SIOUX CITY — An Omaha-Council Bluffs-based developer is pouring about $34 million into renovating three historic properties in Sioux City, including two downtown.
J. Development plans to redevelop the Commerce Building, the former Hatch Building and the former Methodist Hospital into mixed-use properties that will serve both commercial and residential customers.
The historic Commerce Building will be converted into 77 apartments, retail space and modern offices under a $14.6 million renovation plan for the 106-year-old downtown Sioux City structure.
Development of the Commerce Building, 520 Nebraska St. will include a total rehabilitation of the five-story building and a conversion from office space to a mixed-use property.
The first floor will be used for both commercial and residential purposes, with floors two through five designated as market-rate apartments. The project is expected to create 77 living units and 18,0000-square-feet of first-floor commercial space.
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Originally known as the Motor Mart building, the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce moved its offices to the building in 1919, which is why it eventually became commonly known as the Commerce Building.
A fifth floor was added in 1921 and housed Tom Archer’s Roof Garden. It later became a music hall and dance club called the Skylon Ballroom. Lawrence Welk and his band performed there in 1939 before he signed with Decca. The building also served as the home of the Sioux City Art Center from 1953 until 1961, when the center moved into the Municipal Auditorium.
The $12.4 million redevelopment of the former Methodist hospital into 69 market-rate apartment units will include removal of asbestos and other environmental contaminants.
The former hospital became a part of UnityPoint Health — St. Luke's campus when the Methodist and Lutheran hospitals merged in 1966 to form St. Luke's.
The former Methodist hospital, which became known as St. Luke's West Building, served as a maternity ward until 1979 when St. Luke's moved its birthing unit to its main hospital on Pierce Street. In later years, the former Methodist hospital housed Meals on Wheels, hospital business offices and the county morgue. St. Luke's closed the aging building, the oldest structure on its campus, in September 2005, and it has remained empty since then.
The former Hatch building, 413 Pierce St., will be redeveloped to include 6,175-square-feet of commercial space to lease on the first floor, with the upper floors containing 30 market-rate residential apartments.
The developers are planning to add a floor to the structure, something envisioned in the building's original design.
Built in 1934, the Hatch building was designed by Chicago firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the designers of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart and Union Station, according to the Sioux City Historical Preservation Commission. Until the early 1970s, the building was occupied by Montgomery Wards.
Hatch Furniture, based in Yankton, South Dakota, opened a Sioux City location in 1985 and moved into the Pierce Street building in 1987. Hatch closed the downtown store in 2008 but reopened the space two years later as an outlet and clearance store. It closed the store for good in 2014.
Julie Stavneak, a principal at J. Development, said the company plans to start construction late winter on the Commerce building and complete it in 18 months.
Next, they plan to then move to the hospital, which is envisioned as a year-long project, in the middle of the year and to start on the Hatch Furniture building in 2019.
