East Village News

[dmluvr]

oh I would definitally agree with that ryan----would love to have a creative class work district--just would be better to have them on 2nd floor.

[DMRyan]

At least they're not lame ass mortgage or government workers.

[DMRyan]

I couldn't find it online (it's in the print edition), but a group of investors has bought the following buildings in East Village, with plans to upgrade the facades and convert the upper units to apartments. Apparently, the first floor retail/restaurants will be staying.

[Young DSM Social Club]

The blurb I saw mentioned condos on the 2nd floors. The people buying this are in their mid-20s.

Somebody please explain to me how somebody in their mid 20s can get the $$$ to buy and renovate downtown buildings? If you have an answer, I'd like to jump on it!

[DMRyan]

Especially when the total cost of the buildings was $720,000!

[Brady]

all i have to say is, good for them!

[dmluvr]

At least they're not lame ass mortgage or government workers.

.....yeah--keep these kind of freaks out of there


I'm with ya brady--good for these young visionaries. And god knows-these buildings need some exterior help!

[conquistador2]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some turnover on the first floor of those buildings. I talked to one of the ladies at the Bargain Basket recently, and she said they they had been trying to get a long-term lease with the former owner for a while, but he refused to sign one. That's usually a bad sign.

By the way, this is already happening elsewhere in the East Village, too. The Atlantean is being forced out of their space because their new landlord immediately doubled their rent.

[dmluvr]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some turnover on the first floor of those buildings. I talked to one of the ladies at the Bargain Basket recently, and she said they they had been trying to get a long-term lease with the former owner for a while, but he refused to sign one. That's usually a bad sign.

By the way, this is already happening elsewhere in the East Village, too. The Atlantean is being forced out of their space because their new landlord immediately doubled their rent.

Whaaaaat??? I realize that things are definitally and starting to explode in the village---but damn, doubling the rent already?? Hmmmmmm...so---are we loosing tenants now in the village???

On a good note--it appears the EV Aptmnts have now broken ground.
could be possible?? Ingersol--start get ready for pics baby!

[dmluvr]

another good side note---a prety groovy t-shirt shop is opening up in the vilage as well.

[NOG's Wife]

I hope we don't lose the Olympic Flame. They have great gyros!!!

[dmluvr]

Good point nog's wife.That place has great gyros. I'm glad to see nog's wife is on here---pick'n up that slack for the nogster!!

[dogbo]

Ditto on the Olympic Flame!

While the gyros a great, the sides they serve with the gyro dinner is what really sets this place apart from the other numerous places that sell gyros.

If they'd spruce the place up just a bit, I think they'd be surprised how much they could increase business. Hopefully that will happen with the new building owners.

[DMRyan]

The belly dancers at Olympic Flame for the weekend dinners are a plus too.

Overall, I'd hate to see this restaurant leave. It's a long time DSM restaurant that really adds a lot to the neighborhood. Agreeing with the Notrious D.O.G.B.O., a little bit of money spent on facade renovations will go a long ways. With all of this investment happening on East Grand, it's about time for the city to begin the discussion on streetscape improvements.

[dmluvr]

The belly dancers at Olympic Flame for the weekend dinners are a plus too

hell yeah! You nailed it man.

No question e grand there is due now for some good village lov'n. If we can now get those buildings with some facade replacements and street scape work, it will only add more business.

[dogbo]

Short article from today's DSM Register answering your questions (kind of) on how a twentysomething is able to purchase these buildings. NOTE: I think the redevelopment will take some time. Looks like they'll start on the upper floor condo's (probably to generate some addl capital). The $250,000 mentioned in the article won't go a long way...

Investing in East Village
Invest five figures or more in a college education, and ultimately, the scenario goes, it will pay off.

Well, Tim Rypma just couldn't wait. For a class project two years ago at the University of Iowa, Rypma, 25, came up with a business plan to buy and renovate four buildings along Grand Avenue in East Village and kept in close contact with the owner.

"I called Jim Boyt practically every week and started talking to people about how you go about buying, rehabbing and marketing a building," Rypma said. He persuaded childhood friend Zack Eubank — a law school and MBA student at Drake University — to join in the project.

