Coe College reminds City Hall it wants to buy B Avenue NE fire house when it closes

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coe College has written to City Hall to remind city leaders that the college would like to acquire the city's district fire station in the 1400 block of B Avenue NE if and when the city closes it.

It's almost sure to be when it closes, not if.

The city's Fire Department and the city's Fire Station Relocation Advisory Committee are recommending that the B Avenue NE district station close as part of a plan to build the new Central Fire Station nearby on one of three sites along First Avenue East between Sixth and Eighth streets.

The plan is to add a district station on the west side to replace the B Avenue NE district station if the new Central Fire Station goes on the east side. The flood-ruined Central Fire Station had been on the west side.

Rod Pritchard, Coe's director of marketing and public relations, on Friday said Coe's plan is to keep the the B Avenue NE fire station if possible and convert it to a college use.

The city's fire officials and Fire Station Relocation Advisory Committee members have made note that Coe is interested in buying the B Avenue building, which they have said is one additional argument for putting the new Central Fire Station on First Avenue East.

In its letter to the city, Coe notes that in the last four years it has acquired about two-thirds of the residential properties in the area it has designated for expansion between 14th and 15th streets NE and from C Avenue NE to the alley between A and First avenues NE.