Sale of historic Mott Building back on

CEDAR RAPIDS - Renovation of the historic, Linn County-owned Mott Building across the Cedar River from downtown is back on track.

On Monday, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved the sale of the building for $500,000 to Hobart Historic Restoration LLC of Cedar Rapids, a sale that looked like it might fall apart earlier this month when the supervisors declined to extend a timeline for the sale and gave the developer 30 days to close on the deal.

Three weeks ago, B.J. Hobart, an owner of the restoration firm, said she wasn't going to give up on the project 'without fighting as hard as we can for it.” Monday, she said the company was able to work out financing to proceed.

Darrin Gage, the county's director of policy and administration, said Hobart's check and the county's building keys will be exchanged at the first of next week.

Hobart said the $5 million renovation project should be complete by the spring of 2016.

The company will turn the top two floors of the three-story, 115-year-old brick building into 16 one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with market-rate rents ranging from $850 to $1,100 a month.

The building also will feature a workout facility, first-floor commercial space, an outdoor patio and on-site parking.

The company also is looking to return the name on the building's exterior to its first days as the 'Iowa Windmill and Pump” company, Hobart said.

Supervisor Linda Langston said she was pleased that Hobart was able to move ahead.

Supervisor Brent Oleson said the uncertainty that preceded the sale reminded him of a depiction of the closing on a property as a group of people in a lifeboat who are rowing in different directions with paddles falling overboard.

'So I never get too worried over real estate transactions,” Oleson said. He said anyone who has ever sold a home knows that 'things get delayed.”

In December 2014, the supervisors selected Hobart over three other developers for the Mott Building sale and redevelopment. Hobart offered the highest purchase price of $500,000 and had a record of redeveloping historic buildings, including in Dubuque, the supervisors said in December.

The supervisors extended the time to close on the sale in May, but declined to extend the closing a second time earlier this month.

In recent weeks, Kevin Kula, a Coggon retiree who is leading a petition drive to ask voters to reduce the number of supervisors from five to three to save money, has criticized the supervisors for spending most of the $500,000 sale price for the Mott Building before the sale has been completed.

Monday, Kula acknowledged the supervisors had succeeded in getting the building sold.

The supervisors are spending up to $250,000 from the sale on a sculpture as part of the $2 million transformation of Greene Square Park in downtown Cedar Rapids; $75,000 for Marion's ImaginArt in the Alleys project; and $100,000 as a contribution to the Arc of East Central Iowa.

Kula said the money should go into the county's general operating budget and not for special projects.

At Monday's supervisor meeting, Oleson read a resolution from Marion's City Council, which voted last week to oppose Kula's call to reduce the number of supervisors.

The council resolution states that Marion's 'interests” have been 'better represented” with a five-member Board of Supervisors and that those interests 'were historically underrepresented” with a three-member county board.

Linn County enlarged from a three-member to a five-member board after a voter referendum in 2009.

l Comments: (319) 398-8312; rick.smith@thegazette.com