COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — The MidAmerican Energy Adventure Tower, funded entirely through private donations, is part of a $60 million investment in River's Edge Park.
- "It's very gratifying to be able to raise $60 million for a project in Council Bluffs," said Pete Tulipana, president and CEO of Southwest Iowa Nonprofit for Collective Impact (SINC).
- Some of the features, like a climbing wall, will draw people there; there's nothing like it on the Omaha side," said Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh.
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WATCH KATRINA'S STORY BELOW
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
What is this big tower that’s being built near the Bob Kerrey Bridge in Council Bluffs?
I’m your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel, and I came here to find out more.
Katrina: "How long have you been working on this project..."
Pete Tulipana: "I've been working on this project for over seven years. From the very beginning."
Rising behind Pete Tulipana is the MidAmerican Energy Adventure Tower.
He’s supposed to be retired, but as the president of Southwest Iowa Nonprofit for Collective Impact, or SINC, he wanted to take this riverfront development to the finish line.
"It's very gratifying to be able to raise $60 million for a project in Council Bluffs," said Tulipana.
"Pete collected them all, including enough money to endow a maintenance fund," said Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh.
Walsh says the adventure tower and the treetop walk, funded entirely with private donations, will be an economic boost.
"Some of the features, like a climbing wall, will draw people there; there's nothing like it on the Omaha side," the mayor said.
The 2019 floods, followed by COVID, slowed down development, Tulipana told me. And it had to be designed to meet the Corps of Engineers' standards because it’s constructed on the wet side of the levee.
Tulipana: "...but we're here now and we are moving."
In addition to the climbing wall, a caving experience for children and meeting rooms, there’s something called a roll glider.
"Which is a ride that we found — one other in the United States — and it actually, hopefully will take you up and around the trees and land you back on a platform on a tower," Tulipana said.
The mayor told me he is grateful for the donors across the metro area: "It will be an amenity that everyone in the city of Council Bluffs can take advantage of, and so, I think it's really exciting for the City of Council Bluffs."
The city and SINC say the walkway and tower should be open to the public by next spring.
