UI buying downtown Iowa City bank for music school

University of Iowa officials plan to purchase a downtown bank site for $3,100,000, plus $350,000 in relocation costs, as part of the relocation of the flood-damaged School of Music.

UI officials will seek state Board of Regents approval next week for the purchase of Bank of the West, 301 S Clinton St. The meeting information was released today.

The property consists of a 23,650 square-foot commercial lot and includes a two-story concrete and steel building, built in 1980, used as a branch bank.

In a separate issue, UI officials also want to purchase vacant land at the southwest corner of Forevergreen Road and Highway 965 in North Liberty from MGCSMS, LLC for $11.7 million, according to the regents information. The 40.17 acres of undeveloped land is being acquired for future University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics relocation and expansion, officials said.

The meeting agenda contains no information on a second downtown bank property, MidWestOne, the UI wants to purchase for the School of Music plan.

The UI plan calls for the School of Music to be housed on two adjacent sites on the southeast and southwest corners of the Clinton and Burlington intersection.

On the east side of Clinton Street, the university will partner with local developers to host primary functions of the School of Music within a tower that will include commercial spaces, underground parking and private condominiums. The west side of Clinton Street will house recital spaces and the replacement of Clapp Recital Hall. An overhead pedestrian bridge will connect the two.

LMN Architects of Seattle has been selected to help design the new School of Music facility. LMN Architects will join Neumann-Monson, the Iowa City-based architect of record on the project, in designing the two-building complex.

The preliminary estimate on the School of Music project is $125 million, though that could change as the design process begins and more details are known. Relocation of the School of Music from temporary spaces to the new building is tentatively set for late 2014. The School of Music was displaced by the 2008 flood.