"It seems like we've been talking about it so long and now it's finally happening," Eubank, 24, said.

The pair bought the buildings, which range in age from 137 to 115 years, according to the Polk County assessor's office, at 512, 516, 518 and 524 Grand Ave. from Boyt for $719,000. They plan to spend an additional $250,000 renovating the buildings over the next five years, turning the existing upper-level apartments into condominiums.

"We love the East Village," said Rypma, who also lives in the area. "We love the character of it."

[NOG's Wife]

According to an article in last week's Business Record, the owners of Basil Prosperi are opening a yet-to-be-named restaurant at 520 E. Locust.

[Young DSM Social Club]

Is that next to Soho Lofts where they were already planning a jazz-like place that was supposed to have a rooftop patio?

[dogbo]

That's the place (at least according to past news stories). I'm a bit surprised how long this project has taken (for several months I didn't see any activity in the space). This will be another nice addition to EV.

On a side note, a lot of grading is taking place on the lot in prep for East Village Square. It doesn't appear that a hole is being dug out, so I'm guessing there will be no underground parking?

[DMRyan]

No underground parking. The parking will be tucked in behind the building, and if the condos are ever built on the Locust Street side, you won't even see the parking except from the west, especially if the smaller building around there are ever demolished.

[Young DSM Social Club]

You can file this under "rumors and innuendo", but I was told that the owner of Basils is simply the type to just take his time getting things done and just sort of proceeds whenever he feels like it. I'd like that lifestyle!

[dogbo]

Hey Young DSM - any news about your friend that is putting in the tapas place? I haven't seen a lot going on lately with that rehab project.

[Young DSM Social Club]

As far as I know, it's still on-going ... but I think it is going to happen. I think it will be awhile as the building is being rehabbed.

[dogbo]

According to this article in the Business Record, it's actually the eastern most four building on the 500 block of Grand that were recently purshased by the two young gentlemen:

Sunday, September 11, 2005

New East Village property owners wouldn’t give up
By Jim Pollock
jimpollock@bpcdm.com


Two nice young men came to Jim Boyt in 2003 and said they wanted to buy his buildings in the East Village. Well, they’re really not for sale, Boyt replied. But he didn’t want to discourage them, so he said they could come back.

As it turned out, discouragement was not an issue.

Tim Rypma and Zack Eubank, friends since middle school at St. Augustin’s, wanted to get involved in real estate together. They were still in college, their parents called the idea crazy and they had no cash – but on the other hand, they really, really wanted to give it a try.

Rypma, 25, is a bundle of energy who has competed in triathlons, once lived in Nepal and studied entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa. He also spent a summer as an intern at Knapp Properties Inc., whose president, Gerry Neugent, describes him as “a real go-getter, a real self-starter.”

Eubank, 24, studied finance at Marquette University in Milwaukee and now is working on a law degree and an M.B.A. at Drake University; Rypma refers to him as “the voice of reason” in their partnership.

Together they kept pursuing the idea of buying four old buildings in the 500 block of East Grand Avenue. Boyt, 78, bought the adjacent brick structures individually over a span from 1976 to about 1980; he began working on a revival of the downtown area east of the Des Moines River even earlier than that.

Rypma and Eubank – now operating as RE Properties – started with an offer of less than $650,000 and a 15-page purchase agreement. Boyt turned down the offer and didn’t bother to read such a hefty document.

“They kept coming back with different offers and finally worked it up to a figure I would accept, with provisions,” Boyt said. The final offer was $719,000 – wrapped up in two or three pages -- and the provisions mainly dealt with preserving the historic nature of the buildings, which date back as far as 1878. “I would feel badly if someone modernized them,” Boyt said.

Rypma and Eubank established a line of credit at a bank and came up with 20 percent of the cash purchase. The rest came from two silent partners, including Zack Gaskell, who attended Dowling Catholic High School with the duo and now lives in California.

The buildings house 13 tenants, including ground-floor businesses The Bargain Basket, the Olympic Flame restaurant, the Collector’s Shop, JB Construction, Dunbar-Jones PLC, Kham’s Jewelry and James O’Malley Boyt & Co. Seven second-floor apartments probably will be converted into residential condominium units at a gradual pace. The buyers expect to spend $250,000 on renovation in the next few years.

