From vacant to vital: Students pitch plan to re-use CVG building

By Audrey Posten | Times-Register

A group of MFL MarMac high school students last week pitched a proposal to transform Monona’s former Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) building from vacant to vital through creation of a multi-functional facility.

The presentation to school board members, Monona city officials and other community stakeholders was led by seniors Brayden Gordon and Ben Krambeer and junior Braxton Halvorson—three students in the school’s MORE project-based learning program—as well as junior Devon Meyer, who worked on it as an independent student project.

Halvorson said the idea came on the students’ radars last semester during an entrepreneurial mindset class. An evaluation of problems as opportunities found a lot of empty storefronts in Monona, but also the potential to keep people in town. A MORE think tank earlier this year pinpointed the CVG building on West Spruce Street, next to the school, as a good place to start. 

“It’s been vacant and we didn’t know what we wanted to do with it, but we wanted to do something for the community, not just the school,” Halvorson explained.

The students’ vision would re-purpose the 51,000-square-foot property into three main areas: a wellness and recreation center offering fitness, sports and social opportunities for all ages; a re-location of the Little Bulldog Childcare and Learning Center to expand access to high-quality childcare; and an education and workforce development hub that could expand career and technical education (CTE) spaces and develop a potential Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) center and alternative high school program.

Students said the project addresses several needs identified through community research, including nearly 650 surveys of students and community members. Accounting for multiple people in some households, they estimated at least 840 people’s opinions were factored.

Of respondents, Meyer said 90 percent indicated a wellness and recreation center would positively impact them in some way.

“One family said, after moving from Waukon to Monona, the wellness center is what they miss most from Waukon. They regularly used it for exercise, kids play areas, meetings and classes, and it was all in one location, and they appreciated this strong sense of community it offered,” she said. “They hope to see a similar multi-use facility developed in Monona.”

“Another response we got was a community member emphasized that a facility like this is essential to stay relevant and grow positively as a community. They view it as a vital investment for the overall wellbeing of everyone in the community,” Meyer added.

According to Gordon, the center would include a core area for pickleball, basketball, volleyball and other sports, as well as an indoor walking path, weight room, batting cages, golf simulators and possibly golf and putting greens, in addition to a community gathering space.

While helpful to the overall community, it would provide vital practice space for MFL MarMac sports and travel teams, noted Krambeer. Although improvements to the high school gym have helped, an unsuccessful 2020 referendum for a field house is being felt. And unlike the field house, this could generate revenue.

“Over 90 percent of the people we surveyed said they would be willing to pay for membership at the center,” Krambeer said. “And then there’s possible tournament revenues for sports.”

Another income stream would be the daycare. The current Little Bulldog facility attached to the school has a 65-student capacity, a number Meyer said could double in the CVG building.

“Currently, we have 65 students and that brings in about $9,000 of income a week. For the projected, we could fit nearly 145 students. This would increase our income per week to nearly $20,000. That’s nearly an $11,000 potential revenue increase by moving this daycare and being able to hold more students within that daycare,” she shared.

The move would provide much-needed daycare, with half of survey respondents saying they struggled to find it due to lack of openings in town.

“We have about 30 families on the waiting list, and it’s about a six-month wait to get an infant in the daycare. When you have kids, you can’t just wait six months to get daycare. You have to find daycare now, whether that’s going to another community or finding another daycare,” Meyer said. 

Moving the daycare would also increase room for the elementary school, which currently utilizes overflow space at the high school and elementary lobby.

Another aspect of the new space would be an indoor playground, inspired by Sunflower Child Development Center in Decorah. 

“When it is not used by their students, people are allowed to bring their children there for a price. That would be another potential revenue stream,” Halvorson stated.

Lastly, Halvorson detailed the education and workforce hub. It could provide space and less travel time to MFL MarMac students who make up a majority of alternative school attendees in Elkader. NICC could bring courses for adults and high schoolers.

“For the NICC aspect, there is a center in every county around us, the closest in Waukon, which is about 30 minutes away, but none in Clayton County. If we were able to put one here, it could attract people from Wisconsin and bring more people here for a reason other than just traveling through,” he said. 

“We’d also like to see more career technical education classes for anyone that looks at business, industrial or agricultural careers, and then also classes like CPR, CNA, EMT and others,” Halvorson added. 

The students shared an outline for the facility, which has multiple levels. Meyer noted many spaces already have layouts and amenities suitable for their proposed new uses.  

“From our tours, there’s plenty of space for everything. It’s huge inside, and there’s multiple entrances,” Halvorson quipped.

The students acknowledged they don’t yet know the cost of a feasibility study for the proposed facility. They toured similar set-ups in Waukon and Postville, but don’t know how many employees would be needed to operate in Monona. They did have preliminary cost estimates for renovating the building, however.

According to Gordon, the 2020 fieldhouse was estimated at $6.4 million, adjusted to $9.5 million with today’s inflation. 

“CVG already has existing groundwork, concrete, water, sewage, HVAC, everything. The remodeling estimate would be about 50 to 70 percent of the new construction. That number would be $4.75 million to $6.65 million,” he said.

The building has been vacant for three years and dropped in price multiple times, from $1.675 million to $729,000 currently. The students are hopeful the owner would consider donating it to the city of Monona or MFL MarMac School District. 

“We wanted to be able to make it like a legacy project. When this building went vacant, it lost 120 jobs in our area. You could give this building to us as maybe a tax write-off or a donation to the school or city,” Halvorson said.

Meyer noted the students have explored potential funding, ranging from grants, private investors and donors and community fundraising to even a referendum. Work could be completed in segments to make it more manageable. Sharing agreements would also be needed.

The goal, according to Gordon, would be to open in two to three years.

“We know that’s a big goal, but with everybody here, we hope we can get it done in that time,” he said.

The students asked those in attendance to consider being part of a facility committee to further explore the project.

“We’ve done all the work for the last four months and we’ve really tried our hardest to get this project through,” Halvorson said. “We want to create a facility committee of people who truly feel like this could be something beneficial for us and sign up and let’s have meetings and talk about getting this done.”

“We want to hear your ideas and hear your resources,” added Meyer.