DES MOINES, IA | Development Thread

[PEORIA]

Originally Posted by DMRyan

A highrise proposal called The Fifth was upsized to 39 stories tall, 452', which would be the 3rd tallest building in Iowa if built. The proposal includes 201 apartments, a 117 room hotel, office space, a 694 stall parking ramp and a 9 screen movie theater.

Gorgeous!










Demo of the existing parking garage has started.






And not to be outdone, the developer of the 33 story "The Blackbird" tower has announced a December groundbreaking.

😃 " LOVE THAT DENSITY! " One great thing about compact downtowns is the instant ability for one or more sizable structures to create physical and visible density.

[DMRyan]

Encouraging news on the DSM highrise front (which is seemingly taking forever), the 39 story 'The Fifth' project is increasing to 40 floors, and has signed on 21c Museum Hotels as the hotel anchor. They will now occupy 12 floors in the building with 131 rooms and a 7,000 sq. ft. art exhibit space. Construction is supposed to commence on phase I this summer, with additional phases starting in 2019 for entire project completion in 2021. An 8-screen dine-in movie theater with reclining seats is expected to be the last phase of the project.



https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/desmoines/

[DMRyan]

All of the approvals are now in place for phase I of the Gray's Station development to begin. This 75-acre development sits on the fringe of downtown on a reclaimed industrial brownfields site. Phase I will include 200 multi-family units and 89 townhomes. Additional phases will be built that could someday contain up to 1,100 to 1,400 dwelling units.

Some of the larger units are proposed to have their own elevators in the units and will approach the $1 million dollar mark.

Phase I

Linc Apartments




Rowhomes










Plan at full buildout:

[The Best Forumer]

love the pool on the blackbird...

[DMRyan]

The renderings for the long-maligned new $137 million federal courthouse finally came out today. While not a travesty, many locals can't help but feel quite underwhelmed by this building that is of a safer, more conservative design than what was previously hoped for.

Making matters worse, the US Government bought the prime A+ downtown riverfront redevelopment site to forever make tax exempt.













On the bright side, this old beauty will likely be turned over to the City for a hopeful repurposing into a private development.

[img]Federal Courthouse (Des Moines, Iowa) by courthouselover, on Flickr

[DMRyan]

Work is continuing on a $35 million project in the East Village neighborhood to construct a 105 unit apartment building with 2nd-floor office space and first-floor commercial space. A separate 399 stall parking deck has already been constructed in the phased development known as 418 E. Grand.

[DMRyan]

The historic 134-year-old Griffin Building sits square in the middle of the central business district and had slowly fallen into disrepair, despite some small levels of office occupancy remaining. The building has an interesting history in Iowa's Civil Rights movement, with a lady named Edna Griffin holding a sit-in protest of the former Katz Drug Store's lunch counter in 1948, since they refused her service because she was black. She later sued the owner and was successful in the Supreme Court of Iowa, paving the way for desegregation in Iowa.

This building had thwarted at least 2-3 other attempts by developers to convert the building to housing, as its smaller size and lack of dedicated parking made it tough to compete with larger office building conversions that had pre-existing parking leases to utilize.

A local developer finally stepped up to the plate to secure historic tax credits and other layers in the financing stack to finally make this conversion project a reality. This building will now have around 40 dwelling units, some of which will be affordable, 2nd-floor office space, and first-floor commercial space. There is a proposal by the Kum and Go Convenience Store chain (based in DSM) to take the entirey of the first-floor commercial space to build their first urban c-story with no fuel sales.

Here is a rendering, which shows the restoration of the historic cornice work. This had been removed and painted with a faux cornice. There were also EIFS elements added to the ground floor that were obviously not historic to the building and have since been removed.



Pre-Renovation


Recent project updates, prepping the roofline for the cornice installation.

[DMRyan]

A duo of historic beauties well under renovation in Downtown:

Midland Building- converted to 138 room boutique hotel by Chicago's Aparium Group. Will be one of DSM's nicest hotels when completed.




The grand Hotel Fort Des Moines is undergoing a $50 million renovation to bring it back to its original glory. This 285 room hotel should be largely completed by the end of the year.






