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Show The Salt Lake Tribune A3 Sunday, July 15, 1984 Public, Private Funding Carves New Des Moines Downtown By Edward C. Nieholls Associated Press Writer DES MOINES, Iowa Towering cranes swing wrecking balls, while others lift steel beams. Temporary fences line downtown streets and workers hammer, drill and saw in a seemingly ceaseless cacophony that is a symphony to the ears of civic leaders. In the first three months that I was here, I saw two entire city blocks disappear, said Andrew Mooney. Newly arrived in January from his former job as head of the public housing authority in Chicago, Mooney soon learned that such disappearances have been routine over the last 15 years. It's all part of what Mooney, now president of the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, describes as a new city, a very vibrant, lively city that suddenly speaks for itself." That new city is light years from the Des Moines of a decade ago. A Costly Labor The rebirth of the downtown core has been a costly labor. Some $450 million was spent on new construction in the past decade, says Lester Baitzer of Hubbell Realty Co., one of the citys largest developers. Another $200 million worth of construction is under way. The bulk of the money has been private, but public funds have helped build elevated pedestrian walkways, added 6,000 parking spaces and built or renovated various public buildings. The commitment of more than half a billion dollars has Ruan forged a new skyline, punctuated by the FiMarriott Hotel and the Center, the nancial Center. A luxury condominium project, The Plaza, is being added now. The same developer, Ted Glasrud of Minneapolis, has unveiled plans for another condominium project that will cost $15 million and will add 20 to 22 stones to the eight-stor- y parking garage now being built by the city. The Blackwater Days But buildings alone do not a city make. John Houser, president and chief executive officer of The Bankers Life, has a view of the downtown from his sixth-floo- r office. He remembers what Mooney called the "backwater days. "Like a lot of cities, you were finding some decent old buildings and some pretty cruddy buildings. Everything closed down at 5 oclock. It was pretty much an office center. Retailing had pretty much gone to the shopping centers. If it kept going, you would still have the banks downtown, but little else. As steady deterioration sapped the vitality of the downtown, J.C. Penney sounded the death knell in the late 1960s with the announcement that, like Sears Roebuck, it would close its downtown store. At the time, the skyline of Iowas largest city consisted of the Equitable building, tallest in the state. More a Call to Arms John Fitzgibbon, then president and chairman of Iowa-De- s Moines National Bank, now Norwest Bank, remembers the Penneys announcement. He remembers it more as a call to arms than as a death knell. Penneys had to be saved. The important thing was finding businessmen in downtown Des Moines who would contribute to a fund of $1.5 million to put up a new building, lease it to Penneys and keep the retailer downtown, says Fitzgibbon, now a private consultant. That was the first time wed seen the local people ready to contribute dollars as well as time, says Fitzgib- The enclosed bridge linking the new Penneys store, opened in 1971, to the parking garage preceded by a decade the skywalk system that today provides indoor paslevel along 21 blocks of downsage at the second-stor- y town Des Moines. "One of the main purposes was to provide an additional impetus for development downtown," says Jim Thompson of the city Traffic Department. A secondary purpose of the skywalk, he says, was to reduce pedestrian traffic at street intersections. Houser, president of the Des Moines Development Corp., says the deal that kept Penneys downtown "kept things from becoming any worse but "it didnt really turn things around. Failure of Bond Issue Houser dates the downtown rebirth to the 1973 failure of a $22 million bond issue for a Civic Center and plaza project. That, to me, was the turning point, says Houser. Up until that time, I think, the feeling was that somehow city money was going to turn the downtown around. But when that failed, I think there began to be an awakening that the city wasnt going to turn around the downtown area. From then on, you began to have some private money beginning to be put into the downtown area. Five years after voters rejected the bond issue, Houser says, business leaders launched a fund drive to build the Civic Center. In less than 90 days, they raised $10.5 mil- mm r'i r un2,t1.ni ; til mJ- 8 1 , " mm , .0-J- 1 