United Center coming to fruition - Center's first floor already sold out
By John Quinlan / Journal staff writer | Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2008
Developer Bart Connelly talks about renovation at the United Center. (Photos by Tim Hynds)
SIOUX CITY - Bart Connelly saw the potential for redevelopment of the old Pierce Moving and Storage building in downtown Sioux City from Day One.
And that day came when redevelopment of the building by a California firm didn't pan out after years of waiting, local developer Connelly said.
As a result, "we're on schedule to have our first tenants in there in late fall of '08," Connelly said of the since-rechristened United Center, so named for the building's future first-floor tenant, United Real Estate Solutions. "It's hard to tell whether they're going to be residential or United Commercial. If we weren't having to go through the first-floor United Commercial space, to do all the work up above, with all the traffic through there, we would for sure be done with theirs first."
Connelly said the first floor of the United Center has been entirely sold. The second and third floors are half sold, and the fourth floor remained unsold as of late February. As for the residential condos on the fifth and sixth floors, he said Connelly Tiehan and Sons Inc. has deposits on 5 of the 24 units.
Free space has also been offered in the century-old, 9,000-square-foot building to Siouxland Artists, a group of approximately 50 artists, ranging in age from 17 to 80, who currently meet monthly in the Sioux City Art Center's Studio Space. Siouxland Artists will tentatively be housed on the second floor of the United Center. But if a tenant should want that space, they would be relocated elsewhere in the building as long as space is available, he said.
Connelly, fresh off the project of renovating the 1890 Evans Block Building on Historic Fourth Street a few blocks east of the United Center, entered into a development agreement with the city of Sioux City in November 2006 to remodel the six-story building at 301 Jennings St.
The building was sold to Connelly, who agreed to spend $535,000 to replace the roof and the windows on the first floor, along with making other critical repairs and demolishing a one-story building in the west parking lot. The city agreed to provide him with $300,000 in tax increment financing so long as Connelly developed a building with an assessment of at least $1 million by Jan. 1, 2008, and $4 million by Jan. 1, 2015.
The city bought the Pierce warehouse in 2000 from Dean and Sue Pierce for $400,000. The $13 million development agreement with Civic Partners of Californiat to convert the building into a 110-room hotel didn't reach fruition.
"We've got the structure, all the demolition done, all the abatement done, asbestos and hazardous done," he said. "The parking ramp is under way, the underground parking to the west of the building. We've replaced all the windows in the south, east and north sides."
Window holes have also been constructed on the west side of the building, which will be the front of the United Center, but the windows had not been punched through the outside layer by late February because work was progressing below in the big empty hole that is to become the underground parking structure for the building's tenants, Connelly said.
The parking garage does not go under the building, but it will stretch from the west side of the building to Jones Street, providing about 75 undeground parking spots,
He sees the secure undergrounding parking as a big plus, particularly for the residents on the top two floors of the building.
"You'll go down a ramp into the parking with a fob, a gate will go up and you will go in, and it will close right behind you," he said.
The garage will have heat and security cameras. A hole being cut from the lower level of the parking ramp into the basement of the building. Tenants will fob their way into the building, then take an elevator ro their lofts. There is one elevator for the residential tenants, another for the commercial tenants.
"It's a pretty new concept for Sioux City. I don't know that there's anything like it here," he said of the underground parking structure.
The building was in fairly solid shape, though a bit of a mess with the interior all caved in upon itself, when work began. A leaking roof had to be repaired and as a result, much of the wood had to be replaced, especially on the upper floors, he said.
The smallest residential spaces on the top two floors are just under 1,000 feet, Connelly said.
But tenants have the option of buying adjacent units. One tenant was looking at purchasing one adjacent unit and two above him. "So you'd enter on the fifth floor and it would be an open loft," he said.
Another loft that has been sold has a fifth-floor entrance, but the bedroom is on the sixth floor, with an interior stairway connecting the two halves of the living quarters.
This parallels the two-story space that will be occupied on the second and third floors by the Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates architectural firm. The firm's office space opens up into a large atrium, surrounded by office space on both floors.
Other tenants already secured for the United Center are United Commercial Real Estate, United Escrow and Ameriprise Financial Services.
"It looks like a fun place to live and a great place to work. There's a ton of natural light," Connelly said. "I'm a natural light person in the workplace. And it's a neat old building."
Though he said he would like to live and work there, he had to backtrack a bit, noting that it's probably not a great place to raise kids. "I've got four kids, so I wouldn't live there. But we're getting people, middle-aged singles, young singles, a married couple, empty nesters, looking at that," he said.
The front exterior on the west side will be as historically correct as posible architecturally, at least up to the water table point, with the windows cut into the brick matching the windows on the other sides of the building. That water table point ends about where the second floor begins, he noted.