And one new project that will convert the historic Argonne Apartments building from transitional apartments to 45 market-rate studio and one-bedrooms. Should hopefully start this fall.

[Peerson]

Great photos man. Love all the old building stock.

Especially the Griffin building project. That's great to see.
Too often, old gems like that are just torn down.

[kcexpress69]

Nice updates!! Des Moines is really coming along!!

[DMRyan]

An interesting project proposed just west of downtown. The former Church of Christ Scientology has been sitting vacant for 10-12 years now. It's a beautiful old structure but lack of maintenance during the vacancy period has taken it's toll and the roof in the sanctuary leaks heavily, urban miners have stripped parts of the building, and homeless have squatted in the building. A local developer (that just happens to be the 5th largest owner of multi-family properties in the country) is proposing an 8-story luxury condominium complex that will salvage a good portion of the existing church building. The church structure would function as commons/amenity space for the residents.

Existing church building





Proposed

















View back towards downtown once you clear the treeline.

[Urban Enthusiast]

Des Moines definitely punches above its weight! So, what's the status of 'The Fifth?'

[DMRyan]

The Fifth is coming along slowly. Phase I, which is the parking and retail component is well underway. If the developer is to be believed, the tower portion will start next spring and the theater will start next fall.

Alamo Drafthouse just signed a letter of intent to be the theater operator. 21C Museum Hotels is still on board as the hotel flag. Here are the latest renderings, which have been modified a little to get the project closer in budget.











Theater


Here's the progress from a month ago or so.

[DMRyan]

The Rowat Lofts project has just been completed, marking the first new residential project in a largely industrial redevelopment district known as the Market District, which is located adjacent to downtown and rapidly in the path of redevelopment. This district will be a new urban mixed-use neighborhood that will be predominately lower-scale buildings in the 5-6 story range to help protect the viewshed of the State Capitol, especially from the AAA Iowa Cubs baseball stadium.

This project has 162 dwelling units and sits on the home of a former cut stone company. As seen in a few of the photos below, the building this site was old and not in good condition, but was still in operation until the developer of this project bought the property a few years back. The crane derrick and some of the stone that was on the old building has been repurposed into this project to pay homage. An adjacent housing project is being constructed next door on the site of a former recycling company, but that will be fodder for another post later.









What was on the site previously.




Market District Master Plan- Vision for the redevelopment area

[MN/WI]

The 5th is going to look great in the skyline and I love the reuse of the church.

[DMRyan]

A few downtown office projects that are noteworthy to show off.

The Krause Gateway Center has been completed for months now, but I realized I never posted completion photos of this masterpiece! This is the headquarters for the Kum and Go Convenience Store chain and their subsidiary companies.









This sculpture was just added to mark the 10th anniversary of the sculpture garden you see in the foreground. Joining the growing list of cities around the world with variations of this sculpture.


Pappajohn Sculpture Park


Meanwhile, on the other end of downtown, another unique to the marketplace building is completed and occupied. The mass timber-constructed 111 E. Grand project.





This project is called Miesblock, adjacent to a Mies Van Der Rohe-designed building next door. The metal panel system on this building actually has perforations that are maps of the 3 German cities where Mies oversaw the Bauhaus School, as it moved around during the intensification of the Nazi regime. Kind of an interesting gesture to the famous architect I must say. This building is 18,000 sq. ft. and will have first floor restaurant space available. A complimentary 8-story apartment building is proposed behind this site.

[bigstick]

Wow, I love Des Moines, way underrated on all levels. It definitely has the most beautifully ornate Capitol bldg in the USA as well...

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by bigstick

Wow, I love Des Moines, way underrated on all levels. It definitely has the most beautifully ornate Capitol bldg in the USA as well...

Wife is from DSM, got married at the cathedral downtown. Needless to say everyone who came into town for the wedding was thrilled and very impressed with the city. People have the notion that Des Moines is a cow town when it's actually much more similar to Madison or Ann Arbor.

The quality of development there right now is sky high and the city is in a bonafide boom at the moment. Fastest growing city in the Midwest over the last decade or two. It's an impressive town and I'm considering investing in some adaptive reuse projects there.

[Wpg_Guy]

Lots of great projects here!

[Dariusb]

Makes me want to come check Dee Moines out!