Historical county annex building up for sale again

Soon the Jasper County Annex Building will be up for sale.

The board of supervisors on May 25 voted 3-0 to begin the selling process, thereby allowing Jasper County to advertise the sale and attract bidders. Jasper County Auditor Dennis Parrott said the supervisors will revisit the sale and open bids during their June 15 meeting in the courthouse.

The county “can’t just sell” the property to anybody, Parrott added, so the building will have to be put out to bid. The board can choose whether to accept a bid. Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma said there are “a couple of potentially interested parties” wanting to purchase the annex building.

“So it’s time, again, to have a conversation about putting it back out to bid and accepting bids on it,” Talsma said, noting to Newton News later on that some parties have expressed interest in turning the 115 N. Second Ave. E. property into an office space or apartments or workforce housing.

The annex building, whose condition has been steadily declining over the years, was originally up for sale in summer 2020. The Jasper County Board of Supervisors was presented a $15,000 bid by Front Porch Development, who proposed to renovate the property into downtown housing units.

However, the county’s agreement with Front Porch Development was due to expire by the end of January 2021 and was contingent upon the developer securing a grant or substantial funds to pay for the project. Since the grant application was unsuccessful, the developer could not pursue the project.

In 2020, the building was added to Preservation Iowa’s list of endangered properties for its “significant condition issues,” including water damage to the basement foundation, inaccessibility of the southeast entrance and deterioration of the window wells.

Prior to its endangered status, the Newton Downtown Historic District where the annex is located was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Neoclassical Revival structure — which Preservation Iowa says has “a generally high level of historic integrity — was originally constructed as a post office in 1928, where it operated from 1929 to 1972, Preservation Iowa stated. The board of supervisors purchased the building to house county offices.

Numerous county departments still operate from within the annex building, which had tested positive for airborne mold spores in 2017; Jasper County Health Department staff subsequently moved to a temporary office space at 116 W. Fourth St. S. later that same year.

Upon a successful $3.6 million bond referendum earlier this year, those departments still working in the annex building will move to the new Jasper County administration office located in the former NewCare Health Services clinic, 315 W. Third St. N., in Newton.

The treasurer, DMV, community development, environmental health, CICS, veterans affairs, human resources, public health, economic development, genealogy, department of human services, department of correctional services and juvenile correctional services will be moved to the new office space.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com