Iconic Des Moines Building to get a Facelift, or Razed!

Top of the fold on Tuesday in the Des Moines Register was a Megan Hawkins story detailing the Des Moines school district's desire to perhaps divest itself of the 91 year old Central Campus Building located on the western edge of downtown Des Moines at 1800 Grand Ave. The building started life as a Ford Motor assembly plant and was later used by Solar Aircraft until its purchase by the school district in 1950.

As you can imagine the building might need to be remodeled. The school district estimates $60 million for their purposes and the 10 year sales tax won't cover that. So they're pitching a sale as in everyone's best interests.

The article stated that appraisers for Iowa Appraisal and Research Corp have put the value of the land at $1.6 milion and land and building at $2.9 million. In preparing their value they considered several scenarios, among them converting the buildings to condos or lofts, but found that " there is now a surplus of units in the marketplace ," that could keep demand soft "for the next three to five years, if not longer," according to the Register article. That's really bad news for downtown condo dwellers and resellers from some folks who should know a thing or two about value. Iowa Appraisal added that they thought the cost of demolition would exceed their estimate of the property's value because of asbestos and other possible complications.

With several large corporate projects downtown in the last 10 years of over $100 million, and Wellmark's recent decision to build a $175 million facility four blocks away on the same street, one would think the school district could get more than the $2.9 million suggested by Iowa Appraisal and Research. But perhaps the gloom and doom from the appraisers and the school district is just a lot of groundwork for an already planned purpose.

So if you're interested in a 456,000 square foot building with great views of downtown Des Moines, I'd be happy to sit down and talk with you.