lion. The trickle a that saved the downtown J.C. Penney store had become a flood, spilling forth hundreds of millions of dollars in private money, around $10 million in federal room tax receipts, $7.5 grants, $2 million in hotel-motmillion in parking system revenue bonds and more than $16 million in tax increment financing. &m Plans to Spend More Finance Director Charles OConnor says that since City 1977, the city has shelled out $23.5 million for public projects and already plans to spend another $44.3 million. The mingled public and private spending has generated an unabated building boom. The results to date: The Financial Center opened in 1974, at about $14.5 million. The Ruan Center was completed in 1975, at about $11.2 million. The Marriott Hotel opened in 1981, at about $17.9 million. The older Hotel Savery, Hotel Fort Des Moines and Kirkwood Hotels underwent extensive renovation; more downtown parking ramps were built; and The Bankers Meredith Corp., Life, Valley Bank, magazine-publishin- g Younkers department store, the Polk County Office Building, City Hall and the Public Library were restored, remodeled or renovated. Residents moved back downtown, first into the Bapd tist Elsie Mason Manor for senior citiCivic Center Court. zens, and later into the Glasruds luxury condominium project was 90 percent sold even before ground was broken, with price tags of up to $200,000 per unit. A 3,745-seoutCivic Center Theater and 2,000-sedoor ampitheater across the street at Nollen Plaza were built, with a combination of public funds and private mon416-roo- m :. .b'r& i ' - V2 3 Church-sponsore- Mr. 200-un- it A, at ey. bon. Other new buildings include Capital Square with square feet of office and retail space, the Carriers Building with 265,000 square feet and Locust Mall with 711 parking spaces and 40,000 square feet of retail space, including a variety of restaurants. The effort, coupled with a city commitment to build a parking garage and a bridge connecting the garage to the new store, brought a reversal in Penneys decision and more. Carve New Downtown The trickle of public and private development funds had begun to carve a new downtown. Construction Under Way is under way on, among other construction Currently, things, a $13.8 million convention center, a $48 million, mall and Hub Tower office buildg ing; an $11 million, Capital Center office project; an $8.5 million renovation of an old warehouse into restaurants and offices; a $1 million project to reno- - 388,000 three-buildin- B Associated Kaleidoscope, a $48 million downtown shopping mall and office building, is part : i vate the Northwestern Hotel; and Glasruds Plaza condominium housing development. Still to come are a $40 million project to provide a new corporate headquarters for The Bankers Life, a $25 million State Historical Building, a new transit mall, renovation of other buildings, more parking ramps and, perhaps someday, a $75 million World Trade Center that may soar Thirteen downtown office buildings have been completed since 1970, adding nearly 2.6 million square feet of office space and boosting to 5o the number of downtown office buildings. Consider Living Downtown Baitzer of Hubbell Realty, which is developing the Hub Tower and Kaliedoscope mall, says anytime there is a vacancy rate below 10 percent youd feel pretty good about building another one. Houser says a survey of downtown workers taken a decade ago showed that 16 percent of them would be willing to consider living downtown. A similar survey, taken in 1982, showed 42 percent would consider doing so. After 5 p.m., when the curtain once fell on the downtown, cocktail hours abound and later there are evening and others on the sidewalks, in the diners, concert-goer- s skywalks or at three private clubs. The Convention and Visitors Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce has been at work, too. The bureau was involved with 356 conventions that attracted 153,000 delegates to Des Moines in 1975, says Ellen Brown. Last year, she says, the numbers swelled to 586 conventions with 264,800 delegates. Conventions Scheduled Conventions already are scheduled beyond the year Press Photo of Des Moines downtown redevelopment program costing half a billion dollars. fu2000, says Brown. Among the larger ones in the near and 15,000 of between 10,000 1985 ture is the gathering members of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, scheduled to open Aug. 1, one month after completion of the Convention Center. The National Farmers Organization, which has never before convened in this corn belt city, has scheduled its 1985, 1988 and 1991 conventions in Des Moines. Each will draw between 3,000 and 4,000 