Economic development Rescue coming for a third one-time gas station in New Bo

CEDAR RAPIDS - For a third time now, a tiny former service station from a different era of history is being saved from demolition in New Bohemia.

This time, Frank Stephen is coming to the rescue with a plan to invest $80,000 to renovate the 780-square-foot building at 310 14th Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids that was built in 1939, operated as a used-car lot more recently and has sat empty since the flood of 2008.

Stephen, owner of the Touch of Class banquet hall and catering service, on Tuesday said a friend will run a T-shirt printing business out of the building once the renovation is complete, likely this summer.

Stephen said he has purchased the empty building from someone who took ownership of it after the flood with a plan that never got off the ground.

'I bought it from the second owner who didn't have the energy to go through the steps to do historic preservation and do it correctly to the U.S. Department of Interior's standards and process,” Stephen recalled.

His restoration plans came to light as the City Council on Tuesday approved a $29,111 grant to the project to pay for streetscape improvements similar to those elsewhere in New Bohemia along Third Street SE.

The grant fits with the intention of the city's Third Street SE Streetscape Reinvestment Project, which is designed to encourage new investment along the main street in New Bohemia, the city staff report to the City Council stated.

The report said the streetscape grant makes sense because of the extra cost that Stephen will face to renovate the building to a historic standard and because the building sits on a commercial corner with the need for extensive streetscape work in relation to the value of the building.

Stephen said he wouldn't be able to move ahead on the project if he had to pay for the streetscape.

'A lot of people are happy” about the restoration, he said. 'I don't think anybody wants it to sit there and be an eyesore

'This is going to be a money pit,” he continued. 'I don't know if it's going to be a hugely successful investment. But it's going to take a building that's been sitting there since the flood and put it back for the community to enjoy.”

Beth DeBoom, president of Save CR Heritage who is renovating a small historic house diagonally across Third Street SE from Stephen's little gas station, said Tuesday that she has been wondering what would come of it.

'It's such a cute building,” DeBoom said. 'It catches your eye. But it wasn't moving. So I was a little nervous.”

Now, she said she is happy to hear Stephen bought it and is moving ahead to renovate it at the spot on 14th Avenue SE at the corner of Third Street SE.

Fourteenth Avenue SE is the corridor that connects historic New Bohemia and historic Czech Village, she said.

'It's going to be the start of something really terrific,” she said.

Stephen is calling his company Red Ball Route LLC, in a bow to the history of the one-time service station, which he said sat in its day on the north-south Red Ball Route as the road made its way through Czech Village and what is now New Bohemia, on its way through Cedar Rapids between St. Louis and the Twin Cities.

The Red Ball name derives from red balls that property owners painted along the route in the early days so people wouldn't have to stop to ask for directions, he said.

Once renovated, Stephen's transformed service station will join two others in New Bohemia, which area developer Charles Jones saved from demolition in the past couple years.

Both now operate on 12th Avenue SE as small restaurants that feature takeout meals.

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