116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Crews tearing down empty warehouse off First Avenue and 29th Street NE in Cedar Rapids
No immediate plans for repurposing site owned by Rick Stickle
CEDAR RAPIDS — Crews are tearing down a vacant warehouse off First Avenue and 29th Street NE that sustained damage in the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds, but owner Rick Stickle has no immediate plans for repurposing the property.
Stickle, owner of Midwest Third Party Logistics, said it would have cost about $5 million to replace the warehouse’s roof, which was damaged in the August 2020 storm — the costliest thunderstorm in U.S. history. The building at 308 29th Street NE also sustained structural damage.
“We collectively decided talking with the insurance company that we would settle the claim for somewhat less than that and we wouldn't replace the roof, we'd dismantle the building,” Stickle said.
According to Cedar Rapids assessor’s records, the property’s assessed value is $597,400. Before the derecho, in 2020, the total assessed value of the property was $1,923,500.
The property is about 8 acres, or 349,787 feet, with the building making up 283,229 square feet. It is located north of Arthur Elementary and the future site of Trailside Elementary, which is being built to replace Arthur and Garfield schools.
The Midwest 3PL warehouse on the 4600 block of 20th Ave. SW averages more than 100 truckloads a day, Stickle said. Capacity was far less at the 29th Street NE facility with only four docks.
“It was a pretty sound, solid dry building,” Stickle said. “It was a good warehouse. Being on 29th Street had its limited expansion potential because we couldn't get enough trucks in and out of there.”
Steels beams stay intact to be used against for future projects on Rick Stickle’s property off First Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
A building partly torn down sits on Rick Stickle’s property off First Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Construction material and building items lay on the ground after crews tore down several buildings on Rick Stickle’s property off First Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Stickle said he anticipates crews will be done dismantling the facility by early next year, as there have been some challenges with securing enough labor to do the work.
Once that work is done, Stickle said there is not a firm plan for what to do with the property at that point, but he said it’s a high-traffic location.
“We’ll probably just clear the site totally off and then we’ll decide what’s going to be the best use of the property,” Stickle said. “We don’t have a plan in place of what we’re going to do with it … We’ve owned it for a long time, so we have to make decisions and look at what the best use of the property would be.”
Before dismantling the building, Stickle said crews spent about a year removing asbestos in the roof and floors and hauling it to a special landfill in Illinois. Crews are aiming to recycle as much of the material as possible. He said there’s a lot of steel and brick in the facility. More than 200,000 bricks have been salvaged — enough to build about 15 houses, Stickle estimated.
Stickle said he purchased the building in 1997 without much of a plan for it, and then his company decided to get into the warehouse business.
Midwest 3PL designed a warehouse management system — software that organizes all warehouse processes from receiving to packing, shipping and inventory tracking. Eventually, the company started storing materials for Penford at this building, before Penford was acquired by multinational ingredients maker Ingredion.
The only other functions the facility served was housing Midwest 3PL’s truck repair shop and a small office.
Stickle said the company’s facility on 20th Avenue SW wasn’t yet complete when the 2020 derecho struck Cedar Rapids. The building off First Avenue was full of Ingredion products.
Stickle estimates it took about 800 semi truck loads to bring their products — mostly starch — to the current facility. It had to be moved because starch wouldn’t hold up in the rain.
“They didn't know what we should do with the product because the roof was torn off,” Stickle said. “So we were able to temporarily cover the product, most of it, then we started transferring it over to this building. And we went 24 hours a day trucking it over here from that building.”
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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