Site of former Sabin school undergoing transformation

There's a lot of change taking place on the block of Harrison Street just south of the Iowa City post office.

A former parking lot is being transformed into a five-story bank, a nearly 100-year-old elementary school will soon be leveled, and a unique construction project aims to merge residential town homes with a public parking ramp.

It's that construction project, the proposed creation of a roughly 640 stall parking ramp at the corner of Harrison and Dubuque streets surrounded by 28 two-story condos, that city officials say embodies the type of construction they want to see in the Riverfront Crossings District.

"This I think is almost the poster child project really, when you get right down to it," said Jeff Davidson, the city's economic development administrator. "It's a great project for Riverfront Crossings and will be keeping our momentum moving."

But progressive development sometimes comes at a cost, and in this instance that means the demolition of Iowa City's former Henry Sabin Elementary School.

Mike Haverkamp, staff development facilitator with the Iowa City Community School District and unofficial Sabin Elementary historian, said the pending demolition of the former school at 509 S. Dubuque St. has been foreshadowed since the school district's administrative offices moved out in 2011.

But that doesn't make the loss any easier.

"I'll be sad to see it go; I think it's a very visually interesting building," Haverkamp said. "There was some pretty incredible craftsmanship that went into that building."

Sabin's legacy

Built in 1917-1918 to replace Iowa City's First Ward School, Henry Sabin Elementary School was built with an almost identical footprint as Horace Mann, Longfellow and the now-demolished Kellogg schools.

Replacing post-Civil War era ward schools, Sabin and its three cohort schools were prime examples of the modern education facility of the early 20th century, Haverkamp said.

"They were very much cutting edge; they were the modern primary schools," Haverkamp said. "They had a few minor changes from one to the next but that was the idea, they all started with basically the same floor plan."

Sabin Elementary, named after iconic Iowa educator and State Superintendent of Schools Henry Sabin, who died the year the Iowa City school opened, operated as an elementary school through the late 1970s. The building then transitioned into an alternative school until Elizabeth Tate High School opened in 2006. The Iowa City Community School District's administration offices moved into the Sabin building in the early 1980s and remained until moving to the district office's current location at 1725 N. Dodge St.

While Sabin is slated for demolition, which could occur as soon as next year, the historic significance of the building has not gone unnoticed and Iowa City Senior Planner Robert Miklo said discussion has taken place to preserve some of the former school's elements, including the ornamental limestone archways.

"The proposal is to salvage the entryway arches. They could be reassembled as an entryway or some sort of feature in the Riverfront Crossings Park," Miklo said. "There would be some sort of plaque commemorating the history of the building."

A unique project

Following the demolition of the Sabin building, Iowa City officials plan to create what has been described as a hybrid collaboration between public parking and private housing.

Unofficially dubbed the "Sabin Townhomes," the proposed project would include a roughly 640-space, four-level parking ramp wrapped in 28 two-level stacked condos, Davidson said.

Kevin Monson, with Neumann Monson Architects, the firm designing the structure, said the town homes would act as a facade to hide the somewhat unappealing exterior of the parking ramp.

"They kind of almost hide the parking facility from the street," Monson said. "It's a unique product. I don't think there's anything like it in Iowa City. What makes it even more unique is (tenants will) have their parking spot outside their back door."

Plans are being finalized and Davidson said he expects the Iowa City Council to formally discuss the project in October. The property is owned by MidWestOne Bank and the city likely would enter into a development agreement with the bank to spell out the city's eventual acquisition of the parking ramp.

The roughly $15 million parking facility would take about 15 months to complete, while the entire project could take up to two years to complete, Davidson said. The city would lease to own the parking ramp, while the condos — geared toward working professionals — would likely be sold outright.

Monson, who also was involved in the design process of the nearby MidWestOne Bank building, said both projects were designed to work in tandem, while keeping with the goals laid out in the Riverfront Crossings District master plan.

"It's a very symbiotic relationship with the town homes creating life on the street and keeping Dubuque Street in the residential neighborhood feel, yet while providing parking," Monson said. "Being able to develop the projects together made it all happen. Without being able to do them jointly, you'd never be able to do this."

Building a new bank

On the corner of Clinton and Harrison streets, work continues full steam ahead on MidWestOne Bank's five-story office building.

Kent Jehle, the executive vice president of MidWestOne Bank, said the project has seen a few slight delays, due in large part to a difficult winter, but the roughly $13 million project is anticipated to be completed next June.

The first three floors of the building will house the bank's home mortgage center — which is currently operating in the former Sabin school — and a few other offices, while the top two floors likely will be leased or sold to commercial tenants as office space.

Close to 80 bank employees will work in the new building, Jehle said.

The events leading to MidWestOne's relocation to Iowa City's Riverfront Crossings District actually began more than six years ago when flooding in 2008 devastated the University of Iowa campus, including the School of Music complex.

Seeking a place to rebuild, UI officials struck a deal with MidWestOne Bank management to purchase the bank's former home mortgage center at 325 S. Clinton St., where work on the future Voxman-Clapp Recital Hall is taking place.

In the agreement, MidWestOne leased the lower floor of the Sabin building to operate as a temporary location while work began on the bank-owned property directly to the west of the school for the future home mortgage center.

Jehle said the process was a little complicated but worked out great in the end, ultimately placing the bank building dead center in the rapidly growing Riverfront Crossings District.

"The timing of Riverfront Crossings and the timing of our need coincided; certainly it was motivated by the need of the university because of the flood in 2008," Jehle said.

When the new facility is completed, all bank operations taking place next door in the Sabin building will move into the new bank, opening up the former school's site for its impending demolition.

"The temporary location has worked fine for us, but we knew going in it was not permanent," Jehle said.

Reach Mitchell Schmidt at maschmidt@press-citizen.com or at 887-5402.