Marsha Nieland leads a yoga class at Fusion Studio on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010, in the Warehouse on Third in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Not even the record Floods of 2008 could crush the good karma at Warehouse on Third.
Moods Salon opened Aug. 2 in the onetime garment factory building at 600 Third St. SE, taking the last space that had been leased before the flood.

The hair salon joined Pumori Pilates, which had moved into the building two months earlier, and three longtime tenants. The lower level may become a restaurant in the next year.
The new arrivals completed owner Roger Hadley’s restoration of the historic 90-year-old building from the June 2008 flood, which filled the basement, brought 4 feet of water to the ground floor and caused $875,000 in damage. “My economic losses have been hard, because I’d been paying on it for 15 years before the flood, and now I’ll be paying on it for another 25,” Hadley said. “My kids will be paying on it after I’m gone, but my building is a better building now than before the flood.”
A restoration company hired to do the post-flood demolition work stripped out unwanted steam pipes, radiators, conduits and electrical panels that make the lower level space more usable.
The most distinctive features of the 16,800-square-foot building are its soaring 14-foot ceilings, 9-foot-high windows, and load-bearing masonry walls.

They literally don’t make them like this anymore, said Hadley, owner and principal architect at Change Environmental Architecture and Planning, which resides on the building’s second floor.
Hadley said the building was designed around massive 13-foot-wide, 9-foot-tall windows. It was built that way 90 years ago so seamstresses could sew in natural daylight for the Brown & Evans Garment Co.
Even the basement gets lots of natural light, he said.
Hadley bought the building 15 years ago from Metropolitan School Supply. He sandblasted away white paint, removed rugged pine columns, replaced drafty old windows with new energy efficient ones and divided the space into trendy loft studios.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
“It’s got good karma — it really does,” Hadley said. He said the building’s great “vibe” helps it attract and keep good tenants.

Moods Salon owner Jessica Herold said clients have gushed about how they like the open, airy, bright space with its brick walls.
“I walked in and as soon as I saw the space, I said, ‘This is it,’” said Herold, who had rented a chair at another salon before starting her business.
She rents a chair to another stylist and is looking for two more. Eventually, she said she’d like to expand into a spa.
Hadley said he was able to get financing for the renovations because he had so much sweat equity in the building. He is still waiting on $70,000 in hoped-for assistance from the state’s JumpStart program, which he expected to receive months ago.
Hadley loves the building so much that not restoring it simply wasn’t an option. He even borrowed against this year’s crop on a farm he owns to finish the job.
“It’s just such a grand building,” he said.

Building tenants

• Morning Star Studio
• Saxton Inc.
• Fusion Yoga Studio
• Pumori Pilates
• Moods Salon
• Change Environmental Architecture and Planning