Two preservation firms bid to save Knutson building

CEDAR RAPIDS - Your love of local history is about to be tested by your wallet.

Two local historic restoration companies have submitted proposals to the city to save the Knutson Building, built in 1887 as a condensed milk plant and operated as a salvage yard when the city bought it for $1.5 million in 2012 to make way for a riverfront amphitheater, trail and park.

However, B.J. Hobart of Hobart Historic Restoration and Tim Blumer of KHB Redevelopment both Monday said their firms' competing proposals to renovate the Knutson call for the city to contribute a significant amount of additional money if the project is going to happen.

'It can be saved, it should be saved and we can do that,” Hobart said. 'But we would expect some help from the city because the building is so old and is of importance to the city.”

Hobart said her firm's proposal estimates that it will cost $4 million to renovate the Knutson, while Blumer said it will take some millions to do the job.

In his firm's proposal, Blumer said KHB points out that the city's initial request for proposals last fall required developers to move or elevate the Knutson Building, which he said would have cost more than $1 million.

The new proposals allow developers to come up with a renovation plan to keep the building where it is as it sits in the way of the city's proposed levee.

Blumer said KHB will ask the city to contribute the avoided cost of $1 million or more to the renovation that would have come with moving the building.

However, Adam Lindenlaub, a planner with the city's Community Development Department, said the city's initial request for proposals last fall envisioned the cost to move or elevate the building would be paid by the developer.

In February, the City Council sought new proposals for the Knutson Building after Hobart and KHB said the restoration project was not feasible if the building needed to be moved or elevated.

In seeking new proposals, the city said developers could submit proposals to keep the building where it is, which KHB had suggested might work in its first proposal.

Blumer said KHB's new proposal calls for the city to build a shorter-than-envisioned but less-wide earthen levee so it fits between the Cedar River and the Knutson Building. The levee then would be topped with a 4-foot wall to get flood control at the site, he said.

Both proposals expect the city to pay for the flood control.

Blumer and Hobart said their proposals also envision that the city would use some of the Knutson Building at the city's cost to support the riverfront amphitheater next door.

The building has a lower level that Blumer said will be good for amphitheater concession service and restrooms, and he said part of the building's first floor might serve as a staging area for entertainers and as an amphitheater office. The first floor also may contain commercial space with the second floor for luxury apartments with a great view of the river, he said.

Hobart said her firm's proposal is premised on the idea of working with city to see how much of the building the city may want.

'If they do have needs and we can help with the solution, then the city can and should contribute to ease the 100 percent burden on the developer,” she said.

Mark Stoffer Hunter, a Cedar Rapids historian and a member of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, said Monday he understood that it is a 'huge challenge” to the city to invest an additional large amount in the building.

'The City Council needs to listen to how much community support there is on the money issue,” Stoffer Hunter said. 'That's kind of what it comes down to.”

He said the Knutson Building is the oldest commercial building on the riverfront on the city's west side.

'I believe the city has made so many good financial choices with historic preservation since the beginning of the post-flood era,” he said. 'It would be nice to end with a good historic preservation effort on the city's part.”

The city received a third proposal for the Knutson Building, which called for demolishing it and building something new, the city said.

The City Council is slated to discuss the Knutson proposals April 28.