The original front door was on the east side of the building, now facing the Promenade Theater.
"We found the old original blueprints and an animal skin in the basement. They're pretty cool," he said.
And that day came when redevelopment of the building by a California firm didn't pan out after years of waiting, local developer Connelly said.
As a result, "we're on schedule to have our first tenants in there in late fall of '08," Connelly said of the since-rechristened United Center, so named for the building's future first-floor tenant, United Real Estate Solutions. "It's hard to tell whether they're going to be residential or United Commercial. If we weren't having to go through the first-floor United Commercial space, to do all the work up above, with all the traffic through there, we would for sure be done with theirs first."
Connelly said the first floor of the United Center has been entirely sold. The second and third floors are half sold, and the fourth floor remained unsold as of late February. As for the residential condos on the fifth and sixth floors, he said Connelly Tiehan and Sons Inc. has deposits on 5 of the 24 units.
Free space has also been offered in the century-old, 9,000-square-foot building to Siouxland Artists, a group of approximately 50 artists, ranging in age from 17 to 80, who currently meet monthly in the Sioux City Art Center's Studio Space. Siouxland Artists will tentatively be housed on the second floor of the United Center. But if a tenant should want that space, they would be relocated elsewhere in the building as long as space is available, he said.
Connelly, fresh off the project of renovating the 1890 Evans Block Building on Historic Fourth Street a few blocks east of the United Center, entered into a development agreement with the city of Sioux City in November 2006 to remodel the six-story building at 301 Jennings St.
The building was sold to Connelly, who agreed to spend $535,000 to replace the roof and the windows on the first floor, along with making other critical repairs and demolishing a one-story building in the west parking lot. The city agreed to provide him with $300,000 in tax increment financing so long as Connelly developed a building with an assessment of at least $1 million by Jan. 1, 2008, and $4 million by Jan. 1, 2015.
The city bought the Pierce warehouse in 2000 from Dean and Sue Pierce for $400,000. The $13 million development agreement with Civic Partners of Californiat to convert the building into a 110-room hotel didn't reach fruition.
"We've got the structure, all the demolition done, all the abatement done, asbestos and hazardous done," he said. "The parking ramp is under way, the underground parking to the west of the building. We've replaced all the windows in the south, east and north sides."
Window holes have also been constructed on the west side of the building, which will be the front of the United Center, but the windows had not been punched through the outside layer by late February because work was progressing below in the big empty hole that is to become the underground parking structure for the building's tenants, Connelly said.
The parking garage does not go under the building, but it will stretch from the west side of the building to Jones Street, providing about 75 undeground parking spots,
He sees the secure undergrounding parking as a big plus, particularly for the residents on the top two floors of the building.
"You'll go down a ramp into the parking with a fob, a gate will go up and you will go in, and it will close right behind you," he said.
The garage will have heat and security cameras. A hole being cut from the lower level of the parking ramp into the basement of the building. Tenants will fob their way into the building, then take an elevator ro their lofts. There is one elevator for the residential tenants, another for the commercial tenants.
"It's a pretty new concept for Sioux City. I don't know that there's anything like it here," he said of the underground parking structure.
The building was in fairly solid shape, though a bit of a mess with the interior all caved in upon itself, when work began. A leaking roof had to be repaired and as a result, much of the wood had to be replaced, especially on the upper floors, he said.
The smallest residential spaces on the top two floors are just under 1,000 feet, Connelly said.
But tenants have the option of buying adjacent units. One tenant was looking at purchasing one adjacent unit and two above him. "So you'd enter on the fifth floor and it would be an open loft," he said.
Another loft that has been sold has a fifth-floor entrance, but the bedroom is on the sixth floor, with an interior stairway connecting the two halves of the living quarters.
This parallels the two-story space that will be occupied on the second and third floors by the Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates architectural firm. The firm's office space opens up into a large atrium, surrounded by office space on both floors.
Other tenants already secured for the United Center are United Commercial Real Estate, United Escrow and Ameriprise Financial Services.
"It looks like a fun place to live and a great place to work. There's a ton of natural light," Connelly said. "I'm a natural light person in the workplace. And it's a neat old building."
Though he said he would like to live and work there, he had to backtrack a bit, noting that it's probably not a great place to raise kids. "I've got four kids, so I wouldn't live there. But we're getting people, middle-aged singles, young singles, a married couple, empty nesters, looking at that," he said.
The front exterior on the west side will be as historically correct as posible architecturally, at least up to the water table point, with the windows cut into the brick matching the windows on the other sides of the building. That water table point ends about where the second floor begins, he noted.
The original front door was on the east side of the building, now facing the Promenade Theater.
"We found the old original blueprints and an animal skin in the basement. They're pretty cool," he said.
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