Proposed NewBo market building deemed unsafe

CEDAR RAPIDS – A building that was planned to be incorporated in the proposed NewBo City Market could be demolished this spring after city officials deemed it unsafe.

The building is one of three in the Quality Chef site at 1100 Third Ave. SE that City Council members voted in January to demolish.

A demolition order signed by Matt Widner, the city's code enforcement manager, notes the roof is collapsed in areas and open to the elements in some spots.

Interior walls have loose plaster and mold and the floor joist and subflooring are decaying, according to the notice.

The site was flooded in June 2008 and had not been cleaned out by the city.

Widner said he took a group of NewBo City Market representatives to look at the site in January after he inspected the buildings in December.

The group had hoped to keep one portion of the complex, known as the Day Company building, to use as a market store.

“The exterior walls are in pretty great shape,” Widner said of the brick building, but the interior and roof make the structure unsafe.

Market supporters plan to use a large warehouse at 12th Avenue and Third Street SE for the market hall, with a goal of opening in November.

Widner said the three buildings, at 309 11

^th

Ave. SE; 1114 Third St. SE and 1120 Third St. SE, could be demolished by May.

The Day Company, named after Burton Day, was a service equipment company for hotels, restaurants, taverns and soda fountains that operated at the site from the 1950s to 1970s.

Constructed in the early 1920s, the building originally housed a furniture store. A hardware store and tavern also operated in the building in its earlier years.

Todd McNall, a member of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, wondered if city inspectors had expertise in historic architecture.

“You go to that area and building after building after building is going away,” said McNall, who is also a member of the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street Board.

The Bohemian Commercial Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2002, lost a few buildings in the flood of 2008 and more were demolished after the flood.

Brian Fagan, president of the Main Street board, said the group will receive an update at its meeting Tuesday.

The City Council agreed to enter into negotiations with Cedar Rapids City Market, the non-profit developing the NewBo project, but has not yet signed a contract with the group for the property.

“It was our absolute, earnest intent to keep the building,” board president Sarah Ordover said. “But the building is in really bad shape. It's just not practical.”