New downtown Cedar Rapids office proposed behind Gazette building

CEDAR RAPIDS - Downtown could see a new office building rise near Greene Square, but plans are still in an early stage.

Developer Steve Emerson has proposed constructing a new seven-story building to replace the parking lot at the corner of Third Avenue SE and Sixth Street SE, just east of The Gazette building.

The proposal still is only a concept, Emerson told The Gazette Monday.

'We did a concept and we're basically marketing it right now to find tenants to potentially take there. You never really know who is out there looking unless you have something out there,” Emerson said.

Initial plans call for a three-story parking garage with at least three stories of office space on top. Housing, such as condominiums, would occupy the building's top two floors. Each floor would be about 35,000 square feet, Emerson said.

He added the new building was designed to attract companies not already in Cedar Rapids that need a large amount of space.

'It's not designed around cannibalizing a business from another location around here. There are no large office options on the market right now downtown,” Emerson said.

The final design for the building is in flux and would accommodate the final tenants, Emerson said. For example, if a tenant needs more office space, Emerson said he may remove the housing component.

He said it could take about a year and a half to build, if plans are finalized.

'We would likely not move forward until we had the tenants for it. I'm not in the market of putting empty office building into downtown that's not needed,” he said.

Emerson already has his fingerprints on multiple projects in the city, including restoration of the Smulekoff's Building.

He owns the building that houses The Gazette's newsroom and the land used for its parking lot.

If built, the project would be among the newest office space, counting renovations, for downtown Cedar Rapids.

Trucking company CRST opened its new 11-story, $37 million office tower along the Cedar River last September. Insurance company United Fire Group, meanwhile, is renovating the historic American Building to add to its downtown office campus.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; matthew.patane@thegazette.com