Former Oak Hill gas stations getting new life

Two former old-time gas stations on 12th Avenue SE, which have been slated for demolition, now have taken an important step to new life as neighborhood commercial establishments.

The City Council last week agreed to sell the two small properties, at 624 and 629 12th Ave. SE, to Green Development LLC of Iowa City for $1,500 each.

Green Development considers the two long-vacant buildings - one about 5,000 square feet in size, one under 3,000 square feet - a piece of the city's history that is worth saving.

Its planned investment follows on the heels of other investment in the Oakhill Jackson Neighborhood, investment that has included more than 25 new homes and two apartment buildings, called The Oakhill Jackson Brickstones and now under construction.

Green Development, which specializes in the use of historic tax credits, plans  to invest a total of $161,345 in the two former gas stations, an investment that the firm says makes financial sense only with the use tax credits. The project will qualify for credits to cover 51 percent of the renovation cost, reports Richard Luther, a Cedar Rapids planning consultant who has shepherded Green Development's project through City Hall.

“We're set to go,” says Luther, owner of Creative Development Solutions.

Green Development and the city's Community Development Department first much sign a development agreement.

The city purchased the two vacant properties as part of a neighborhood revitalization plan. Both subsequently were damaged in the June 2008 flood, and the city had planned to demolish them. Green Development and Luther persuaded the city to give them a chance to renovate the buildings instead. The city put the buildings up for bid, but only Green Development bid on them.

The city estimates that the two properties could generate a total of about $5,000 a year in property taxes once renovated.

Green Development also has purchased the flood-damaged Witwer Building in downtown Cedar Rapids with a plan to renovate it. In addition, the firm has proposed to move a few properties to make way for the new medical mall being built by Physicians' Clinic of Iowa.