(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council this (Wednesday) evening received a presentation from Retail Coach, on their retail recruitment activities over the past several months. The Council last heard from Retail Coach Project Director Kyle Cofer, on April 30th, 2024. The City hired the company in 2021, to help provide necessary data to help officials better understand Atlantic’s retail market and needs. During Wednesday’s meeting, Kofer acknowledged that some deals they had with certain retail establishments “fell through” at the last minute, but he remains optimistic.

City Councilman Mike McDermott asked Kofer what he thought was the reason those deals fell through. Kofer couldn’t come up with a particular reason or factors that caused the deals to fall apart.

One of the deals that failed to come to fruition, according to Kofer, was with what he called “A well known, statewide convenience store that is expanding extremely rapidly.

Atlantic City Council mtg. 1/22-25

Another potential development deal fell through when the developer for two popular stores couldn’t make a deal with the property owner.

The news wasn’t all bad, though.

Kofer with continue to work with the Mayor and City unless the Council decides not to renew the contract with Retail Coach, when the contract is up for consideration. In other business, the Atlantic City Council held and passed the Second Reading of an Ordinance that calls for the vacating of Palm Street, between 3009 and 3101 Palm. The First Reading of the Ordinance was held January 8th. A Public Hearing was with regard to a proposed Amended Ordinance pertaining to Zoning Regulations, specifically affecting front/rear yard setback changes in the R-4 District. The Ordinance would change the front-yard setback from 30-feet to 25-feet, similar to what is found in the R-2 (Low Density) & R-3 (High Density) Districts, and the rear-yard requirement to 20% of the lot depth, with a maximum requirement of 25-feet. The hearing was followed by action on passing the First Reading of the Ordinance.

The Council re-appointed Brad Henningsen to the Atlantic Airport Commission, and Emily Krengel to the Board of Adjustment. They passed a Resolution “Obligating Funds from the Hotel Whitney Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund,” for appropriation to the payment of an annual appropriation TIF (Tax Increment Financed) obligations which will come due in Dec., 2025. This will be the 7th year the City has been eligible to capture the taxes paid by the Whitney Group, using TIF, and it will be an annual occurrence until the City either pay’s-off the $750k maximum payment, or 20-years, whichever comes first.

The Atlantic City Council approved an Order amending the Midwest Medical Services Contract, which ends July 1, 2025. The amendment makes some wording changes (including making Cass County the payer of the contract [through the newly passed EMS Levy], while keeping all the coalition partners in the document], and its limits the shortfall allowance amounts as compared to the original Midwest Contract.

The Council’s final order of business, Wednesday evening, was to enter into a Closed Session (as allowed in the Code of Iowa), for the purpose of strategy meetings for Collective Bargaining.