Kaleidoscope Mall For Sale?

[wmjindsm]

Talk that the Hub Tower will be for sale and Kaleidoscope could be for sale for an additional $2.5 million. There were some interesting bites of what could go into the now almost empty ground floor of the mall, like a bowling alley.

from the Des Moines Register...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... .5-million

[Mototail]

I wouldn't mind seeing the bowling alley with a mix of a movie theater. Give me a reason to spend downtown besides the restaurants and bars as much as I love both of them. Make it so this downtown resident can walk these types of venues instead of driving to different parts of DM.

[dogbo]

The ground level is so empty right now...it is a big void in the core of downtown. It would be great to get this filled up. I wonder how attractive these spaces can be prior to the Walnut Transit Mall being ripped out?

[siouxperland]

Ashton Kutcher is an Iowa boy and a big part of the Dolce Group (restaurants & entertainment). Maybe he'd drop one of his company's "Ten Pin Alley" in DSM?



Ten Pin Alley Site
http://www.dolcegroup.com/new-files/website-files/Ten_Pin_Alley/ten_pin_alley.html

[Mastermind]

Fantastic news, EMC has agreed to purchase the Hub Tower for future and current needs.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... -Hub-Tower

[SFO2DSM]

Fantastic news indeed! So this means Hubbell is likely retaining the mall as previous stories indicated it was only for sale in case the Hub Tower buyer wanted that property as well. I can't imagine EMC wants the mall.

Fantastic news, EMC has agreed to purchase the Hub Tower for future and current needs.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... -Hub-Tower

[Young DSM Social Club]

Very good news! Hopefully, they will start expanding and we will get more bodies into this area of downtown.

[urbanlawyer]

This is great news. EMC is a terrific property owner. They will likely give the Hub Tower a needed face lift and give current and future tenants comfort in knowing it is in strong hands.

[hawk61401]

Excellent news! Which begs the question ..... Will The Principal buy the Ruan Center?

[DMRyan]

It would be nice if Mid-American Energy would be interested in consolidating their office space they have spread throughout leased space in the metro. The Ruan Center would be just the candidate to land a marquee tenant like this.

This Hub Tower deal is exactly the kind of thing needed to bring stability back to the office market one building at a time.

[dogbo]

Excellent news! Which begs the question ..... Will The Principal buy the Ruan Center?

I'd guess no considering they are emptying out one of the buildings they currently own (5-story old Traveler's Insurance Building) and putting it on the market.

The more obvious property would be the YWCA (for future development), but I don't see it happening because again, they have excess space already.

[Ingersoll1978]

Great news for Downtown today.

[GoVerticalDSM]

Excellent news! Which begs the question ..... Will The Principal buy the Ruan Center?

Is this just wishful thinking or is the Ruan Center for sale or possible sale? Also, I would think Principal has plenty of space in their own complex after 300 some layoffs.

[hawk61401]

A little trip to the outside of the Hub Tower ... I had a buddy who was a window washer for the high rises in downtown Des Moines and the Hub Tower was one of them. Just to look up and see him waaaay up there made my hands sweat. It was routine to him as washing his car.




photo attributed to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddmundt/1516134741/

[dogbo]

Excellent news! Which begs the question ..... Will The Principal buy the Ruan Center?

Is this just wishful thinking or is the Ruan Center for sale or possible sale? Also, I would think Principal has plenty of space in their own complex after 300 some layoffs.

ugh. Now, add news that will come out today that Principal is exiting the Health Insurance business. The last thing they're going to need is more office space anytime in the near term.

[speeder]

Excellent news! Which begs the question ..... Will The Principal buy the Ruan Center?

Is this just wishful thinking or is the Ruan Center for sale or possible sale? Also, I would think Principal has plenty of space in their own complex after 300 some layoffs.

ugh. Now, add news that will come out today that Principal is exiting the Health Insurance business. The last thing they're going to need is more office space anytime in the near term.

Huh, why are they exiting the healthcare insurance business, I thought it just got fixed? Guess those lost jobs won't get counted as saved/created by the recent "must-do for the economy" healthcare overhaul.

