White Elephant ready to be replanted

CEDAR RAPIDS — The survival story of an old Cedar Rapids building known as the White Elephant is nearing full circle.

The 135-year-old building where past generations in the New Bohemia district shopped for secondhand goods could be back on solid ground — literally — sometime after Feb. 1. That's when owner Beth DeBoom hopes to break ground on the foundation at its new location, 1305 Third St. SE.

'Everyone is anxious and excited,' DeBoom said. 'The city has given us so much leeway on this I really don't want to let them down. We want to get going as soon as possible.'

An unlikely sequence of events has paved the way for the White Elephant's future.

Historic preservation activists Beth and husband Tom DeBoom led a eleventh-hour bid last spring to save the nostalgia-filled but rundown two-story building from the wrecking ball. Laurie Konecny and Jamie Stroschine had bought the property at 1010 Third St. SE, where the White Elephant stood, hoping to remodel but it proved too costly.

The DeBooms intervened and struck a deal to pick up and move the White Elephant the day before demolition would have been allowed. Their plan was to store the building temporarily at 1312 Second St. SE until they could move it to the eventual landing spot 200 feet away at 1305 Third St. SE, which is also adjacent to the so-called Heart House.

DeBoom also saved the Heart House, 1301 Third St. SE, where she now runs Little House Artifacts on the main level and an Airbnb rental on the second floor.

Konecny and Stroschine have since erected a new building in its place, and on Nov. 28, Konecny and her husband Scott opened Lu's Deli in the New Bohemia neighborhood, serving sandwiches, soups, pastas and desserts from family recipes.

The White Elephant building was hoisted off its foundation onto a trailer bed and carefully wheeled down to Second Street at dawn on May 9.

There the building has sat, surviving the 2016 flood and the winter as the DeBooms navigated various grant and tax credit applications, as well as worked to acquire the 1305 Third St. SE property, which was complicated because it was a flood buyout by the city.

The waiting appears to be nearly over.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded the DeBooms a $75,000 Main Street Iowa grant, which requires a $276,810 match to pay for the $351,810 projected cost of remodeling and restoration. The project also may qualify for state and federal historic tax credits, and it won a $2,600 grant from the Czech Village-New Bohemia Main Street District, DeBoom said.

A preliminary site plan for 1305 Third St. SE was approved by the City Planning Commission last month, and DeBoom said she expects to close on the property next week.

Little Woods NewBo LLC, which filed the site plan application, proposed restoring the 1,224-square-foot building and adding a 241-square-foot single-story addition at the rear. An Airbnb rental is likely for the second floor while, the first floor is planned for a small retail business, such as a flower shop, a second hand clothing store, a small grocery, or a hardware store, she said.

'Something that will keep people walking through the district, DeBoom said. 'In my heart, I know that would be best for main street so that is what we are going for.'

An insulating ground cover tops the space where the White Elephant will land, acting as something of a 'heating blanket' to prevent the ground from freezing so foundation work can begin, DeBoom said. Once the building is situated, then the restoration work will begin.

The hope is to have it finished in the summer, she said.

'It's not only the history of the business in the building, which has a place in the hearts of many in the community,' said Mark Stoffer Hunter, historian at The History Center. 'But also from a building standpoint, very rarely do you see old wood framed buildings from that time frame survive.'

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com