By Angela Holmes

BLACK HAWK COUNTY—The downtown resurgence in Waterloo and Cedar Falls has drawn residents to a lifestyle where shops, restaurants and sometimes even jobs, are right out their back door.

Both cities in the Cedar Valley have experienced a growing interest in downtown living in loft-style apartments in the upper floors of renovated historic buildings, as well as new properties.

“The last 30 years, it was dying. People went to the mall,” developer Mark Kittrell said of downtown Cedar Falls. “Main Street has been revitalized within the past two decades with specialty shops and upscale restaurants. It was built by the community, one-by-one.”

Mr. Kittrell and Jean Fischer, of Cedar Falls-based firm Eagle View Partners, are watching their development dreams become a reality with the first phase of the River Place project under construction near the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Falls.

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