Construction continues on the new version of 605 Main. I'm working on a post about the city council's fear of halfway houses, but that's for another day. I wish that someone had taken a survey 5 years ago to see how many Davenport folks even know what was in this building...If you're interested in buying your very own downtown building, the former bank, former Social Security building at 131 W. 3rd seems to be going up for auction on August 12th. Here's the auction ad from the QCTimes. Bidding starts at $350,000 for one of the uglier buildings in one of the better locations of downtown Davenport.
I have it from a pretty good source that the former gas station/former burger joint at 4th and Iowa will be a Crescent Cleaners. This fits right in to the Crescent Warehouse District, and also provides the kind of services that downtown residents should have walking-distance access to. I hope it does well.The Forrest Block building at 4th and Brady got a new "renovations coming soon" sign on it in time for the Bix. The sign lists the website as FrontDoorIowa.com. FrontDoorSTL.com seems to be the website for all of Restoration St. Louis's properties in the STL area, so I guess FrontDoorIowa.com will be the website for their Davenport area properties. It does makes sense that "Iowa's front door" would be part of "Iowa's Front Porch." They're still talking a Spring 2010 opening for the Forrest Block building, so they must be working hard on it. I'm looking forward to being able to walk through luxury apartments where there's been nothing but blight for the majority of my lifetime.
16 comments:
DT Davenport is a museum of architecture and I think people will miss the 1960's Social Security building if it meets its likely demise.
I hope that the Social Security Building isn't in danger, it appears to be in good shape. Unfortunately, it seems that downtown redevelopment hasn't made it yet to office space. I believe that we are in the first stage of downtown redevelopment. That is redeveloping low and moderate income apartments and increasing population. The second step would be middle and upper income condos and increasing retail development. The last step (unfortunately for the Social Security Building as well as many other downtown office buildings) is filling up the office space. It would be nice if office space would fill up faster, but I don't think it will be soon. If someone had a lot of money and patience $350,000 would be a steal for that building!
I'm a huge downtown architecture nut, but I have to disagree completely that the social security building is worth saving if someone decides to level it some day.
It's completely out of place among the surrounding buildings and it looks more like a prison/fortress than it does anything else. It's not even a good example of 60's architecture.
We're getting way ahead of ourselves here considering the building has zero plans for anything of the sort right now, but I can't say that I'd miss it if it were replaced by something less stark. That being said, anything is better than a parking lot, so I wouldn't want to see that.
Everyone keeps calling 605 main a replacement.
Are they tearing something down once this building is built? or will there be a vacancy?
What's the building right behind it?
The building just to the south of it (down the hill) will be torn down after the move is completed. The building just to the north of it is the former Masonic Temple, now called Lyceum Hall and owned by Palmer.
The current 605 Main is a former hotel that had its exterior walkways enclosed to make "hallways" that still slope gently away from the building. Its in bad shape.
Chris
Why buy a building downtown Davenport for $350,000 when you can rent prime space in the Mississippi Plaza for a for a dollar a year.
Cafe Fresh in Moline is a great place, and I look forward to visiting it in downtown Davenport.
This is not about Cafe Fresh. Just a little over your head, guess.
Oh no, I understand the glee that those of you anti-downtown folks have whenever any slightly bad news comes out. The fact that Starbucks failed when there are half a dozen other coffee places downtown isn't surprising, considering how many of their locations all over the US also closed.
Having that restaurant space of Mississippi Plaza filled is an important amenity that can help keep the rest of the building occupied, so of course its worthwhile for the building owner to offer an incentive. Only the anti-downtown wackos would see a problem with this.
Why do you suppose there are people that just can't stand it that downtown IS coming back? It's weird.
Driving in and out of town yesterday, I noticed that the Robbie Ortiz signs are still up (also they looked improved). On your blog on July 22nd Robbie apologized and said that he didn't know about the political sign ordinance and would be taking them down until the appropriate time. Either he's just chosen to ignore the law or he's a very busy person.Not an encouraging sign for Robbie.
There are ortiz signs on Welcome Way across from Northpark, and a very large one in front of the car wash at 53rd and Division.
Yeah he's very busy running his business, which he hasn't really identified. You'd think that would be something you include on your candidate information website. Why doesn't he want to say what kind of business he owns?
Yeah, not exactly a good way to prove you're planning on playing by the rules once in office.
And by the way, Cafe Fresh is really tasty, and I've already been in there several times.
I've noticed a few new large signs in place since his promise to take them down. Very dishonest!
Walnut
GORDON, JASON
DAVENPORT, IA
$500
5/1/2007
GOTV CONSULTING
GORDON, JASON
DAVENPORT, IA
$500
6/1/2007
GOTV CONSULTING
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