WATERLOO -- Residents who have been getting restless about the lack of construction on two long-anticipated Waterloo development projects have company in City Hall.

"Talk, talk, talk. It seems like that's all we've done for three years," Mayor Tim Hurley said about the planned downtown Riverfront Renaissance project. "There's an impatience, an anxiousness to get going and to see something … and I feel it too."

But 2006 should be a banner year for the $20 million Vision Iowa project dubbed Riverfront Renaissance, as heavy machinery starts rolling in to begin working on large-scale riverfront projects. The same can be said of another key development project, a $100 million hotel and casino to be constructed near the intersection of Highways 20, 380 and 218.

It's been more than three years since the state's Vision Iowa board approved a $7.3 million grant to help fund a $20 million project to renovate a downtown Cedar River dam with an inflatable bladder; construct riverwalks on both sides of the Cedar downtown; and tie it into a riverside amphitheater and elevated pedestrian plaza near the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

A lawsuit filed by Page County residents opposed to a completely separate Vision Iowa project unfortunately dragged Waterloo into the mix, delaying Vision Iowa contract approval for more than two years.

"That lawsuit messed us up so bad because nobody could really move forward with the project," said Jeff Kutz of the Waterloo Development Corp., a nonprofit board working with the city on the Vision Iowa project and related housing and downtown redevelopment efforts.

"People want to see it start happening, to start believing in downtown," he added. "Once people start seeing things happening this year we think there will be a renewed interest in the project."

Community Planning and Development Director Don Temeyer said the city has been active, spending more than $1 million on design and engineering work on the project.

"We haven't been just sitting, not doing anything," he said. "We have acquired all the property and have a housing project along the river with David Deeds under contract."

Many other projects related to the Riverfront Renaissance plan -- a new 18th Street bridge, downtown property buyouts, the Cedar Valley TechWorks and a Highway 63 reconstruction project -- are also moving ahead.

The city did break ground on a Youth Pavilion addition at the Waterloo Center for the Arts last fall, which does contain a sliver of Vision Iowa funds. The Pavilion will include restrooms and storage area for the adjacent amphitheater and plaza. But the first true Vision Iowa project -- a trail along the east side of the Cedar from Sixth Street to 18th Street is slated for construction bids in April.

"We're looking forward to that, to kick off the riverwalk loop," said project manager Doug Schindel of Earth Tech. "There will be a trailhead, or overlook, at Sixth Street (adjacent to the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Urban Education)."

The next project in the staging would be the dam refurbishing and rubber bladder extension to raise river levels for recreational boating upstream, which includes reconstruction of corroded riverwalls downtown. Schindel said permits for the work are being sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Iowa Department of Natural Resources in February, keeping an eye on an early summer bid letting and construction start in the fall.

The dam project is expected to take two construction seasons, while work on the amphitheater and remaining riverwalk segments would run into 2007 and 2008.

"In the sense that our citizens are looking for something to pop up along the river I think this will satisfy them that we're moving ahead," Hurley said. "I remain very excited about it. I remain convinced it was the right thing to do and that we're on the right track.

While the city and WDC focus on downtown development, a private gaming company is waiting for spring to begin going vertical on a $100 million hotel and casino.

Last October, a group of local dignitaries and Isle of Capri Inc. officials huddled in a tropical decorated tent near the Lost Island Adventurepark to break ground on the Biloxi, Miss.-based gaming company's planned casino with 1,100 slot machines, table games, three restaurants and 200-room hotel with conference space.

IOC was granted a gaming license by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission in May 2005, beating out competing Waterloo applications for a downtown hotel and casino and a proposed casino and dog track at the former Waterloo Greyhound Park. The company has already written checks for $3.5 million, advances on future gaming revenue, to support Riverfront Renaissance development and city government operations.

Nancy Donovan, IOC regional vice president for Iowa, said grading work at the casino site is essentially finished, including the pond that will be under the gaming floor to meet state legal requirements that casinos be located over water.

"The pond is really shaped and graded and done, and we're getting the foundation level so we can pour the footings," Donovan said. "Now we're going through all the structural elements and all of the final design work so when the weather breaks this spring we'll be in a poised position to be aggressive."

Donovan said plans call for the building to be erected and enclosed before the weather turns cold next fall, so construction crews can spend the winter of 2006-07 finishing the interior in preparation of a late spring 2007 grand opening.

A job fair to hire many of the casino's planned 800 workers is expected in late 2006, but Donovan said many of the top management personnel should be in place much sooner.

"We will have an office there and you'll begin to see us having more of a presence in the community," she said. "We'll be celebrating various milestones throughout the (construction) process so the community knows what's going on. We're anxious."

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