TrueNorth, Intermec and a toy museum vie for old Cedar Rapids library site

CEDAR RAPIDS - Two existing businesses with a downtown presence - TrueNorth and Intermec Corp. - have presented the City Council with competitive proposals as they vie to move into the city's flood-damaged former public library on First Street SE.

A first review of the two proposals seems to suggest that picking between the two will make for a good City Council debate.

The council will discuss the sale of the former library at its meeting this evening at 5:30 at Hiawatha City Hall.

As a prelude to the meeting, the City Hall's professional staff has reviewed the two proposals using seven factors.

In one key factor, the staff has calculated that the TrueNorth proposal would provide $1.26 million in financial tax impact for the city over 10 years while the Intermec proposal would provide a $924,000 impact.

A third proposal for the former library comes from Jody Keener of J.K. Properties LLC. He proposes to turn the building into a toy museum and retail outlet, though the financial impact for the city would be just $84,000 for the 10-year period, the city's staff states.

According to city documents:

True North, an insurance and financial services firm, is offering to pay $250,000 for the former library, an amount it will subtract from the purchase price to the city of its existing site, which it has agreed to leave to make way for the city's new library.

TrueNorth has put a price tag of $7.5 million on its existing site on Fourth Avenue SE across from Greene Square Park.

If it wins the bid for the former library, TrueNorth says it will invest a minimum of $7.5 million in the building, will retain 120 jobs with an average wage of $90,000 a year and will add 50 jobs in the future.

Meanwhile, Intermec, which now occupies buildings across Second Street SE from the former library, proposes to use the building for an engineering and technical support center and marketing center. In the Intermec proposal, the Dummermuth family, which owns other downtown property, would purchase the building for $350,000 and lease it to Intermec. The owner would reinvest $3.8 million into the facility plus another $2.2 million in furniture and equipment. It will retain 252 jobs with an average annual wage of $86,000.