Smulekoff’s asks Cedar Rapids City Hall for building buy out

Smulekoff's Furniture Co., a family-owned retail mainstay in the downtown for 122 years, has asked City Hall to buy its building next to the Cedar River.

In a letter to City Manager Jeff Pomeranz, Ann Lipsky, Smulekoff's president, recounts how the flood of June 2008 inundated the furniture store's basement and rose to seven feet on the store's first floor. Even so, Smulekoff's quickly renovated and reopened on Aug. 2, the first downtown retail store to do so after the flood, she notes.

However, Lipsky states that the store, at 97 Third Ave. SE, has not been able to reoccupy 30 percent of its store space, which has required it to move some store functions within the building, reducing “valuable” sales space.

Additionally, she states that the Army Corps of Engineers has now advised the company that its store now sits in the 100-year flood plain. Further, she says the Corps' flood-protection system calls for a substantial flood wall immediately next to the store. Such placement, she says, will block the store's delivery dock. In addition, she says she fears that the footings for the new flood wall will “threaten” the integrity of the building because of the limited space between the riverbank and the store.

“As you can see, this situation places us in a very difficult position relative to long term planning for our business,” Lipsky writes. “We hope the city will purchase our property for a fair and equitable price, making it possible for us to contemplate our future as the leading home furnishings business in the community.”

Lipsky was out of town on Monday and not available for further comment.

Rita Rasmussen, the city's senior real estate officer, on Monday said the city is reviewing the Smulekoff's request to see if the Smulekoff's building qualifies for the city's main program of buyouts of flood-impacted properties. If the parcel qualifies, the state of Iowa must approve its inclusion in the program, she said.

Tom Heinold, design-team project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers' Rock Island District office, on Monday said it was too soon to know all the impacts that the Corps' flood-protection system might have at the Smulekoff's site. Right now, the Corps' proposed line on a map represents only an alignment estimate, he said.

Doug Neumann, president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, said Monday that Lipsky, the Downtown District and City Hall have been talking for months about the proposed flood-protection system and what it might mean to the Smulekoff's building and business.

Neumann said that Smulekoff's is confronted not only with the possible loss of a piece of its site to a flood-protection system, but also with the loss of business as the system is being built.

“Knowing that, we have been involved, as has the city, working with Ann to try to figure out ways or other locations so she can continue to do business downtown,” Neumann said. “Smulekoff's is a very important downtown retail business, by far the largest.”

He said he was hopeful that the furniture store could find another spot downtown, and he said there were plenty of places outside the 100-year flood plain in the downtown without the direct impact from a flood-protection system that Smulekoff's existing building faced.

The City Assessor's Office assessed the Smulekoff's building at $2.35 million before the flood in 2008. In 2009, the value was $1.888 million and in 2010, $1.665 million.

The Corps' recommended flood-protection plan for the city is a $100-million one that protects most of the east side of the Cedar River.

However, the city's preferred flood-protection plan - which protects more of the east side of the river as well as the west side of the river - calls for “removable” flood walls in the downtown. Even so, the underground substructure for a system of removable walls is little different that one for tall-standing flood walls, city officials have noted.

In her letter to the city, Lipsky notes that the family's business initially was located on May's Island in the downtown. Until 2008, the store was able to withstand floodwaters with minimal damage except in 1929, when it was located along the river's west side, she states.