Adaptation: What a city does with a college campus

What once was Westmar's gym is now an indoor aquatic center. This change is one of the adaptations made to the campus after the city purchased Westmar and the college closed ten years ago. Here Aquatic Director Heidi Middendorp supervises a swimmer in the current channel. [Click to enlarge]

(Editor's note: This is the second of a series examining, on the tenth anniversary of Westmar's close, what has happened to the buildings, how its close has continued to impact Le Mars and how people remember the institution.)

When the conversation first started, the city had no intention of buying Westmar University.

Now, ten years from the month the city literally took over the keys of the college, the former campus is an eclectic collection: a YMCA, a convention center, several apartment buildings, a day care, an indoor and outdoor pool, a non-profit center, a fire station and two parks.

It began in the 1990s with a request to the city of Le Mars from the college's board of trustees to borrow $1.6 million to cover operating expenses. In late 1995, the city agreed to it, bonding for $1.6 million. But this would just be the beginning.

During this time, Westmar's owner -- Teikyo of Japan -- was selling to a private investor in southern California, Robert Driscoll.

But it became apparent that with him as the sole owner, the college would lose its tax-exempt status, creating a huge financial burden. That was mixed with what City Administrator Scott Langel called a "very lean operational expense picture" for the university.

Last hopes

The proposition came forward: the city could buy the college.

At the same time, the city created the Westmar Urban Renewal district which would allow them to collect 98.6 percent of that property tax to pump back in to the college.

"The master plan, if you will, was that the city would own the real estate and still charge tax but the urban renewal would get that, so the lease payments would be satisfied. That's the same provisions that we really used on Wells' Dairy's corporate campus," Langel said. "The main mission: keep the university open."

So in the summer of 1996, the original $1.6 million was rolled into a real estate deal, and for another $4.25 million, the city purchased Westmar.

The $4.25 million came through a second bond.

Buildings, books, bunkbeds

But Le Mars was in for a shock. In October of 1997, the Westmar board called a press conference of sorts, announcing that the university would close.

"That was as much of a shock to the city and the city council and the mayor as it was for the entire community. We did not anticipate that, nor did we look favorably on it at all" Langel said. "I think a lot of people's hearts sank deep that day. It certainly did in me."

The college wrapped up the semester quickly, accelerating it to end Nov. 21.

Within the week, the keys of the college were literally turned over to the city. Langel remembers that day, standing overwhelmed in front of a wall of keys. Le Mars now owned everything: 46 acres of land, 21 buildings and all the personal property that was being used by the university, everything from furniture to equipment and vehicles.

Stepping up

From the October announcement date, the city formed a committee involving Mayor Phil Hauan, city council and staff, and some of Westmar's board of trustees, and they started meeting once or twice a week about how to make this transition work.

City Attorney Jeff Neary also played a very active role, Langel said.

"He happened to be an alum with a very sincere desire to make sure things were done right," he said.

Ron Geiger was the president of the board of trustees for the university at the time.

"He did very much take a leadership role," Langel said. "It was to the extent that he offered a Harker's semi to be used as temporary depository for the paperwork and records and files. It was parked down at Harker's lot for the longest time."

Even after Nov. 26, Westmar University had to exist from a paperwork standpoint for some time so as to not jeopardize the Westmar Foundation, Langel explained.

And for the first three years of city ownership, they kept three Westmar staff on.

"They were our maintenance leg to keep up on the 46 acres and 21 buildings," Langel said. "Each building had a heat plant, cooling plant, water. We couldn't just shut the lights off and walk away from all that stuff."

Trying to fill a campus

During that period the city, council members and citizens stepped forward to serve on committees, interested in the fate of the campus. Those committees began meeting very regularly.

"The very first objective was to try to find an entity to reopen it," Langel said. "If it wasn't going to be Westmar, could we find somebody that was interested in a satellite campus?"

One committee tried to resell the assets to the state of Iowa, the board of Regents, to open what was being touted as a 'Western Iowa University.'"

Others talked to neighboring colleges and universities: Morningside, Briar Cliff, Northwestern, Dordt, Buena Vista, WITT, NICC, even some out of state universities like the University of South Dakota.

"The committee at one point in time checked out a culinary school; cosmetology was checked into," Langel said.

Time for Plan B

Eventually, the "writing on the wall" showed that having a university or college fill the campus was very unlikely.

The buzzword became "adaptive re-use."

In 1998, the city converted the LifeSports center to the YMCA and the Commons to the Le Mars Convention Center.

The same year, city began selling portions of the Westmar property.

The President's House, at the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue Southeast, was the first to be sold.

The city hired John Meis, a civil engineer, to help with the real estate holdings -- sell and lease buildings -- and the personal property as well.

Langel describes the Westmar process as "monumental."

"We still had to conduct our regular business for the city," he said.

Barry Lancaster bought two of the first pieces, platting housing lots.

Rejoice! Community Church went from renting the library building on campus to buying the South Academic Center in 2002.

WIT was already leasing space from the city and subleasing part of the building to Buena Vista University, creating a two-plus-two program where people could get a four-year degree in Le Mars.

When the city sold the property to Rejoice!, they made it a stipulation that WIT could keep on renting.

"We didn't want to see WIT or BVU lose their presence in Le Mars," Langel said.

Four non-profits -- Mid-Sioux Opportunity, Plains Area Mental Health, the Alzheimer's Association and the Le Mars Day Care moved in together into Weidler Hall.

"Two of the four basically stated to us, 'You don't get involved and we're going to have to pull into our home locations,'" Langel said.

With city support, they renovated the building with a $417,000 Community Development Block Grant.

"For those four non profits to get together and figure out a means and a method to contact the city was big," Langel said. "Now we have a city facility."

The Le Mars Day Care recently moved into another Westmar building, previously owned by Barbara Wells as an art studio.

After a decade

Since the city took ownership, three buildings were deemed unusable and torn down. Several dormitories and apartments were converted to multi-family housing. Each development there brings tax revenue to help cover the cost of adapting a campus.

"We came from a real gut-wrenching experience in November of '97 to a much better, brighter outlook," Langel said. "We started with 21 buildings and there's only four left. Without this, the community wouldn't have had a convention center. It wouldn't have had a wellness center. This gave us the ability to have a water tower and a fire station, two parks. There's just a wealth of accomplishments."