[GoVerticalDSM]

Principal probably made a very smart move. The Obamacare bill is going to make it very hard for private insurers to stay in business as it paves the way for extremely inefficient and poorly run government run healthcare. Best that they sell it and get out before they go belly up. It is also possible that in 5 years Wellmark's new building could have a for sale sign in front of it too. This is not political commentary, just the facts. I can back up the extremely inefficient statement, I mean people in Sweden wait so long that they opt to see veterinarians, Britain's is a mess.

But the point is, downtown Des Moines' situation isn't going to get better anytime soon and Washington bears a lot of the blame. Also, get to know your local vet, you may need him/her.

[urbanlawyer]

This type of nonsense has no place on this forum, especially a discussion of the Kaleidoscope Mall and Hub Tower. If the moderators wish it to continue, perhaps create a Health Care Reform topic on General Discussion. I visit this site for discussion of urban planning and development in the Des Moines area -- Not partisan attacks.

[dsmurbanite]

I visit this site for discussion of urban planning and development in the Des Moines area -- Not partisan attacks.

Amen.

[hawk61401]

Principal probably made a very smart move. The Obamacare bill is going to make it very hard for private insurers to stay in business as it paves the way for extremely inefficient and poorly run government run healthcare. Best that they sell it and get out before they go belly up. It is also possible that in 5 years Wellmark's new building could have a for sale sign in front of it too. This is not political commentary, just the facts. I can back up the extremely inefficient statement, I mean people in Sweden wait so long that they opt to see veterinarians, Britain's is a mess.

But the point is, downtown Des Moines' situation isn't going to get better anytime soon and Washington bears a lot of the blame. Also, get to know your local vet, you may need him/her.

Healthcare wasn't extremely inefficient and poorly run before Obamacare? Almost 20% of our economy is spent on healthcare but we still have higher rates of infant mortality, diabetes and other illnessess than other western countries. The 3rd world country where Mother Teresa cared for those in the slums of Calcutta now have more confidence in their health care system than we have in ours.

The insurance buildings in Des Moines were built with the help of pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing conditions were the major factor for their bottom line. Deny coverage to a 12 year old kid who has hay fever, or, raise the premium on a 45 year old male who simply has a change in blood pressure medication.

I can't feel too sorry for an institution in downtown Des Moines that stacks everything in their favor like Prairie Meadows Casino does with it's gamblers.

[dogbo]

While not ideal, threads stray from time-to-time. I only mentioned the Principal deal here because it followed a comment about downtown property vacancies. IMO, this development means Principal (unlike EMC) will most likely not help the high vacancy situation by occupying any vacant downtown office spaces anytime in the foreseeable future.

I would assume a number of individuals who are interested in the health of downtown are interested in the how's and why's. e.g....how did we end up with so much space? Why doesn't a big employer like PFG help fill some of it? Isn't that a part of the nature of a discussion board? It doesn't mean we all have to agree on each others analysis, but I'd hope people would be open to others POV assuming they are being delivered in a respectful way.

IMO, the last thing I want out here are threads exclusively dedicated to debating the healthcare issue (or similar). That is not why I come out here either, so it seems odd to me that the admins would want to go down that route. It is one thing if a politically charged issue comes up as it related to the main topic, it is a total another if we start threads with the political issue being the focal point.

So to that point….

I don't think anyone can say 100% that health care reform bill is the direct culprit of this. But at the same time, I doubt anyone here has the information to say it wasn't either.

The fact remains that Principal's press release indicated that it had a 1% profit margin on their healthcare business Yes, only 1%. A bit hard for me to swallow the rhetoric about evil insurance companies making huge profits on the medical insurance they offer. Second, they indicated that to remain competitive in the marketplace it would have to make very large investments to meet government regulatory and market developments. What do you think that means?

This issue is related to Des Moines and especially downtown. A pretty good number of employees from a major downtown employer are going to be out of a job. This could affect office occupancy rates, housing, restaurants etc. all to some level (or if not the current situation, maybe inhibit future for a time period?) If this isn't related to downtown development, I don't know what is.