people, says Brown. The nations newspaper editors will get a look at the city, too, when the Associated Press Managing Editors will draw around 750 people to Des Moines in October, 1989. The downtown success story will play to a critical audience of around 2,800 people in 1989 when the Internatonal City Management Association convenes. Blue Chip Troika Why has downtown Des Moines prospered while renovation efforts in many other cities failed? finance, insurance Houser cites a blue chip troika companies, and state government. An influx of business helped. It means that Des Moines hasnt been rocked by closings of durable industries, he says. And then there is the Des Moines Development Corp., comprised of 60 chief executive officers of major Des Moines companies. Members pay whatever assessment we make, Houser says. They range from $10,000 to $50,000 per member and brought in $900,000 this year. The corporation, Houser says, gets people together who are interested in seeing things happen and does whatever it feels will make things happen. In Des Moines, much certainly has happened. Suspect in 5 -- State Crime Spree Fugitive Is Charged With Murdering Ohio Woman, Beating Her Husband - Fugitive NORWOOD, Ohio (AP) Alton Coleman, suspected in a five-sta- te crime spree, was charged Saturday in the bludgeoning death of a woman and the beating of her husband. Police charged Coleman based on the tentative identification of eyewitnesses and on physical evidence in the home of Harry and Marlene Walters, said Capt. Thomas Williams, commander of the Norwood Criminal Investigation Section. Coleman was charged with aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, robbery, burglary, grand theft auto, said Williams. Williams declined to say what police found in the Walters home or what evidence links Coleman to the crime. He also said police did not know whether Coleman, 28, and companion Debra Denise Brown, 21, were still in the area or how long the two had been in Cincinnati before the beatings. FBI Conducting Investigation Aiftockjttd Three skywalks span Locust Street in n blocks downtowjj Des Moines. Twenty-o- i I Pren Photo of the carpeted bridges ensure pedestrian comfort and ease congestion on the street. "Based on evidence developed by the Norwood Police Department, the characteristics and actions of the attackers as well as the methods of operation in the slaying ... the FBI is conducting a widespread local find Coleman and his inves-tigation- to companion, FBI agent Terence D. Dinan said earlier Saturday. Coleman, 28, a dropout who on Wednesday was made a sped cial addition to the FBIs Ten List, has been charged with the slaying of a Wisconsin girl found dead in Illinois. He also has been charged in the abduction cf an Indiana woman and was wanted for questioning in a slaying and rape in Indiana and several beatings in the Detroit area. Ms. Brown, 21, is believed to be his traveling companion. The victim of the Friday slaying was identified as Marlene Walters, 44. Her severely beaten husband, Harry Walters, 45, was in critical condition at University Hospital. high-scho- ol Most-Wante- It Was Brutal It was brutal, said Williams, add- ing that both the man and woman suffered multiple wounds. He would not say what kind of weapon might have been used in the assault. Witnesses told police a couple rode bicycles to the Walters home Friday morning, said Williams. The man and woman also were seen talking to Mrs. Walters in the driveway, where the familys camper was sitting with a For Sale sign on it, said Williams. Two bicycles later were found near the home and the family car was missing from the driveway, said liams. Wil- An FBI spokesman in Cincinnati said the bureau was working with Norwood police on the case, but ; would not elaborate. Coleman and Ms. Brown were last seen July 7 in the Toledo area. Police said the two, who are black, are suspected of preying on black victims. However, Mrs. Walters was 1 white, as is her husband. Meanwhile, police checked fingerprint and dental records in an effdrt to identify a decomposed body found in Detroit they believe may be thatof a Gary, Ind., woman allegedly kidnapped June 19 by Coleman and Ms. I Brown. The body, found Wednesday in fen abandoned house, was tentativqly identified as that of Donna Williams, 25, said Wayne County Medical Examiner Werner Spitz. The victim hsd been strangled with a pair of pantyhose and had been dead about three weeks, said Spitz. , FBI agents and Gary police flew ;to Detroit on Thursday with Ms. Williams mother, Zenota, who identified clothing and jewelry found on tjie body as that of her daughter, said Special Agent John McGinley of the FBIs Indianapolis office. |