There's an old two-story building on Euclid Avenue in Des Moines' Highland Park neighborhood that has stood since 1924. If a local developer's plans hold, it's about to get a second life as apartments over storefronts, and that means a renovation job for somebody.
The Des Moines City Council on Monday, Oct. 19, approved the preliminary terms of an urban renewal development agreement for the former University of Commerce building at 615 Euclid Ave. Michael Crumb reported the vote for the Business Record. The item was on the council's consent agenda and passed without discussion.
What's planned
Developer Brian Clark, doing business as 615 Euclid LLC, wants to redevelop the 102-year-old building. The plan calls for 14 apartments on the second floor, 12 one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units, with about 2,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor.
The building was built in 1924 as a storefront and a business school.
Clark, president and founder of Sonar Development Partners, said construction could start by the end of the year, with residential tenants moving in by October 2027.
City documents put the project's estimated cost at $5.8 million. The city would provide tax increment financing incentives totaling $338,000 over 18 years. The property is assessed at $145,000 today, and documents estimate that would climb to about $1.95 million once the work is done.
Why Highland Park
Clark said the project will add much-needed workforce housing to the neighborhood, which lost the Highland Apartment building when it was demolished in 2023.
He also said the momentum along that stretch of Euclid drew him in. "Highland Park has a lot of great momentum, and we're hoping to cap that end of Euclid with a great project at 615 Euclid," he said. He pointed to the Klein Building redevelopment and neighborhood businesses including Slow Down Coffee Co. and Chuck's, saying "that all adds energy on this end of Euclid and reinforces all the good stuff that's happening in Highland Park."
Any contractor who has opened up walls in a building that age knows it can hold surprises, and going from a start near year's end to tenants by October 2027 doesn't leave a lot of room for them.
A second project near Riverview Park
The same council meeting brought good news for another residential job across town.
The council approved preliminary terms of an urban renewal development agreement with Cold Storage Rehab LLC to build two 12-unit residential buildings at 2814 Seventh St. The project sits on a three-acre infill site near Riverview Park.
Neighborhood Development Corp. is the group behind that development, which would have 24 units in two buildings, a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments. City documents estimate the total cost at $7.2 million.
The city would provide $330,000 in tax increment financing benefits over 16 years. The developer also plans to apply for a 10-year declining residential tax abatement, according to city documents.
Two kinds of work, one city
Put the two together and you get a picture of the residential work the city is backing with incentives this week: one rehab of a century-old storefront building and one pair of new buildings on an infill site. Between them, that's 38 apartments and roughly $13 million in estimated project costs, with incentive deals spread over 16 to 18 years.
Both agreements are preliminary terms, so there are more steps before shovels go in the ground. But a council approval, especially one that sails through on consent, is usually a good sign the city wants these projects to happen.
Why it matters for Contractors
Projects this size are right in the wheelhouse of local contractors and trades. A 14-unit conversion over retail in a building that's more than a century old will need a lot of hands, from the interior trades to the folks who know how to work around old construction. The Seventh Street job is two new multifamily buildings on a three-acre infill site. If you work in Des Moines, now is a good time to get to know the developers behind these projects, Brian Clark's Sonar Development Partners and Neighborhood Development Corp., before the bid packages go out. And with the city using tax increment financing to back smaller residential projects, there may be more like these coming down the pipeline.