In late 2023, Iowa City decided to allocate $4 million in funding, provided by the American Rescue Plan Act, toward local businesses struggling to launch.
Dream City, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs and residents with community development projects, received three out of the four million dollars.
The funds proposed in 2023 were enough for the owners to finally purchase the building, Kingdom Center Church, which they had been renting until purchasing it outright in April of 2024.
Dream City Executive Director Frederick Newell said Dream City was founded in 2012 as a response to many young people with absentee fathers. He said there was a desperate need for a safe space where youth in the community, specifically young men of color, could connect through career and recreational opportunities.
The nonprofit started with two programs focusing on youth leadership and fatherhood but expanded over time to serve any community members in need of connection. Most notably, Dream City added a performing arts academy a year after its launch.
In April of 2024, Dream City had finally found a permanent home, but the space called for renovations.
“We’ve been in this building since 2014,” Newell said. “So, in August of 2024, we gutted this building completely from scratch, and the outside of the building was just a shell. And then we had contractors over the last seven months rebuilding everything.”
Dream City expects to host a grand opening of the building this summer. The 12,000 square feet will house an auditorium, a welcome center, a micro retail space, a barber shop, a commercial kitchen, four additional classrooms, and a co-working space for 12-14 entrepreneurs.
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Community Engagement Specialist Lakeshia Jackson looks forward to the future of the community members the new building will serve.
“There is just so much opportunity that it will be birthed in that spot,” she said. “We can have pop-up markets. We can have different kinds of events because people come from different backgrounds.”
Jackson looks forward to continuing to host Dream City’s peer-to-peer mentoring group, where entrepreneurs meet monthly to discuss their operations’ goals and challenges.
“We started that back in October. It’s been really rewarding, mostly being able to offer the opportunity to give them the space to talk about areas that they want to see, to grow in,” she said. “I’ve been enjoying the journey of seeing each individual grow.”
The building had a soft opening in January, hosting smaller events for entrepreneurs like finance workshops. The last major step for the opening is installing speakers and stage lights in the auditorium and rearranging several rooms.
Community Navigator Pamela Mullo believes the renovations will help the Dream City team operate more efficiently than ever before.
“They feel like we are providing [entrepreneurs] with very good tools for them to be able to just implement that knowledge and those tools to their businesses,” she said. “Most of them are in the idea stage of the business, and they have a long process to be able to start with something tangible.”
After the grand opening, Dream City hopes to utilize the green space connected to the current location and build another facility.