Darryl T. High

"As of now, we have over 30 letters of intent from nationally known companies for the mall," said Darryl High, of Regency."The first condos will be finished next summer and the first stores will be open late in 2009."High also said that the names of the companies will be released once agreements have been finalized.

Other than Tanger, there are no outlet malls in the state of Iowa.High says that because of Tiffin's location near the intersection of I-80 and I-380 there are no worries of competition from Tanger Outlet Mall, located just 21 miles west of the planned location.The development is planned to be built directly off the interstate 80 exit at Ireland Dr. in Tiffin.

Depending on the weather, developer Darryl High said construction on the project could begin in spring 2009.The hotel likely will be completed in 20 to 22 months, he said.
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High said he expects to have several more tenants sign on for the project in the next month.

"Considering the economy is a little sluggish, we're seeing quite a bit of interest," he said.

Developer Darryl High said four Davenport builders , Heartland Builders of the Quad-Cities, Diamond Builders, Dave Prochaska Construction Inc. and Saddlebrook Homes , are gearing up for speculative and pre-sold home-building in the near future.

"We're moving forward every day and are looking at starting some houses out there in the next week or two," he said."We could see foundations starting out there any time."

High has been dealing with rumors that Prairie Heights is in trouble, coming in the wake of news that Regency Cos. of Des Moines is in financial trouble.Regency, which is the largest home builder in Iowa, recently laid off its entire home-building staff and halted construction on hundreds of homes after Wells Fargo & Co. decided not to renew its lending agreement with the company.

Although High Development Corp. had partnered often with Regency in the past, it is not working with the Des Moines company in Prairie Heights, High said.

"Prairie Heights LLC is a stand-alone entity owned by myself and my partner David Tigges," he said.
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High said his goal is to see 20 to 25 homes built in the first year.The long-term plan calls for a total of around 240 single-family homes and townhouses, he said.

Darryl T. HighDarryl High is president of Regency Homes' eastern Iowa division.

Darryl High, president of Regency Homes' eastern Iowa division, agreed and said the economic benefits of 1,000 new home sales are immense. "This represents over 200 million dollars in jobs, materials purchased locally, and families being drawn back to Iowa's great quality of life," High said.

"Without the Freight House transaction, we probably weren't going to do [the] Builders [building]," said Darryl High High, president of the Regency Companies of Eastern Iowa.High's company has options on both the Freight House and the Builders site directly north.Control of the Freight House is essential because of the residential components High wants to develop at Builders, he said.
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The Freight House project appeared dead last month, after the Davenport City Council voted down the $15,000 payment to High for a 120-day option to take over the Freight House property.

High is now paying Larry Whitty $7,000 a month for a purchase option, and Regency could pull the trigger on its option - or simply continue to pay $7,000 each month to Whitty - without city involvement.
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But at this point, the city is working with High, because he has the purchase option on the building.

The proposal would have given the City of Davenport 120 days to study the public-market issue with the option of entering into a 20-year Freight House lease with High.Under the lease terms, High would pay the city's Levee Improvement Commission between $22,000 and $45,000 a year to lease the land the Freight House is on, while the city would lease back an as-yet-undisclosed amount of space for the public market at a rate of $70,000 a year.The lease-option document the council turned down also included three 10-year renewal options.

An effort to reconsider the city-council vote was thwarted when five alderman walked out of a meeting.

But High is still interested in pursuing the project, he told the River Cities' Reader earlier this month.

"We could have been building this thing in June or July," High said.Now, that's unlikely, and he's targeting opening for the 2007 festival season.

High said that his company is not interested in developing the public-market concept without some sort of assistance from the city."We need to know if they're going to participate in the public market," he said.If not, he said, his company will need to decide if it wants to try to develop a different project on the Freight House property.
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High said he'd like the issue of city involvement resolved by mid-May."I don't think we have a drop-dead date," he said.
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The basic business model is that High will hold a new lease for the Freight House property with the city and will lease a portion of that - the one-story part of the complex and a covered outdoor area - to the city for the public market.The remainder of the property - the two-story portion - would remain under High's control and might be used for something such as a restaurant.

The city plans to have a private entity operate the public market, and the costs of the project would be covered by the market's income along with increased property values in the market district stemming from new growth.According to Malin, the goal would be that those operational and increased-property-tax revenues would even cover the cost of leasing the public-market space back from High.
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High said that considering the property is in a flood plain, the lease between Whitty and the Levee Improvement Commission is "laughable."
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A developer who assumes the lease at this point doesn't get the benefit Whitty had for a decade, and therefore would actually be overpaying for the property, High said.
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Neither Whitty nor High returned messages left for them on Tuesday.

The city would not just lose money in terms of less lease revenue.The city would pay $70,015 annually for the public-market portion of the lease, bringing the total cost to more than $2.16 million over 20 years.

The combination of Regency's and the city's lease payments mean that High will actually end up making between $25,000 and $48,000 a year on the Freight House in its transactions with the city.

I repeat my challenge to the aldermen to ask Cedar Rapids developer Darryl High if he would take the city's position in the Freight House deal.

Developer Darryl High said he was planning to create a retail development south of Highway 6 near the Coral Ridge Mall.The area, to be called Coral Galleria, will feature 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of space -- also at least four times the size of the Coral Valley Market.

There already are some commitments, High said, but he wasn't ready to release the names.Construction should begin this summer.

"Personally, I think the Coral Ridge/Coralville market has become a proven retail destination," he said.