A presumed asset of one proposed library site turns out not to be

 The downtown block that houses Gazette Communications Inc.'s newspaper and television station might be a little less attractive as a site for a new, $45-million library than the local library board thought earlier this month.

In picking two possible sites to further investigate for the new library, the library board selected the Gazette Communications block as one of the two, in part, because of the company's existing, two-story parking ramp.

However, a structural engineering firm has now examined the parking ramp and concluded that it would need to be demolished as part of any library-building project on the site.

In a report to the library board and the city of Cedar Rapids, Bruce Hamous, an architect with OPN Architects Inc. of Cedar Rapids, reports that M2B Structural Engineers of Cedar Rapids examined the Gazette parking ramp and found that it has a “fairly significant design flaw that is compromising the necessary factor of safety of the ramp.” Hamous reports, too, that M2B noted that the ramp was built with economy in mind and, as a result, the ramp has experienced ongoing maintenance and repairs that are costing “more than they otherwise should.”

The firm recommends “that the existing ramp be demolished and replaced with one of a more substantial structural design for both increased longevity and reduced ongoing maintenance costs,” Hamous states in his report.

Susan Corrigan, the library board president, on Wednesday said the parking ramp on the Gazette Communications site had been viewed by the board as “an asset” of the site, and without it, the cost of demolishing the ramp and building other parking now will factor in a consideration of the Communications site, she said.

“I don't think it takes the Gazette block off the table,” she said. “I think it has to be negotiated. What's that block really worth if we have to put in a new parking ramp or put in surface parking or whatever we would have to do? It has to be taken into account in the price.”

A second block which the library board has selected for a possible preferred library site is the block between First and Second avenues and Seventh and Eighth streets SE - part of which housed the Emerald Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. It does not have a parking structure on it.

The Gazette block, Corrigan said, still is attractive because it is close to Greene Square Park and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, is in the core of the downtown and was not touched by the June 2008 flood.

“So I think there are still favorable attributes to that block,” she said. “But, certainly, not having a parking ramp that has long-term viability impacts the price of the site,” she said.

The library board is now scheduled to review the city's analysis of the Emerald Knights and Gazette sites at its meeting on Feb. 4. Corrigan said the board, no doubt, will talk about a third site, which now house TrueNorth across Fourth Avenue SE from Greene Square Park.

The city also is analyzing the TrueNorth block, in part, because some on the City Council, which will make the final site selection, have expressed an interest in the TrueNorth site. The library board also has discussed the site previously.