Smulekoff’s gets an office tenant

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Smulekoff's building downtown has landed its first corporate tenant.

Sedgwick Claims Management Services announced Tuesday it has opened an office on the second floor of the former furniture store. Forty employees work in the space, but Sedgwick plans to add about 25 employees a year for the next five years.

Memphis, Tenn.-based Sedgwick is a benefits and claims management company with more than 270 offices. The company handles about 2.6 million claims annually, such as workers' compensation and disability claims.

Tammy Worthey, managing director of disability operations, said Sedgwick has about 1,000 employees in Iowa. It has 600 employees in Dubuque and 275 in Coralville, she added.

'We really believe that Iowa is the right place to be,” she said Tuesday.

The path to landing Sedgwick downtown was an unusual one, city officials said Tuesday. Conversations started when Mayor Ron Corbett had a chance encounter last year with Sedgwick CEO David North in Bellevue, where the company has an office.

Staff set up a site visit for Sedgwick, but it came at the potentially worst of times - a Friday during the 2016 flood. Much of downtown was closed, electricity was off and businesses weren't allowed to operate within the restricted perimeter.

'There was sandbags everywhere. It felt quite dark. There was no traffic on the streets ...

,” City Manager Jeff Pomeranz recalled. 'If I was to have made an assumption, it would have been that Sedgwick would have located somewhere else in Cedar Rapids.”

Regardless, Sedgwick decided on the Smulekoff's building.

Joe Collier, director of operations in the Cedar Rapids office, said Sedgwick chose the site because it was close to amenities such as the river walk, a coffee shop, downtown restaurants and public transportation.

'There's so much for the employees, our colleagues, outside of the office that we like to have that benefit,” he said.

Developer Steve Emerson is renovating the Smulekoff's building into apartments, retail and office space. The building at First Street SE and Third Avenue SE already is home to coffee shop Early Bird, events space Eastbank Venue and cocktail bar The Lounge. Apartments will occupy part of the Smulekoff's upper floors.

Emerson received city tax incentives as part of his $15 million renovation of the former home furnishings store. As part of the deal with the city, at least 50 employees must work in the building by the end of 2018.

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