The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board today approved Community Attraction and Tourism grant awards in Des Moines, Floyd, Harlan and Hardin County. CAT grants are designed to boost artistic, cultural and recreational projects that improve the quality of life in Iowa.

The board approved a $1 million CAT grant for the ICON Water Trails project at Birdland Park and Marina. The city of Des Moines and ICON were awarded the grant to improve the Birdland Park area’s 55 acres. The overall project is spread across five major phases and has a total price tag of $54.4 million. It includes the only marina between Saylorville Lake and the Center Street Dam.

This phase of the project will cost $15 million and involves the relocation of the boat ramp, dock and parking to the west side of the park. Two additional open-air shelters will be constructed with bike racks, an ADA-accessible grill pit, electrical service and a river overlook. Three fishing locations (two ADA-accessible and one hike-in) will be added to the site, and 2,100 linear feet of trail will be elevated 3 feet above its current position to avoid flooding.

The existing Birdland playground will be replaced with a nature themed, ADA-inclusive playscape. The project will include the construction of an ice-skating ribbon, the addition of an ADA accessible deck to the Ding Darling Shelterhouse, a newly constructed restroom building and concessions space, reconfigured and right-sized parking, boardwalk areas and shoreline enhancements with seating.

A gravel-paved parking lot will be transformed into an ICON Water Trails access point. The area will feature universally designed paddling and rowing launches with modern ingress/egress angles and wake protection, shoreline seating and a new drop-off and parking area.

“It will eventually connect to many other metro parks, which will create a land and water loop, which should be a great benefit for the city of Des Moines,” said Brenda Mainwaring, a member of the CAT committee.

The project is expected to be completed in summer 2027.

Grant application documents note that the project will improve the economic development of the area, which is north of downtown in the Union Park neighborhood. The project also dovetails with other infrastructure improvements nearby, such as rehabilitation of the Second Avenue Bridge and over the Des Moines River and Birdland Drive. A trail facility was also recently added to the area to provide greater connectivity to downtown.

The city is also actively constructing Phase One of the Central Place Trail, a $1.5 million project to connect Birdland Park to the Lauridsen Skatepark downtown. Phase Two of the Central Place Trail, an estimated $4 million-plus project tentatively planned for construction in 2027, will connect Birdland Park to Prospect Park and will be tied into the 600-plus mile Central Iowa Trail Network.

Other CAT awards went to:

• The city of Floyd near Mason City, for which the board approved $25,000 in grant funding for the city to build two new pickleball courts in its city park. The courts will have fencing and lighting. The total project cost is $85,000.
• The city of Harlan, located near Omaha, was awarded $402,667 to build the Dream Playground, which will feature accessible and inclusive equipment, shades, gathering structures and educational equipment. As the first step in a larger plan to revitalize and expand recreation opportunities in Harlan, the playground will serve as the central feature of their public park. The total project cost is nearly $1.6 million.
• Hardin County, which includes the city of Iowa Falls, was awarded $1 million to pave 9 miles of the Iowa River’s Edge Trail to connect Eldora to Union. When completed, the trail will create a 32-mile corridor along the Iowa River. It will connect rural communities in two counties, supporting economic growth in smaller communities. The total project cost is nearly $6.2 million.

Durham on incentives revamp
During the board meeting, IEDA Director Debi Durham shared her thoughts on how the state plans to incentivize businesses in the future. On June 6, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Senate File 657, which is designed to modernize the way the state offers incentives to businesses.

The law will replace the long-time High Quality Jobs program with Business Incentives for Growth Program starting Jan. 1. The new program has a $50 million annual cap and will focus on advanced manufacturing, biosciences, insurance and finance, and technology. It changes some of the rules for businesses, putting caps on several tax credits.

“The way we’re approaching it is so different than what we’ve done before,” she said.

She commented on the state’s High Quality Jobs program, which incentivizes companies to offer skilled and high-paying positions throughout the state:

“It has served us very well, but it was created to compensate for an uncompetitive income tax environment,” Durham said. “That’s how it was designed. And it worked and it served. But now that you have a total different tax climate and regulatory climate, thanks to Gov. Reynolds, those incentives do not work today.”

In the past, incentives were about creating many jobs. Now that is shifting, she said.

“Any time we did something it was the number of jobs [that led the headlines],” she said. “We’re in a different culture today. It should not be the number of jobs. It should be the quality of jobs. We want jobs that raise the standard of living for Iowans. We should not be incentivizing jobs that do not do that.”

Investment in infrastructure is also important, Durham said.

“We also want major capital investment. We want reinvestment in automation and productivity, because we want to incentivize wealth creation, and that is GDP growth, and the way you do that is through productivity,” she said.

As officials sort through what the new federal budget President Trump signed earlier this month will mean for the state, Durham said through the governor’s office, Iowa government leaders have access to Cabinet members.

“When we see things that are causing us concern, or really unintended consequences as they make such sweeping changes, at least our voice is being heard,” she said.

Durham also mentioned Reynolds will be putting together a taskforce on nuclear energy, which the IEDA office will administer.

“The wind does not always blow, the sun does not always shine and if you’re going to run a production economy, we’ve got to have a clean base load in which we can do it,” Durham said. “Natural gas is a natural insurance policy for us but I’m very excited about looking at modular nuclear as an alternative here.”