T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Mayor Jeff Martin points out at the 91.86 acre plot of land the Conrad Development Corporation recently acquired from the Smith Trust just east of the current city limits, with plans to annex it within the next month. A Dollar General store is already slated to be built on the first lot once it is completed, and Martin anticipates further commercial development in the future.

CONRAD — For years, the city of Conrad has been landlocked without any way to expand its limits and explore further commercial and housing development. So when Mayor Jeff Martin and the city council had the chance to purchase 91.86 acres just east of the current limits and eventually annex them, they jumped at the opportunity.

According to the Grundy County Beacon site, the land was sold to the Conrad Development Corporation (CDC) by the Smith Trust at a total cost of $1,629,075 last summer, and Martin expects it to be officially annexed into the city within the next month or so. The news also comes as UnityPoint Health prepares to break ground on a brand new clinic just to the west at the Smith Development between the new fire station and Steckelberg Veterinary Clinic sometime this spring. UPH-Marshalltown Spokesman Sean Hylton confirmed that they plan to be fully moved into the new location by the end of 2025.

“It’s gonna be great. We really need that,” Martin said.

At the most recent city council meeting, it was decided to start a development on the new land, and the mayor said it will start with a pair of two-acre lots and a stub street in between them. The city will pay for the infrastructure, and the remainder of the land will be rented out to a local farmer until a long-term course of action is determined.

One of the lots is already spoken for and will be occupied by a Dollar General store. Four years ago, a plan to bring Dollar General to the same area, which was then located just outside of city limits, was met with strong opposition from local business leaders and then-Chamber Main Street Executive Director Krista Grant, over concerns about the negative impact it would have on their bottom lines. In December of 2020, the Grundy County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a proposed rezoning request that would have paved the way for the store’s construction.

“Now that things have changed (and) now that we own this property, it’s a different scenario at this point,” Martin said.

The other initial lot will be zoned commercial and ready to market, he added.

“I think everything’s gonna start off commercial, and if we need to change it later, we can,” he said. “We don’t know (what it will look like) yet. This is very new to us, and with this retail out here and the clinic coming in, there’s gonna be a lot of traffic out here. So I could see it being a lot of things… We haven’t even decided what we’re gonna pursue at this point, but it’s gonna be ready. So if somebody wants to come in, they can.”

Martin hopes the new development will serve as a complement to the city’s historic downtown and show that there’s “room for everybody” in the small community with an estimated population of just under 1,100 residents.

“I’ve had a lot of people around, in the last four years, talk to me about the fact that we didn’t get (Dollar General) and they’re really disappointed and it’s something we feel like, for our citizens, this is something they’re asking for,” he said.

The mayor, who has held the title for over a decade now, told the T-R there are different perspectives on new development within the community, but he feels Conrad has always been progressive in its outlook on growth.

“We want to make sure that we’re continuing that path,” he said. “As a city, we were landlocked on all edges, all sides, and when this came up for sale, the first day, it was like ‘We need to get this because we don’t have anywhere to go.’ Now this gives us a path to expand and do other things.”

He also thanked local banks for working with the city and the CDC to make the acquisition possible.

“Things like this will bring tax money and all that stuff, and that will help pay for it. We’re in good shape financially with that,” Martin said.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.