Building moving Saturday in Cedar Rapids to make way for medical mall

Streets will be temporarily closed Saturday, May 14, 2011, to accommodate the move of an historic building in the planned medical district.

“It's exciting,” said Charles Jones, president of Green Development of Iowa City, which is having the building moved. “We finally saved one.”

The house that sat for 105 years at 1113 Second Ave. SE will be moved beginning about 8 a.m. to its new site, several blocks away at 616 Fourth Ave. SE.

That location is the site of the former Palace Apartments, which was demolished in 2009.

Greg Fowler, president of NorthCreek Management of West Branch, said Third Avenue SE and connecting streets from 10

^th

to Fifth streets will be closed beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday.

The building will travel on Third Avenue SE to Fifth Street and another half block on Fourth Avenue SE.

Fowler, who is overseeing work for Green Development, said he hopes the move is finished by noon.

Ron Holland Housemoving of Forest City is relocating the stucco home-turned-office, which weighs about 150 tons.

Utility wires and traffic lights along the way will be lowered to make way for the 44-foot-tall building as it travels down Third Avenue, Fowler said.

“There's a million things that can go wrong,” he said. “Hopefully none of them will. We think we have it fairly well planned.”

Fowler noted that the company hired police officers for traffic control.

Rain wouldn't delay the move, but lightning would, he said.

The 1906 Arts and Crafts-style home, which is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, is being relocated to make way for the Physicians' Clinic of Iowa Medical Pavilion.

Jones said the building will be placed on its new lot and then lowered into the foundation, once that is built.

A window will be repaired and other minor work completed before it is re-opened sometime this summer. The space was most recently used by The Creative Gene, an advertising agency.

Bryan Watkins will lease part of the 4,000-square-foot building for his American Family Insurance office, Jones said.

Space will be available for other tenants.