[speeder]

I don't know how some of you can talk about a major downtown investor and employer, dropping a line of service they have had for years that will eliminate jobs and affect Downtown Des Moines development and economic growth(or shrinkage), and then turn a blind eye to and/or try to control the conversation and stop political discussion of recent policies that are directly related to the service line by whining to the admin. Have a nice time in your private bubbles of thought where somehow you apparently rationalize that physical development of cities just occurs in a void from the other systems that regulate the economy.

[GoVerticalDSM]

Let me make this simple.

The government is considering the takeover of 401Ks. I think some of you are smart enough to find the detail on it yourself.

If the government takes over 401Ks, it will mean companies like Principal will be out of the 401K business, which means people will be laid off, which means restaurants will be emptier, which means office space will go empty, which means development will slow or cease. So to the geniuses out there that call this nonsense, politics has everything to do with development and that is why we talk about it on this board.

Or, would you rather we say things like Principal is mysteriously handing its 401K business off to some mysterious organization and employees will be mysteriously laid off, offices and businesses that support those employees will mysteriously go empty?

[QuadCityImages]

The government is not considering taking over 401ks. If you looked anywhere but Fox News, you would see that.

[GoVerticalDSM]

Funny, when I google "401k takeover," I get 127,000 results. All of them are Fox News? Simply amazing.

[speeder]

Yes they are considering taking over 401K's. There were numerous reports on it even prior to the current administration, just a couple years ago. Even if only Fox News is reporting it lately, you'd have to be completely blinded to convince yourself against all precedent, that our government, which has increased exponentially since the turn of the 20th century, wouldn't have considered trying to seize and profit from (and then ruin) anything that is working in the private sector, including 401k's. The progressives have been working on equalizing income and wealth in this country since they passed an income tax in 1913, they will not stop there.

... and Principle has many people involved with 401K investment planning downtown and NE of AIB, what happens to the amount of vacant office space and working population downtown when that to is "regulated by the collective interest" and is no longer profitable? Hey, show of hand for all of you under 50... are you counting on Social Security to exist when you're ready to retire? Yeah Government promises!

[speeder]

Funny, when I google "401k takeover," I get 127,000 results. All of them are Fox News? Simply amazing.

[QuadCityImages]

Actually, if you Google search for "401k takeover" in quotes, (which means those 2 words in that exact order) as you wrote it, you get 390 results. Even 127,000 results without the quotes is a small result from Google. Something real, like student loan takeover, gets over half a million hits. The top 20 results of 401k takeover are respected news sources like... a typepad blog, a Ron Paul website, "rightcondition.com," sharprightturn.wordpress.com... and the well-established americansagainstobama.com, and of course Fox News. In other words, the results are BS, as is the suggestion that this is actually being considered.

I'm no Democrat, but I'm a believer in the truth, and a 401k takeover is not it. If there is one thing that politicians like, its being reelected, and taking people's 401ks, just like "death paneling" their grandma, is a "NAFTA Superhighway" straight to a lost election. And that's the last thing a politician of either party wants.

[hawk61401]

I'm no Democrat, but I'm a believer in the truth, and a 401k takeover is not it. If there is one thing that politicians like, its being reelected, and taking people's 401ks, just like "death paneling" their grandma, is a "NAFTA Superhighway" straight to a lost election. And that's the last thing a politician of either party wants.

QuadCityImages, you have re-affirmed my trust and faith in this country that intelligent people with a brain still exist and still believe in the truth. I get a little worried when two million nightly visitors listen to the guy and his chalkboard. American "progressives" such as President Woodrow Wilson, Beck has explained, were responsible for inspiring the Nazi eugenic idea which evolved into the Holocaust and the deaths of 6 million Jew. Of course, he continues to connect the dots without benefit of any actual facts to sterilants in drinking water and death panels.

[siouxperland]

Well, I think our current administration believes that with just another $697 trillion, they can buy another 1000 people a job.