United Action for Youth selling Iowa City houses to Wisconsin-based company

IOWA CITY - United Action for Youth's board of directors has entered into an agreement to sell the organization's two houses in the 400 block of Iowa Avenue to Court Street Apartments, a Madison, Wis.-based company.

The purchase agreement provides UAY with funding to find a new home for its counseling and therapy programs, teen parent support program and transitional learning office space, said board chair Shannon Christensen.

'It will be enough for us to be able to relocate and pay down all of our debt and set aside some money for future programs,” Christensen said. 'It's transformational, it was a really difficult move to decide to do this, but it will have such a positive impact on the organization and therefore the people we serve that it would have been irresponsible for us not to do it.”

Jim Corcoran, president and owner of J. Michael Real Estate, a partner with Court Street Apartments, said the plan is to build high-end student housing on the roughly 21,000 square feet of land where the two houses currently sit.

The future complex will be the company's second venture into Iowa City, with the first being the Telluride Apartments complex, which was built about six years ago on the corner of Court and Linn streets.

'We just really enjoy working in Iowa City and with the people down there,” Corcoran said, adding that the company has been building student housing projects in Madison for more than 30 years. 'We all got into student housing a long time ago; it's in our blood.”

Specific design plans for the project will be available at a later date, but Corcoran said the project likely will stay within the land's current CB5 zoning, which allows up to 75 feet in height unless height bonuses are granted.

Under the agreement, UAY officials will have 12 months to move operations to a new facility.

Christensen said Court Street Apartments was one of seven offers made on the properties, with all other potential buyers being local.

The sale is expected to close May 1, at which point the purchase price for the two houses at 410 and 422 Iowa Ave. will become public, she added.

Combined, the two properties and more than 100-year-old houses had an assessed value of nearly $800,000 in 2014, according to the Iowa City Assessor's website.

Christensen said the next step for UAY will be to find a new location, which will need to be roughly 5,000 to 6,000 square feet, be near a bus line, have ample parking and provide client-centric features.

UAY's Youth Center at 355 Iowa Ave. will be unaffected by the sale.

UAY's board began exploring a sale of the downtown houses earlier this year, following mounting concerns over the costly upkeep associated with the aging buildings, as well as the desire to find a location better suited for clients and programming.

Christensen said UAY plans to stay in Iowa City, with hopes of finding another near-downtown location.

Christensen noted that the two houses on Iowa Avenue have served the organization well since the late 1980s.

'This was really, really difficult and it is bittersweet,” she said. 'It will strengthen the organization, but it was not an easy decision to make.”