An appraiser hired by the city of Bettendorf pegs the value of the Isle of Capri Casino and its two hotels at $55.15 million. The Isle contends the property is worth just $44 million.

Unfortunately for the city, both estimates are far below the current assessed value – $85 million – agreed to by the Isle under terms of the casino/city development agreement signed when the QC Waterfront Convention Center was built.

For more than a year, Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher and City Administrator Decker Ploehn have been telling their economic development staff and developers they would support use of city tax incentives for projects involving downtown apartments.

In emails obtained by bettendorf.com through a Freedom of Information request, both Gallagher and Ploehn were focused on redevelopment of eight apartment buildings in the downtown known collectively as the Carling Apartments.

Lee Enterprises executives touted their 39 percent reduction in costs since 2007 at an Arizona lenders' conference last month, a decline which tracks the steady decline in employment at the Davenport-based firm from more than 8,100 to just over 4,500 full-time employees.

The presentation at Deutsche Bank's Leveraged Finance Conference September 29 may have helped contribute to recent gains in the price of its stock, which has climbed nearly a dollar per share since hitting a 52-week low of $1.36 per share Sept. 10.

The one-block Town Square idea kicked around by Bettendorf aldermen this spring has now mushroomed into a three-block downtown makeover with city taxpayers expected to contribute from $8 million to $15 million in land donations, interest rate buy-downs and developer tax rebates.

The two competing Town Square project proposals – from Russell Companies, Davenport, and Newbury Living, Des Moines – also call for obtaining state housing tax credits to help pay for either senior- or workforce-housing that would be built as part of the redevelopment.

Testimony begins Monday (10/5) in a federal lawsuit seeking to remove endangered animals from the troubled Cricket Hollow Zoo near Manchester, Iowa.

The lawsuit by the Animal Defense Legal Fund (ADLF) and two Iowa residents alleges Cricket Hollow Zoo owners Pamela and Tom Sellner provide poor care for five tigers, three lemurs and two grey wolves on display at the roadside facility.

The bench trial before Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles in U.S. District Court, Northern District, is expected to last a week.

Clean air advocates hailed July 15 as "Clean Air Day for Muscatine" when Grain Processing Corporation (GPC) switched from coal to natural gas to fire its boilers.

The boiler conversion – plus a host of other pollution control improvements at the facility – now appear to be making a big difference in the city's air quality.

Davenport-based Lee Enterprises last week announced the sale of its Napa, California newspaper building and property for $5 million, but the strategy to sell assets to pay down debt hasn't stopped the steady decline in the company's stock price.

Lee stock price fell to a new 52-week low Thursday (9/10), closing at $1.47 per share. The company's stock reached $5.42 per share on March 6, 2014, and has since been losing ground. In early August, the stock was just above $3 per share, but has lost half its value in just the past month.

The first quarter financial results of Isle of Capri Casino, Inc. drew praise from stock analysts Wednesday (9/2), but its Bettendorf riverboat was noteworthy for just the opposite – falling revenues.

The Isle earned $3.1 million for the first quarter, or 8 cents per share, a turnaround from last year when the gambling firm lost 6 cents per share, or $2.3 million. The St. Louis-based firm also reported a significant increase in net revenues for the period, jumping nearly 5 percent to $260 million, compared to $249.5 million during the same period a year ago.

More than three dozen camels, sheep, llamas and cattle at the Cricket Hollow Zoo near Manchester, Iowa where found living in enclosures with mud so deep their legs sunk half to all the way down into the muck, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) May inspection report.

The revised downtown Bettendorf streets aren't yet complete, but gas station/convenience store developers are already moving to re-establish their presence along the busy State and Grant Street corridors.