New life coming for piece of NewBo history

CEDAR RAPIDS — Fire and smoke closed a historic building in the heart of New Bohemia 13 months ago, but life for the two-story brick edifice is set to return.

Chad Pelley, business development manager at Ahmann Companies in Hiawatha, told a city advisory committee this week that renovation of the commercial building at 307 12th Ave. SE should begin in October.

The building, home to the Chrome Horse Saloon and Slop House when a pile of greasy rags caught fire in July 2014, is expected to house three office or retail tenants on the first floor and a music venue on the second floor and mezzanine level, Pelley said.

He told the city's Design Review Technical Advisory Committee the site is now owned by 2025 Development LLC, which includes businessman Dennis Henderson, chief executive officer of Ready Wireless in Cedar Rapids.

For now, developer Ahmann Companies' rendering of the renovation project shows a sign out front, 'The National,' which is an idea for now about what the music venue may be called. At the same time, Pelley said what goes into the building could change.

The sign could read any company name, for instance, if a company decided to lease a big part of the building or all of it, Pelley said.

The advisory committee, which reviews the designs of renovation and new construction projects in New Bohemia, signed off on the Ahmann plans for 307 12th Ave. SE.

The recommendation will go on to the City Planning Commission, which will review a site development plan of the renovation project this month, Pelley said.

He said the company intends to add an elevator and make other changes so the building complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Otherwise, there won't be many changes to the building's exterior other than cleaning it up and replacing boarded-up windows.

'We're going to do as little as we can (outside) so we don't disturb it,' he said.

Jim Piersall, chairman of the advisory committee, applauded the plans.

'This is a very historic building, and it's wonderful to see somebody taking it on and making it useful again,' Piersall said. 'Its location is key to the New Bohemia area.'

The original initials on the outside of the building, Z.C.B.J., will remain.

Dale Todd, a member of the advisory committee, said the building opened in October 1908 as Western Bohemian Fraternal Association or Zapadni Ceska Bratrska Jednota, a fraternal benefit association serving families of Czech ancestry. The company, which is now Western Fraternal Life Association, moved in 1959 to 1900 First Ave. NE, said Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter.

Stoffer Hunter said the 307 12th Ave. SE building is defined as a 'key contributing structure' in the Bohemian Commercial Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ahmann Companies has created a rendering of what the 307 12th Ave. SE building will look like, and it looks down 12th Avenue SE from Third Street SE to the new Geonetric Inc. building on the south side of the street and a rendering of The Depot, the coming commercial/residential development behind the NewBo City Market across 12th Avenue SE from the Geonetric building,

The Geonetric building and The Depot, which is under construction, also are Ahmann projects.