Kevin Koellner

Despite being the hottest commercial corridor in Bettendorf, city officials are planning to dole out nearly $20 million in taxpayer subsidies to developers looking to expand the "bettplex" sports complex at Forest Grove and Middle Roads.

In addition to tax rebates totaling $14 million, the city would give developers $5.8 million in outright grants and agree to pick up the tab for all infrastructure improvements in the area at an estimated cost of $25 million.

In just the next two years, the agreement calls for the city to complete $5.3 million in public improvements including $1.5 million for a pedestrian bridge across Middle Road, $2 million for an extension of Forest Grove Road and a roundabout, $1 million for internal roads and trails in the development and $800,000 for storm water and sanitary sewer work.

And, unlike the first development agreement, the new deal would not require that developers share sales tax rebates with the city nor pay a $5 per night fee on hotel rooms planned as part of the expanded sport complex/urban renewal area on the northeast corner of Forest Grove and Middle Roads. (In the agreement released publicly 2/11, a clause to share sales tax rebates, if granted by the state, is included. The city would get a 45 percent cut of those rebates. And, a provision has been added to require hotels in the TIF area to charge a $5 per night room fee to be paid the city.)

A Bettendorf sport complex developer is seeking to rezone land adjacent to the facility – and currently owned by the city – for commercial and multi-family residential uses.

Kevin Koellner, one of the developers of the sports complex, obtained approval to rezone the land from the city's planning and zoning commission at the group's Aug. 15 meeting. Commissioners apparently were unaware the city purchased the land in August 2017 from the developers for $600,000 (or $60,000 per acre).