WATERLOO -- The city has completed a nearly $1.4 million buyout of property along the east bank of the Cedar River to clear the way for a riverfront housing project.

Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously Monday to buy the Meyers Sheet Metal building, 113 E. Eighth St., for $580,000 and estimated relocation and incidental costs of nearly $27,000.

It was the last of six separate properties required to clear the area from the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Urban Education at East Sixth Street to East Eighth Street, between Sycamore Street and the Cedar River, for a combination of proposed houses and condominiums. The buyouts, financed by state Brownfields grants, also included the Blackhawk Automatic Sprinkler Inc. property further downstream, which would be in a future housing expansion area.

Vandewalle & Associates, a Madison, Wis., consulting firm, had recommended the riverfront housing project as part of a downtown master redevelopment plan adopted by the City Council.

City officials are in negotiations with David Deeds, of Cedar Valley Restoration and Development, on a contract to acquire the property for a planned mix of row houses and condos along the river.

Deeds has said he plans to retain one of the buildings for condos, while the rest of the buildings would be demolished for new, architecturally appropriate construction.

In other business, council members approved:

-- Paying $342,000 to buy a house at 4104 Ansborough Ave. for construction of a new frontage road to serve a planned $4.5 million expansion of Van G. Miller & Associates office building in the South Waterloo Business Park. Council members previously bought an adjacent house for $280,000.

-- A development agreement with Criterion Inc. for construction of an 8,800-square-foot expansion to its current site at 2840 Burton Ave., just south of Airline Highway. Criterion already owns the land for the expansion but would receive 50 percent tax rebatements for five years on the estimated $155,000 in new taxable value the project will create.

-- Borrowing $150,000 to pay for unused sick time and other benefits owed to retiring employees in the coming year. The money is repaid the following year at 5.75 percent interest with property tax collections.

-- A three-year contract with Hogan-Hansen of Waterloo for $187,450 to conduct the next three city financial audits.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or at tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.