Progress
Downtown & Community THE
essenger
2026
The Better Way Project
The Better Way Project seeks to breathe new life into old buildings, revitalize downtown Fort Dodge By BILL SHEA bshea@messengernews.net
A
local real estate investment group dedicated to rejuvenating the Fort Dodge community has purchased four large buildings with the goal of getting them fully utilized again. The group is called The Better Way Project. Its members are Matt Johnson, Todd McCubbin, and Scott and Katie Underberg. Since October, the group has purchased these buildings: n the Carver Building. n 817 Central Ave. n the former Land O’ Lakes building. n Atrium on Central. Johnson summed up the goal of The Better Way project by explaining that if no one ever takes a risk and does something significant downtown, nothing will change. “As a community, we all agree that something has to be done,” he said. “Well, apparently nobody is going to
““If we’re going to revitalize downtown, we have to have movement and energy down there.” — Matt Johnson The Better Way Project
come from the outside and save us, so we’re putting local money where our mouth is and we’re at least going to give it a shot.” Johnson added that The Better Way Project sees a great deal of value in bringing people back downtown. “If we’re going to revitalize downtown, we have to have movement and energy down there,” he said. “Giving people a reason to go downtown and start getting used to the idea that downtown once again has a lot to offer is the only way things are going to change.”
Carver Building One of the buildings purchased is the historic Carver Building, an eight-story structure occupying most of a city block at 1003 Central Ave. that was built in 1918. The Carver Building was vacant in recent years after the sale and relocation of Heartland Communications, which at its peak housed more than 600 employees in the building. “We are super excited to begin our downtown revitalization with the Carver Building,” McCubbin said. “The building is in great shape and
it’s a shame that it has been sitting there empty when it could be such a key pillar of the local economy in downtown Fort Dodge.” McCubbin said the previous owner is from Florida, and purchased the building solely for the income generated by the two cell phone towers on the roof. “We don’t get the towers unfortunately, the seller gets to keep them via an easement agreement, but we now have the underlying building back under local control and can start filling it with businesses and other users to bring more life back to downtown,” he said. “We have been told many times in the past few weeks that we must be crazy or stupid to buy a vacant building of this size with its expensive property taxes, high insurance costs, utilities and maintenance expenses, but our feeling is if nobody ever takes a risk and does something significant downtown, nothing will ever change,”
-Submitted photo
FROM LEFT, Katie Underberg, Scott Underberg, Todd McCubbin and Matt Johnson have formed a group called The Better Way Project in an effort to revitalize old buildings and bring more business to the downtown area. They now own the Carver Building (pictured above), the former Land O'Lakes building, the Atrium on Central, and the building at 817 Central Ave.
See BETTER, Page 8D
January 1–March 31, 2026
On select KitchenAid® major appliances
524 Central Ave. Fort Dodge
515-955-2330 Monday 8:30am - 7pm
*See sales associate for rebate form with complete details. Only valid at participating KitchenAid brand retailers. Rebate in the form of a prep Tue - Fri 8:30am - 5:30pm terms and conditions apply. ®/™ © 2026 KitchenAid. rightsofreserved. Printed in the U.S.A. 250838KM. *See sales associate for rebate*See formsales with associate complete for details. Only valid atcomplete participating KitchenAid brand retailers. Rebate in the form ofretailers. a prepaid card. rebate form with details. Only valid atAdditional participating KitchenAid brand Rebate in theAllform a prepaid card. Additional terms and conditions apply. ®/™ © terms 2026 KitchenAid. All rights Printed in the U.S.A. 250838KM. Additional and conditions apply.reserved. ®/™ © 2026 KitchenAid. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. 250838KM.
Saturday 9:00am - 1:00pm