Iowa City reaches temporary agreement with H-Bar owners

Temporary agreement effective immediately, will be in place until permanent resolution can be reached

IOWA CITY — The city of Iowa City has reached a temporary agreement with the owners of the H-Bar following increased serious incidents and calls for service.

The H-Bar, a hookah bar located at 220 S. Van Buren St., will need to close and have no customers present after 2 a.m. The owners also can’t refuse entry to any officer of the Iowa City Police Department when the location is open for business to the public “so that officers may perform community caretaking functions.”

Compliance with the two requirements is effective immediately, according to the stipulated temporary injunction filed in Johnson County District Court on Monday afternoon.

The temporary agreement will remain in place until a permanent resolution can be reached, according to the city.

Nuisance abatement petition filed in October

The city in October filed a nuisance abatement petition against the property and business owners of the H-Bar following a fatal shooting, increased serious incidents and spike in calls for service.

The petition was filed against the property owners — 220 S Van Buren, LLC — and the bar owners — Groundwork, LLC.

Johnson County property records show 220 S Van Buren, LLC is listed under Bryan Clark of Apartments Downtown, one of Iowa City’s largest landlord companies. A September 2021 trade names document lists four co-owners of the H-Bar: James Miller, Katrell Sykes, David Sykes and Malik Maxwell.

The petition requests the court require the H-Bar to close between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily. Before the temporary agreement, the location was open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays and 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, according to its Facebook page.

The city said it is pursuing these measures “to protect the community from the ongoing serious criminal activity occurring at and around the business since its opening earlier this year.”

The city has not filed a nuisance abatement petition in at least 30 years, if ever, according to the city attorney’s office.

A hearing for the temporary injunction was canceled after a joint motion was filed by the attorneys for the city, business owners and property owners.

“The parties have conferred and reached an agreement regarding the entry of a temporary injunction, which they intend to imminently finalize and file as a stipulated temporary injunction to be approved by the Court,” the Nov. 30 joint motion said.

A trial scheduling conference for the nuisance abatement petition is scheduled for Jan. 12 at 10:30 a.m. at the Johnson County Courthouse. This is a standard step in the court process to reach a resolution, the city said.

Increased calls for service

Iowa City police have increased patrols around H-Bar this year, often requiring officers to work in an overtime capacity, according to the city. The city has “unsuccessfully sought” to address the ongoing issues with the property owners.

There were 23 calls for service to 220 S. Van Buren St. between 2016 and 2021, according to police. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 23 of this year, there were 173 calls for service at the address.

Those calls include a large fight on April 10 and a fight on June 19 in which a firearm was recovered from an individual barred from carrying guns.

A shots-fired incident in the alley outside the bar on Aug. 7 left a woman seriously injured with multiple gunshot wounds. There was a fatal shooting in October in the alley outside the bar.

Waymond Thomas, 36, of Iowa City was struck by gunfire outside of H-Bar following an altercation that started inside. Thomas was transported to the hospital, where he died.

Two Cedar Rapids men were arrested last month and are facing charges of willful injury and participating in a riot last month that started inside the H-Bar and continued outside the same night of the fatal shooting.

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