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DIA seeks restaurant operator for Riverfront Plaza; core-and-shell to be city-built, proposals due in March
Summary
DIA has issued a solicitation to lease (not sell) the Riverfront Plaza restaurant parcel; DIA would build a core-and-shell and lease to an operator who would fit out the space. Proposals are due in March; Tarbert said proposals will be reviewed in April/May and no general-fund dollars are anticipated for the shell beyond a $1M reallocation to Snyder Memorial.
Colin Tarbert told the Special Committee on the Future Downtown that DIA has issued a notice of disposition to solicit an operator for the Riverfront Plaza restaurant parcel and that the agency intends to build the restaurant core-and-shell and then lease it to a private operator.
"We're not selling this site," Tarbert said. "DIA would undertake the construction of the core shell. We would lease it to an operator who would fit it out for tenant improvements and operate the restaurant." He said proposals are due in March and that DIA would review them and present results in April or May.
Tarbert said the restaurant parcel is a CRA parcel and that DIA expects core-and-shell costs to be funded without requests to the general fund. He acknowledged a prior $1,000,000 transfer to Snyder Memorial but said DIA expects to move forward with the Riverfront cafe and the restaurant disposition concurrently.
On the adjacent private development, Tarbert said the Gateway parcel closed in December 2025 and that the developer has engaged Cookfox Architects for a program that Tarbert described as roughly 160 hotel keys, 60 for-sale condo units, ground-floor retail and about 150 on-site parking spaces, with a preliminary cost estimate of about $240,000,000 and an anticipated 2027 groundbreaking timeline.
Committee members asked whether the city should wait before committing CRA dollars to build the core shell, noting other incentive priorities; Tarbert said the solicitation is designed to put an operator in front of the project before committing development capital and that if responses are not compelling DIA will not proceed.
