City's preferred central fire station site put up for sale

A tiny for-sale sign has gone up on most of a block of prime property between First and Second avenues and Seventh and Eighth streets SE where the City Council decided in December to build the city's new $22.6 million Central Fire Station.

Mayor Ron Corbett says the for-sale sign is a testament to the city's increasing frustration as it awaits flood-recovery funding decisions by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said Tuesday he still hopes the fire station is built on the block at the gateway to the downtown.

However, Tom Slattery Sr., senior partner with Heritage Property Management in Cedar Rapids whose firm put up the for-sale sign, said on Tuesday that the owners of most of the block picked for the Central Fire Station want to sell it, “and no one has made us an offer,” he said.

Slattery Sr. said the property, between streets that lead off and onto Interstate 380, is a perfect one for a hotel and any number of other projects.

“One thing we need to do is get something started on that corner,” Slattery said. “And unless people realize it's available, how are they going to know. I don't know if the city is ever going to get around to it.”

The sticking point in the City Hall plans for the property has to do with the property owners' decision to demolish the buildings on the portion of the block they own last year prior to the City Council decision to buy the block for the Central Fire Station.

FEMA spokesman Bob Josephson, in the agency's regional office in Kansas City, Mo., said the structures demolished on the so-called Emerald Knights site came down before environmental and historical reviews could be conducted on the property.

“This has complicated matters in terms of using FEMA funding on this site,” Josephson said. “We are working with the state of Iowa and the city to try and find a way forward that will support the city's needs.”

Mayor Corbett said Tuesday that FEMA's position doesn't make sense to the city. The owners of the property chose to demolish buildings before the city had selected it as a site for the Central Fire Station, he said.

“FEMA is of the opinion that we should have notified the land owner, and that's totally unacceptable for the city to tell a private property owner what they can and can't do with their property,” the mayor said.

“It's a hiccup. I'm not sure how big. But the multimillion question with FEMA is, ‘When will we know?'” he added.

Slattery said the property owners planned to demolish the buildings for two years prior to the actual demolition in 2010. In July of 2010, tenant leases on some of the structures ended, clearing the way for demolition. He said he secured a letter from a local historical group that states the structures in question were not historic and could be demolished.

“The city had nothing to do with it,” he said. “We had decided to tear it down before all this  hullabaloo started.”

Greg Buelow, spokesman for the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, said Tuesday that the Emerald Knights site remains the department's “preference” for the Central Fire Station. Two other blocks nearby – one which houses a Taco Bell restaurant and the other The History Center – were also considered by the department, a Fire Station Relocation Advisory Committee and the City Council.

Interestingly, the City Council approved an agreement last night to create a Second Avenue SE Automobile Row Historic District as a requirement and in trade to win federal and state approval to demolish the historic First Street Parkade.

The agreement related to the parkade spells out “anticipatory actions,” and states that FEMA will not provide funding to the city should it, “or those acting on its behalf,” engage in anticipatory actions with the intent to avoid the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The language is similar to language that is causing the FEMA debate over the new Central Fire Station and the demolished buildings that had been on the Emerald Knights block site.

The Emerald Knights block likely will be one of the blocks in the Automobile Row Historic District.