Developer buys former History Center for $1.19 million, paves way for day school

CEDAR RAPIDS - Downtown developer and architect Steve Emerson has bought the former Carl and Mary Koehler History Center building and will renovate it for the new Cedar Rapids Day School, which will offer programming for up to 200 children ages 6 and younger.

Emerson on Monday said the goal is to complete the renovation of one-time car-dealership-turned-history museum at 615 First Ave. SE in time for the early childhood education operation to open by the start of the fall school year.

Christa Fielder, who owns and directs the Hiawatha Day School, on Monday said she is creating the Cedar Rapids Day School to extend her reach and to provide a downtown Cedar Rapids service similar to the one she now operates for 130 children in Hiawatha.

'I never use the word ‘day care,'” Fielder said. 'I see us as a day school, and I seek out licensed teachers just like myself who really have a love for early childhood education and kindergarten.”

Emerson said he was part of the architectural team that transformed what had been a car dealership at a highly visible spot on First Avenue SE into the History Center museum in the late 1990s. By happenstance, the change in the building's exterior back then will work perfectly for a children's day school, he said.

'That was one of the challenges when we did the History Center,” Emerson said. 'The History Center board said, ‘Historic museums are always going to get the people interested in museums. We want something that's fun and vibrant that's going to draw in busloads of kids.'

'So we designed it in such a way so it had some whimsy and it was fun and colorful.”

Some of the building's exterior will come down to make room for an outdoor play area that is integral to the building, Emerson said.

He purchased the former History Center building for $1.19 million as an entity called Ptero LC, History Center board President Adam Ebert and Emerson both said on Monday.

On Tuesday, the City Council will vote to give Emerson a 10-year, 50 percent property-tax break to help him finance the building's renovation. The request is for a project in an existing urban renewal area and qualifies for an incentive under the city's Core Economic Development Program, according to city officials.

Mark Stoffer Hunter, research historian for the History Center, on Monday said the Fletcher family started building its Rapids Chevrolet car dealership in 1935. The company sold the business to Pat McGrath in 1990, which closed the building.

The History Center began renovating it in late 1997 as its new home.

Stoffer Hunter said the History Center will continue to own an old fireplace from the Union Depot train station in Cedar Rapids, which will remain as a display feature in the now-Emerson-owned building until the day comes when Emerson can't use it.

Other Emerson projects close to the former History Center property include the construction two years ago of a three-story office building at 600 Third Ave. SE and the purchase of The Gazette Company building at 500 Third Ave. SE. Emerson tore down the back section of the former Gazette Company building two years ago, and on Monday he said he will tear down much of the rest of the building later this month to make way for redevelopment. He may build a residential project on the site, he said.

The only part of The Gazette Company building that will remain in the half block is the oldest piece, which faces Fifth Street SE across from the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Stoffer Hunter on Monday said Emerson had become something of the 'mayor of Sixth Street,” with his new office building and his ownership of the former newspaper building and the former History Center building.

The History Center is temporarily located at 716 Oakland Rd. NE and will move into the historic Douglas Mansion, 800 Second Ave. SE, once renovation there is complete.