Historic city building draws interest from potential buyers

By Jodi Schwan

A century-old city-owned building is open for redevelopment.

The city recently extended a request for proposals from those interested in buying the historic building at 600 E. Seventh St.

It was built in 1917 as a fire station with a branch library on the east side of the building. The city bought land adjacent to it from R.F. Pettigrew and called it Library Park. It’s now called Heritage Park.

The city will continue to own and maintain the park but is making the 6,100-square-foot building available for sale. It’s currently used as storage for the Parks and Recreation Department and is scheduled to be rezoned as live-work.

“The purpose of live-work rezoning is to allow options for a small business, an office or a residential combination within the building,” said Mike Cooper, the city’s director of planning and building services.

“The main concern from the neighborhood was not to put a bar there or anything that would be incompatible with the park or the neighborhood area.”

Diagonal parking is a possibility for the site, he said.

The building sits in the area the city has designated as the Weber Avenue corridor, a section of the east end of downtown along Weber Avenue between Eighth Street and Falls Park Drive.

“This is another connection that would be a great redevelopment site,” Cooper said. “It’s close to the southern end of the corridor, adjacent to downtown, and it’s a historic building, just like what happened further north with Perspective architects restoring that building.”

A number of interested buyers have contacted the city about the property, he said. Proposals are due Nov. 9. The plan is to announce an intent to award it in November and execute a contract in December.

“It’s encouraging to hear there’s a number of interested parties looking at the property, and hopefully that will allow the city to select a really strong proposal that fits the neighborhood and fits the Weber Avenue corridor,” Cooper said. “It will be interesting to see what proposals come together to adapt the building but try to maintain some of its historic character.”

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Historic city building draws interest from potential buyers

A century-old city-owned building is open for redevelopment.

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