Six proposals compete for Smulekoff’s building

CEDAR RAPIDS - Developers have submitted six proposals to transform the former Smulekoff's Home Store in downtown into something new.

The proposals have come from three local developers and developers from suburban Chicago, Indianapolis and Kansas City, Mo.

Tom Frantz, of Frantz Community Investors of Cedar Rapids, said Monday he was 'a little surprised” to see developers from as far as Indianapolis and Kansas City submitting proposals. But he said the Smulekoff's building along the Cedar River in the heart of downtown was 'bound to attract attention” from the development community.

Frantz, who has repurposed historic buildings in downtown Dubuque, Iowa City and elsewhere, said his proposal for the Smulekoff's building, built in 1904 at 97 Third Ave. SE, calls for market-rate apartments on floors two through five and retail and office space on the first floor.

Richard Sova, president of Landover Corp., from Hawthorne Woods, Ill., said Monday his firm has submitted a joint proposal along with Skogman Construction Co. of Cedar Rapids that calls for the Smulekoff's building to become an 'upscale” apartment complex with a large roof deck, fitness center, media room, basement parking and an atrium that extends from the second floor to the fifth floor. The plan would keep the building's first floor for retail or office use, he said.

Sova said his firm and others from outside Cedar Rapids are competing for the project because the building is a 'very special property” in a 'high-profile” spot in downtown Cedar Rapids.

'Just because of that, people are interested in it,” he said.

Sova's firm is building a 64-unit apartment complex on Diagonal Drive SW on the edge of Kingston Village and is renovating the Commonwealth Apartments at 1400 Second Ave. SE into senior housing.

According to the city's Community Development Department, the four other proposals for the Smulekoff's building come from local developer Steve Emerson's firm Aspect Inc.; Brinshore Development LLC, of Northbrook, Ill.; Flaherty & Collins Properties, from Indianapolis; and Foutch Brothers LLC, of Kansas City, Mo.

Jennifer Pratt, the city's development director, said the city anticipated the 'size and scope” of the Smulekoff's project would attract developers with specific experience in historic restoration.

All six proposals feature a housing component, but there are different mixes of office and commercial uses in the proposals, she said.

She said the city's development staff will begin to evaluate the proposals this week and will make a recommendation to the City Council for its consideration at its May 26 meeting.

The Smulekoff's property was the last among 1,356 flood-damaged properties to be bought out with federal and state funds in the city's five-year, flood-recovery buyout program.

The buyout program paid $4.7 million in late December for the Smulekoff's building, the largest amount of any single property buyout. The purchase was the program's last one.

Smulekoff's moved back into the property after the Flood of 2008, but ultimately decided to participate in the buyout program.

The proposal selected to redevelop the property will pay for the land based on its current assessed valuation. The money will be returned to the federal government's Community Development Block Grant program, the major funder of the city's buyout program.