PROGRESS: Downtown Sioux City Bluebird Flats, Copper Flats apartments begin leasing

Omaha-based J Development has spent the past several years developing the Commerce Building, at 520 Nebraska St., into 71 apartments and roughly 12,000 square feet of commercial space. More than half of these apartments were leased as of early March. 

The Commerce Building apartments are called the Bluebird Flats, a name that came from Bluebird Records, a record label that signed Louis Armstrong. Armstrong played in the building's fifth-floor ballroom decades ago. 

The Copper Flats name was mostly a marketing invention, partly playing on the color of the old Hatch Furniture building's brick exterior. 

Exterior work on the Bluebird Flats was largely completed by the end of last year; the enormous assortment of decorative light fixtures on the building's exterior, long disused or only partially lit, now glow at night as brightly as they would have more than a century ago. 

Work at the Copper Flats, a significantly smaller building, is "pretty much done," Stavneak said, and they have received certificates of occupancy. "We have people moving in!" 

The Copper Flats were about 33 percent leased as of early March, about two months after they began leasing apartments. There are a total of 30 apartments, one and two-bedrooms in the Copper Flats. Rents range from $775 to $1,250 per month. The ground floor has around 6,000 square feet of retail space. 

"We are currently looking hard for a great commercial tenant," Stavneak said. 

J Development planted its flag in the old Commerce Building in 2017. The nearly three years of planning and renovations were unusual for a project of its size -- 18 to 24 months would be closer to the norm. The longer time frame, Stavneak said, was the result of efforts to preserve the building's historical integrity and related regulatory hurdles. 

"We had to pause -- there are some historic things that took a little bit longer than we anticipated, as far as the renovations, getting approval to do the things that we needed, so it's been a little bit longer than normal," Stavneak said. The pandemic added perhaps three or four months to the project, though the jobsite was never shut down. 

Work continues on the first-floor retail space at the Bluebird Flats, but the upper-floor apartment spaces are all finished. 

The Commerce Building retained much of its terrazzo flooring, its reinforced concrete "mushroom pillars" throughout the interior, some of the original windows and, of course, the more than 1,600 light sockets on the exterior, which have been in use on and off over the past 109 years. 

The Commerce Building price tag came to roughly $15.7 million, which includes roughly $2.2 million in federal historic tax credits, $3.2 million in state historic tax credits, $600,000 from the city and $1.5 million in brownfield and workforce housing tax credits from the state. 

The 71 Bluebird Flats apartments include six studios, 13 two-bedroom and 52 one-bedroom apartments. There is some variation between the apartments (some have terrazzo floors, others have polished brick flooring, and still others have modern vinyl), but most have lofty, 12- to 14-foot ceilings and massive windows that offer attractive views of the downtown. 

The Bluebird apartments, which range from roughly 660 to 1,320 square feet, will rent from approximately $850 to $1,370 a month. J Development has contracted with the Seldin Company for property management services. 

Work at the Copper Flats began about 18 months ago. "It was a complete renovation. We did utilize historic tax credits, so -- we did all new infrastructure, all new plumbing, electrical, new roof, everything in it ultimately is new, except for historic things that we wanted to keep, (like) some historic windows you'll see at the front, in addition to a lot of wood floors, throughout. The wood floors turned out really, really sharp," Stavneak said. 

Units have its own washer and dryer. The Bluebird Flats boasts common space, a fitness room and a rooftop firepit and grilling station. The Copper Flats will have its own rooftop deck with a firepit and grill. The Copper Flats building is also connected to downtown Sioux City's skywalk system. 

The Copper Flats price tag came to about $5.5 million, which included historic tax incentives. 

Pets are allowed: no animal could do much damage to the industrial terrazzo or brick floors in the Commerce Building, or the concrete and wood floors of the Copper Flats. Landlords, particularly those with larger properties, have grown increasingly tolerant of pets in recent years -- the Bluebird Flats will even have a "dog run" area in the back with grass. 

"If you think about walking through Target or a grocery store, and they have a dedicated aisle for pets. I mean, the writing on the wall is just -- many more households have animals than they used to have," Stavneak said. "And so, instead of not allowing them, we try to figure out ways to allow them and have enough space for the animals."  

1912: The Motor Mart

The Commerce Building was originally built in 1912 by the C.F. Lytle Co. as Ralph A. Bennett's Motor Mart Building, according to the Sioux City Historic Preservation Commission.