What about Bob? Word is he won't stand in the way of a city purchase, whether for a library or a fire station

What about Bob?

The owner of Bob's Wholesale Cars, 725 First Ave. SE, is open to selling his property to the city of Cedar Rapids for the city's use, one of his sales representatives reports.

Bob Himes has his auto-sales business situated on a piece of a suddenly important block of real estate – which is one of the sites favored by the Cedar Rapids library board for a new library.

Council member Tom Podzimek has said the block actually might be better suited for a new Central Fire Station

Both the Central Fire Station and the library were destroyed in the June 2008 flood.

Much of the block between First and Second avenues SE and Seventh and Eighth avenues SE – referred to as the Emerald Knights block because the former Emerald Knights building takes up much of the space – is now under ownership of an entity called the St. Martin's Land Co. St. Martin's Land Co. has its origins back in the early 20th Century, and local and non-local descendants of the original Cedar Rapids owners are now owners of it.

St. Martin's Land Co., though, has failed to convince Himes to sell his piece of the block to the land company over the years as the land company worked to control the block in preparation for marketing it.