Ellis Boulevard NW intersection awaits comeback

CEDAR RAPIDS - Don Gallagher now owns the tasteful corner storefront, long a brake and alignment shop, at Ellis Boulevard NW and K Street NW at an intersection that neighborhood leaders say holds great post-flood commercial promise.

For now, almost five years after the June 2008 flood, the promise is still in the making.

Gallagher and partner Dave Keese, both retired Rockwell Collins electronics engineers, have yet to find the right renter for their renovated storefront at 1200 Ellis Blvd. NW, which Gallagher said on Monday would be perfect for an insurance agent or, perhaps, an artist or small art store.

On Monday, too, Gallagher looked out one of his storefront's big plate-glass windows, across K Street NW to the flood-damaged, former A&W Family Restaurant.

Local developer Baron Stark has had a plan to renovate and reopen the restaurant for more than a year, but at 5 p.m. Monday, a City Hall deadline passed and Stark lost his chance to follow through on his plan, Caleb Mason, a housing redevelopment analyst for the city of Cedar Rapids, reported early last evening.

Stark did not return a call on Monday, but Richard Luther, owner of Creative Development Solutions and a development consultant for Stark, said on Monday that he didn't think Stark had given up on his plans for the A&W.

"I think it would be wonderful if it could (be renovated)," Gallagher said of the A&W. "People have stopped in here and have told us how they used to go there when they were kids."

Linda Seger, the president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, on Monday said she hoped that another developer will now step in and figure out something else for the former A&W property. Stark's proposal, and his development agreement with the city, had taken the property out of play, but now others can submit proposals to redevelop it, she said.

The city's Mason said City Hall will see if there is other interest.

City Council member Don Karr, who grew up in the Ellis Boulevard NW neighborhood, on Monday said that some kind of restaurant should be able to make a go of it at the Ellis Boulevard NW site, but he said he's not sure that the A&W concept can generate enough revenue to work.

Neither Karr nor Seger on Monday were about to give up on the idea of a future vitality for Ellis Boulevard NW even if little commercial activity has yet taken place there as part of the city's flood recovery.

Both pointed to the city's plan, which Karr said has made it on to the city's near-term construction list, to extend Ellis Boulevard NW east to First Avenue West and Sixth Street SW. Seger said such a connection will make Ellis Boulevard NW more inviting for motorists to use, which she said should help neighborhood businesses to sprout up along it. The extension is apt to happen, Seger added, because it also will provide easy access to the proposed new casino on First Avenue West.

Seger said she especially has not given up on the intersection of Ellis Boulevard and K Street NW where Gallagher and Keese have their storefront for rent and, who knows, another proposal may surface for the A&W site, she said.

"It's one of the vital intersections on Ellis," Seger said.

On one corner is the renovated Flamingo restaurant, which is open on Friday and at other times for special events. Across K Street from it is yet-to-be-renovated, one-time corner pharmacy, which Seger and Gallagher said would make a nice restaurant.

The 86-year-old Gallagher said he's been trying to recruit an area owner of a Mexican restaurant to look at the property.

Then there is the A&W site and Gallagher's and Keese's building, which had been Chirp's brake and realignment shop.

In truth, a central interest of Gallagher, who lives close by in the Methwick retirement community, and Keese is to use the shop area in the back of the storefront for their own ongoing hobby shop work. Gallagher said they only hope to get enough rent for the storefront facing Ellis Boulevard NW to pay the taxes.

"They are such good, interesting people," Seger said of Gallagher and Keese. "Which is a plus for the neighborhood. They're involved now in the neighborhood association. It would be nice if something like an accountant or a candle shop of a nice secondhand store located in their building."

Gallagher said he and Keese have turned down inquiries from those who have wanted to open a tattoo shop, a tobacco shop and a rent-to-own shop, saying that's not what he and Keese are looking for.

"We want this to be a good neighborhood," Gallagher said.