Great Wall Chinese Restaurant is set to return to the College Hill next summer after it burned to the ground in a fire in April.

The owners of Great Wall have now proposed a new commercial structure on the premises of the restaurant that will accommodate four tenants, including Great Wall itself. Levi Architecture of Cedar Falls provided designs for the project, which is tentatively set to go under construction later this year.

“We anticipate construction starting late October, and we’re hoping to be done by early to mid-summer,” said Dan Levi, the project architect of the proposed building. Levi went on to say the project was delayed due to the insurance claim process following the fire.

Besides Great Wall, the other three tenants set to occupy this new building are currently not known.

“At this point, they haven’t started marketing the additional tenant spaces,” Levi said. “We are not entirely sure we have solidified the actual shape and sizes of the spaces yet. We do know Great Wall will occupy one of the four potential tenant spaces.”

The new building will be one story in height and will be built in compatibility with the surrounding area to blend it with the other buildings on the Hill. It will reportedly be constructed closer to the street with rear parking spaces as the owners want to integrate more pedestrian access rather than vehicular ones.

“[The owners] wanted to move the building forward to represent more of the front to the building, similar to what’s going on up the Hill,” Levi said.

He said a storefront flush with the sidewalk will put parking in the back “where it should be.”

Cedar Falls City Council will take action on the proposal later this month, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Levi denied this as a move to recreate downtown Cedar Falls at College Hill and added that the two neighborhoods are distinctly different from one another, with each having its own attitude.

Levi also stressed in his proposal that additional efforts will be made to improve the fire-safety ratings of the new building.

Levi presented the project proposal to the Cedar Fall’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at City Hall. At the project proposal, the commission members showed their concerns for the flora on the project site and also suggested utilizing the five feet of space between the projected building and the street. The commission members also lauded the owners of Great Wall for voluntarily downsizing the building by five feet to accommodate the CFU powers lines that run adjacent to the street.

Some students aren’t particularly excited about the news.

Ted Tecklenburg, junior finance investment and real estate major, ate at Great Wall once — and that was enough, he said.

“I wouldn’t really care if it came back,” Tecklenburg said. He’d prefer another fast food option – something that’s convenient on the weekend for college students.

Other students would like to see the Hill move in the direction of Main Street Cedar Falls, with more sit-down restaurants and more options.

“That would draw a different crowd in addition to what’s already there,” said Dillon Distler, senior elementary education major.

Jacob Styche, senior social work major, agreed.

“We need more restaurants besides pizza and Chinese,” Styche said.

Distler did note that Great Wall’s return was good news. He’d said he hadn’t eaten at the restaurant before, but would if it returned.

“[Great Wall] burned down before I had a chance to eat there,” Distler said. “But I’d be open to it when it comes back.”