The city of Waukee submitted an application today for partial rebates of sales and hotel/motel tax revenues for a prized development area.

The 25-acre Kettlestone Lakes Reinvestment District is located north of Interstate 80 and west of the Grand Prairie Parkway. The area will feature a hotel and conference center, amphitheater and events center, mixed-use retail and trails and greenway.

Waukee seeks $20 million in rebates for a development estimated at more than $91 million. The plan and application were approved March 9 during a special meeting of the Waukee City Council.

Under the state program, communities have until March 15 to submit applications for preliminary approval of proposed districts and development projects to the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

The IEDA board first gives conditional approval, or denies, applications. Applications containing more detailed information about funding for projects must be submitted by March 1, 2016, for final review and approval.

Moline-based Heart of America Group is the proposed hotel and convention center developer. Plans call for an 175-room hotel and convention center with a 12,000-square-foot event space just across the lake from a 10,000-seat amphitheater. The hotel and convention center would also be home to a rooftop restaurant and bar.

“The physical area for the amphitheater will be as large as the 18,000-seat Cricket Theater in Kansas City. But the Kettlestone Lakes Amphitheatre will seat 10,000 people because of the desire to allow for lawn chairs, blankets, and family style entertainment, as opposed to theater-style seating,” according to the city’s application.

Heart of America also plans to team up with a “utility provider to install three electric vehicle charging stations with the ability to accommodate up to six cars at current locations. Additional sites are under consideration for charging station installations,” according to the application. Click here for a copy of the application and additional information.

The reinvestment district is within the 1,700-acre Kettlestone development area that was unveiled last year after several years of planning. The area follows Grand Prairie Parkway (formerly Alice’s Road) south from Hickman Road to Interstate 80 in Waukee. Grand Prairie Parkway ultimately will tie into Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines. Read more

While Waukee waits for preliminary approval of its plan, the city of Des Moines has submitted its application for final IEDA approval for a nearly 24-acre reinvestment district that follows Fifth Avenue from Center Street south to Court Avenue.

A key part of the plan is a $101-million, 330-room convention center hotel that would be owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation made up of five members appointed by the Polk County Board of Supervisors and two appointed by the Des Moines City Council.

Des Moines received preliminary approval last year for $36.4 million in tax rebates for the district, which would include a joint development of apartments and a Hy-Vee Inc. grocery store at 420 Court Ave. as well as the redevelopment of the nearby Hotel Randolph.

The final application requested $39.4 million in rebates, based in large part from an expectation that sales tax revenues generated at the Hy-Vee will be more than initially estimated. Read more