Century-old building will open soon with new renovations

Century-old building will open soon with new renovations

BY ABIGAIL MEIER | DECEMBER 17, 2013 5:00 AM

As half of the drywall peels away from the inside of the Grossix Building, the material beneath exposes almost a century of historical structural value of the downtown Iowa City establishment.

Community members admired the nearly completed renovations on Monday as officials announced the coming of a retail store to that space. Tailgate, a vintage-style clothing line, will enter the bottom floor in February 2014. The second and third floors, which are nearing completion, will be remodeled into apartments.

The view from the top and the design of the building vitalizes the Iowa City area, said Vera Gross, the owner of the Grossix Building, 30 S. Clinton St. A lot of this area was used for storage, but now you have two really great places to bring to Iowa City and bringing more people to the downtown area.

Iowa native Todd Snyder created Tailgate in his fathers basement in 1997, and he has partnered with national brands such as Nordstroms, American Eagle, and Urban Outfitters. An official with the Downtown District said there an increasing need for a business such as Tailgate in the area.

There is a high demand for retail downtown, said Nancy Bird, downtown district executive director. [Gross] took her time in finding a tenant who can service the community as well as the students.

Gross family has owned the 1860 building for the past 28 years. In 1985, her mother opened Gilda Imports a furniture, glass, china store in the building. In the past three years, the building has been empty.

The renovation is the sixth of eight projects the Downtown District has supported to restore the structural value of the buildings.

A Downtown District initiative called Iowa City Building Change Program, which began last spring, has supplied Gross with $43,629 for the installation of a sprinkler system and improvements to the buildings faade. The total cost of the renovation is $700,000.

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Century-old building will open soon with new renovations