UI leases empty frat house
Wood slabs covering the Phi Kappa Theta house’s windows hid the whir of a buzzing saw. Outside, construction workers armed with shovels dug through the fraternity’s yard.
“The crews are busy tearing out dry wall now,” UI spokesman Steve Parrott said.
The work is part of a $1.1 million renovation to the fraternity, 108 River St., which has been vacant since 2007. The state Board of Regents is set to approve today the UI’s request for a three-year lease of the facility, which will house performance-arts classrooms and office space by the fall.
Priced at $9,375 a month for the first year, the old fraternity gives space to the flood-displaced department until March 2012. But the agreement also includes a renewal clause, giving UI officials the option of keeping the space until 2019.
Parrott anticipates Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse 90 percent of lease and improvement costs, but the UI will ultimately be responsible for taxes, insurance, utilities, and maintenance.
In April 2011, the university will be allowed to purchase the 9,000-square-foot property for $695,000. Parrott said it’s too early to determine future use of the fraternity.
Theater department officials said they are excited about the spacious classrooms, which will be available mid-August. But while theater students will have some of their classes in the fraternity, most music students will use University Capitol, creating a possible problem in Division of Performing Arts students’ schedules.
“I think it will be an excellent facility,” said Alan MacVey, the head of the division. “The only problem is having the [Division of Performing Arts] split between two buildings. Theater is a real community, and it helps to have everyone together.”
For now, though, the setup is a good temporary situation, he said.
The renovated fraternity house will contain a large classroom, a seminar room, and several staff offices. Basic Acting I will take up a large portion of classroom time. The seminar room will harbor academic and writing courses.
Seven performing-arts staff members, four theater faculty members, and all theater teaching assistants will have offices in the house.
UI officials said they selected the property because of its reasonable rental rate and its proximity to campus. Principal contractors Michael Hodge and Kevin Digman, working for Iowa City-based Hodge Construction Company, are leading the renovation of the house, located in “fraternity circle.”
UI Associate Director of Student Life Kelly Jo Karnes, who is responsible for the UI greek system, said she has mixed emotions regarding the lease.
“There’s been a lot of shuffling that’s happened in the last 10 years in the [greek] community,” she said. “We would love to have a fraternity back in a historical structure.”
Still, Karnes said she understands the flood created a unique situation. Officials from one sorority — Alpha Epsilon Phi — looked into renting the house but decided they couldn’t afford it.
The Phi Kappa Theta fraternity lease is one part of a large-scale, flood-mitigation program, affecting UI students, officials, and departments.
“If [the fraternity is] going to remain dormant, why not use it,” said UI junior Cara Renze, who has many friends in the performing arts. “It’s important for them to have a place to call their own.”
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