First Avenue neighborhood to see some action

CEDAR RAPIDS - No one gave the for-sale sign in the 600 block of First Avenue SW a second look.

It went up earlier this year where the flood-wrecked Cedar Rapids Christian Center/Foursquare Gospel Church used to stand. First Avenue West hasn't seen much new construction for years, though.

It will now. The non-profit Neighborhood Development Corp., which looks for opportunities to revitalize older parts of the city, is going to build on that site.

On Wednesday, Marty Hoeger, president/CEO of the corporation, erected a new sign to show off building plans at the former church site, which sits between the Maid-Rite West restaurant and two small apartment buildings that are now back on their feet after the 2008 flood.

Hoeger said the non-profit group proposes to build a two-story commercial/residential building on the church site, with three storefronts and five apartments. If he gets no takers on the retail space over the winter, though, Hoeger said the corporation's first investment in the block will likely be a six-unit apartment building at the corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street SW.

The phased redevelopment of the block will be aided initially by a $900,000 federal disaster grant, which will provide up to $60,000 per unit to build 15 apartments.

Much of the rest of the block between First and Second avenues and Sixth and Seventh streets SW remains flood-damaged, awaiting a city buyout. The buyout properties likely will become part of the city's vacant-lot giveaway program, and the Neighborhood Development Corp. will compete to get the lots, Hoeger said.

“It's a good spot,” said Bill Prowell, an attorney at Shuttleworth & Ingersoll and president of the corporation's board of directors. “Our mission is to try to get to all the distressed or flood-damaged neighborhoods to help them, and this was as good a spot for us to land as we could in that general neighborhood.”

Hoeger calls the block “pretty close to a bull's eye of what we're supposed to be doing.”

He points out that the city's Neighborhood Planning Process calls for Ellis Boulevard NW in the Time Check neighborhood to be extended and connect with Sixth Street NW and SW. That will turn the corner of First Avenue and Sixth Street SW into a “prime corner for revitalizing the neighborhood,” Hoeger said.

“Our investment will be the first there, and, hopefully, it can move the planning process ahead,” he said.

Jim Hanson, 67, owner of Maid-Rite West, said he has an open mind to Hoeger's plans next door, though he admits he's not a fan of change.

Hoeger said he wants the investment there to complement and help existing businesses, like Hanson's sandwich shop. The corporation is there to help, not harm, he said.

The Neighborhood Development Corp. came to be in March 2009 after the City Council steered a $1.5 million startup grant to the program from the state's Community Disaster Grant Program. Prowell heads up a nine-member volunteer board comprised of business leaders, neighborhood voices and City Council member Pat Shey.

Hoeger, 38, the sole paid employee, is a former Realtor who took over the development corporation's job in June after the first director, Carol Bower, left.

Prowell and Hoeger count as a corporation victory the purchase of the flood-damaged Village Bank & Trust Co. bank on Third Street SE in New Bohemia. The corporation cleaned it up, secured historical tax credits and resold it for a small loss to investors, who are now turning it into a restaurant.

A second victory, they say, was the purchase of the former J.P. Gasway Co.'s building at Sixth Street and 12th Avenue SE, across from one of two new apartment buildings under construction. Hoeger said the corporation bought the former site to block a possible plan for a takeout liquor store.

The corporation now has sold the property for a slight profit to a local developer, who is planning to build a three-story building, with storefronts on the ground floor and 20 apartments above them. No takeout liquor is allowed, he said.

A third proposal, which called for a block of new homes on part of Hayes Park in southwest Cedar Rapids, was quickly dropped when neighbors objected.