Flattery, who is concluding his 18th year on the City Council, said that downtown will be his No. 1 priority as mayor.

“What I want to do is bring retail, recreation and residential to the downtown,” he said.

As proof that people want to be downtown, he points to the success of Second Avenue Rowhomes, which consists of 32 rental units in the 900 block of Second Avenue South. The development opened in October 2024, and is fully occupied.

“People want to live downtown,” Flattery said.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Fort Dodge Mayor-elect Dave Flattery poses in the City Council meeting room. He is the longest serving member of the council, having been elected to his first term in 2007. He will replace Mayor Matt Bemrich in January.

The successful effort to redevelop the former Crossroads Mall into today’s Corridor Plaza is a blueprint for what he hopes to accomplish downtown, Flattery said.

“The plan starts with how good we did at the mall area,” he said.

A key ingredient in the creation of Corridor Plaza was $17 million worth of sales tax reimbursements awarded in 2022 by the Iowa Economic Development Authority through its Iowa Reinvestment District program. That program directs state sales tax dollars generated at Corridor Plaza back into the site.

The state government recently invited communities that have such districts to apply for the opportunity to enlarge them. On Dec. 8, the City Council endorsed an application for expanding the district from Corridor Plaza to downtown.

Flattery said Fort Dodge has already shown it can successfully use the Reinvestment District program. He is enthusiastic about applying it to downtown, perhaps creating a Reinvestment District all the way to the Des Moines River.

With a district in place, he said, the public sector can jumpstart development downtown. The private sector, he said, will be reluctant to invest in downtown unless it sees the public sector investing also.

He added that having a Reinvestment District there would lower the amount of conventional financing that would be needed.

As part of his drive to rejuvenate downtown, Flattery wants to work with private property owners to bring solar energy to the city’s center. He said there is an opportunity to take advantage of some federal tax credits and the expertise of Iowa companies working in the solar energy field to make that happen.

“In essence, we build solar farms to provide energy,” he said.

The effort would involve installing solar panels on the roofs of some downtown buildings. He said after those panels are paid for they would essentially provide free electricity to the businesses in those buildings for decades.

Flattery acknowledged that downtown has some problems, including rundown buildings and what often seems to be a growing population of homeless people.

He said not all of the old buildings downtown need to be demolished.

“I look at some of those buildings as an asset,’ he said.

He added that making downtown a vibrant area with lots of people in it will take care of a lot of other negatives.

“The more eyes you have downtown, the less problems you have,” he said.