $6.5 million grant from the FTA and $4 million through the state’s I-JOBS program.

The final grant was one of 75 “TIGER II” competitive grants awarded by the Department of Transportation. Rogoff said DART’s project rose to the top of the list for a simple reason: the partnership and support of everyone involved in Central Iowa, and the voices of Boswell and Harkin relaying that message in Washington, D.C.

“Both the congressman and the senator made a very compelling case to us what a game-changer this could be for economic development here in downtown Des Moines,” Rogoff said in an interview after the presentation. “This embodies that idea that we can create jobs now when we really need them, and we can do it on projects that include quality of life for everybody.”

The transit hub represents a great move for downtown Des Moines, officials said.

“We have people come here from all over the world, and it will continue to happen,” Boswell told the audience, referring to the recent World Food Festival in Des Moines. “They’ll see that we’ve got an updated transportation system – as you would expect in a world-class city, as we are.”