UI gets go-ahead to buy second Iowa City bank for music school

The University of Iowa will proceed with plans to buy a downtown Iowa City bank for $4.6 million after receiving state Board of Regents approval Thursday.

The UI will buy the MidwestOne Bank branch at 325 S. Clinton St. as part of a plan to replace the flood-damaged School of Music downtown. The purchase price is $4.6 million, plus actual relocation and business interruption costs. It's anticipated the sale will close in summer 2012.

It's the second downtown bank the UI will purchase to make way for the new School of Music complex. The regents in December approved the purchase of Bank of the West, 301 S. Clinton St.

UI officials also propose to enter into a separate agreement with MidwestOne for the bank to purchase another downtown property. The UI is buying that property, 509 S. Dubuque St., from the Iowa City school district, which has its Central Administration Office building there.

Also at today's regents meeting, the board approved the UI plan to proceed with planning on a new $6 million UI Hospitals and Clinics Community-Based Primary Care Clinic in North Liberty. The UI withdrew a request for approval to proceed with planning on a new $14.6 million Family Medicine Center at the UI's Hawkeye Campus on Melrose Avenue. UI officials said they will come back to the regents with that request at a later time.

The regents also gave approval to plans for a new $271 million UI Children's Hospital at the UI Hospitals and Clinics campus. The hospital committee of the board approved it Wednesday; the regular board approved it Thursday.