Cedar Rapids’ Arthur, Garfield elementaries to be sold to local buyers

CEDAR RAPIDS — Arthur Elementary School will become the next home of the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, and Garfield Elementary School will be turned into apartments by a local developer, pending approval of the sale of the buildings by the Cedar Rapids school board.

The school board approved without discussion a resolution Monday to hold a public hearing on the sale of both northeast Cedar Rapids properties at 5:30 p.m. June 24 at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd. NW, Cedar Rapids.

The board is expected to approve the sale of the sites later this month after the hearing.

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“When we look at a building we have in our inventory, we don’t just want to put a sign in the yard and say it’s for sale,” Cedar Rapids schools’ Director of Operations Chad Schumacher said in an interview with The Gazette. “We’re trying to work with the community and partner with someone who can give back to the community and school district.”

Arthur and Garfield elementary schools were retired by the Cedar Rapids Community School District at the end of this academic year. In the fall, their students will attend the a newly-constructed Trailside Elementary School, next door to Arthur Elementary. The school will serve about 400 students.

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Repurposing Arthur, Garfield elementary schools

The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy — which plans to purchase Arthur Elementary School, 2630 B Ave. NE — has been offering after-school arts programs for K-12 students in Eastern Iowa schools and human services agencies since it was established in 2007.

The value of Arthur Elementary is $260,800, and it sits on just over 2 acres of land, according to the Linn County Assessor’s Office.

The academy is purchasing Arthur Elementary for $130,000 in cash. The other $130,000 will be provided to the district through 10 years of programming at its schools.

The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy will sell its locations at 1841 and 1847 E Ave. NE to purchase Arthur. Both of those locations were donated to the academy in 2014.

Garfield Elementary School, 1201 Maplewood Dr. NE, is being purchased by developer Steve Emerson, who plans to turn it into multifamily apartments.

Garfield Elementary is valued at $379,700 and sits on almost 5.5 acres of land, according to the assessor’s office. Board documents show the district is selling it to Emerson for $160,000.

Emerson — who has experience re-purposing schools and commercial buildings into housing — estimates there could be between 30 to 40 units at Garfield. He plans to apply for workforce housing and state and federal historic preservation tax credits to help fund construction, which wouldn’t start for at least a year.

Emerson also plans to involve students in the construction process through the Cedar Rapids school district’s building and trades program.

“I would like them to take one or two apartment units and see it through beginning to end,” he said.

Schumacher said two of the apartments will be earmarked for the school district to use for staff housing.

Growing the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy

Heather Wagner, executive director Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, said the organization hopes to expand its current programming as it moves into a new, larger facility.

The academy already offers youth rock bands, a recording studio and an arts and creative writing studio and rents instruments and music equipment. There are varying levels of financial aid available to kids in K-12th grade, up to 100 percent.

Wagner said the new space will include a sensory room, which is a controlled space that uses equipment to help people develop and engage their senses, including therapy for children with limited communication skills or to help students learn.

The new space also will enable the academy to expand its food pantry and clothing closet and help connect families to mental health resources and transportation.

“Through the arts, healing can begin for everybody,” Wagner said. “I want to make sure kids are walking into a creative space where they can be themselves.”

The second floor of the Arthur building will have studios available for artists to rent, Wagner said. She envisions a grand opening this winter, she said.

The academy is working to raise $800,000 for the cost of renovations. Donations to the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy can be made online at easterniowaartsacademy.org.

The historic ‘magnificent seven’ schools

Arthur and Garfield are two of seven historic buildings in the school district’s inventory being called the “magnificent seven,” by local historian Mark Stoffer Hunter, Schumacher said.

The other buildings in the “magnificent seven” are Harrison Elementary School, Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy, McKinley STEAM Academy, Wilson Middle School and Franklin Middle School.

“We have other buildings that are very important to our families,” Schumacher said. “But they may not be historically, architecturally significant in the way those other seven are. We are trying our best to come up with a way to be stewards of those seven buildings.”

“This is a big step forward in following through on doing what we said we were going to do. From Day One, I felt like we were saying, ‘We want to have a plan for these buildings. We want to save these buildings. We want to make these buildings a priority,’” Schumacher said.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com