Oh, I knew it was a coaster brake. Fixed gear and all. I just know some bikes can come with a flip-flop hub that allows you to flip the wheel around and (if the other side has a freewheel attached) use that instead. Granted handbrakes would be important if one chose to do that. Just was not clear to me by his photos if it had such a hub that could be flipped. My guess is no though after some more research.
Bummer about having to replace the wheel or respoke it. Guess I will look for a geared one to convert to single-speed, one already a single-speed, or one with a flip-flop hub already installed. I would never really use the fixed gear side of a flip-flop hub, but since that seems to be often what the non-geared bikes come with, oh well.
Thanks for the input.