The project isn’t their full-time occupation; both work at West Glen Town Center in West Des Moines, Eubank as an intern and Rypma as an assistant leasing manager.

Selling his buildings was a “tremendously emotional thing for me,” Boyt said, “but I think it’s just as well to get some bright young chaps involved. They’re the kind, I think, who will make good things happen.”

“All of our friends are leaving (Central Iowa),” Rypma said. “We really want Des Moines to be a fun place to live, and attract people to the East Village. Des Moines has huge potential.”

[audiored]

i guess planners in DSM really don't get it, they are taking a suburban mindset.

D.M. targets buildings in East Village under eminent domain rules

'I'm going to fight tooth and nail,' says business owner

By JASON CLAYWORTH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
September 12, 2005

City leaders say they will force a Des Moines business owner to sell two buildings in the burgeoning East Village area of downtown because he has failed to make upgrades to the property.

The move would be the city's first use of a U.S. Supreme Court-granted power to wrest control of private property and put it in the hands of developers as a way to boost the tax base.

Property rights advocates warn the action could pave the way for countless forced property sales.

"I'm going to fight tooth and nail," said Brad Hamilton, who owns 422 and 424 E. Locust St. — a T-shirt printing business and ZZZ Records. His buildings "impair the redevelopment" of the East Village, according to city officials.

The East Village in the past five years has been transformed from a mix of buildings, some vacant, to a collection of shops, restaurants, loft apartments and condominiums.

The improvements received a helping hand when the city pumped more than $11 million into the area just west of the Capitol for aesthetic improvements and developer incentives.

Hamilton's buildings passed an inspection in 2000.

But city officials in 2002 set guidelines for renovations and targeted about a dozen East Village buildings. Owners who failed to make improvements were told they would face eminent domain, which is the government's power to force land sales when property is considered necessary for public improvements.

"The idea is to save these buildings," the assistant city manager, Rick Clark, said at the time.

Most of the property owners have completed major renovations. City leaders, however, say Hamilton's buildings and a third, at 434 E. Locust owned by Kirk Blunck, "remain in a blighted condition."

Hamilton submitted a plan in April for $12,000 in repairs. City officials said it lacked detail.

Clark sent letters on Aug. 26 that gave Hamilton and Blunck 10 days to act. The letters did not mention specifically what needed to be fixed, but Blunck responded with a plan for almost $105,000 of improvements within the next year.

Hamilton initially balked, but plans to meet again with city officials this week.

The buildings were boarded up when he purchased them about five years ago. Hamilton says he has already updated plumbing, electrical work and floors, in addition to outside work on the buildings' facades.

He believes influential people who want his property have pressured city leaders to harass him.

"Do you think I'm going to let them steal my property? No way," he said.

Clark last week acknowledged that work has been done on Hamilton's buildings but said the improvements pale in comparison to others in the East Village area.

"I think what we're really looking for is a plan," Clark said. "I haven't personally gone through the buildings so I'm not sure exactly what all the conditions are inside."

Attorney Bill Lillis represents several property owners in the East Village, including Iowa State Bank Chief Executive John Burgeson and Basil Prosperi Bakery's Steve Logsdon.

Lillis urged the council on June 6 "to move without delay" and force Hamilton to make additional improvements.

Lillis on Aug. 17 submitted a client's offer to buy Hamilton's properties. Hamilton turned down the $450,000 offer.

City Councilman Archie Brooks said he will propose action within the next month to move forward with eminent domain proceedings.

He said the $450,000 offer is far more than what the city will give Hamilton. The properties are valued at $206,000, up almost $70,000 since 2001, according to county records.

"We're not asking him to do anything else than what others have already done," Brooks said. "We're not going to let this die. We've got people standing in line to buy those buildings over there."

Eminent domain powers for generations were used almost exclusively to force land sales for roads, bridges and public buildings, said Adrian Moore of the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit policy group in Los Angeles.

Politicians abuse the power to achieve goals that have nothing to do with the public good, Moore said this summer, shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that cities can use eminent domain to help economic development.

"Taking people's property away for a public interest is one thing, but taking it away to give to another use that will pay more taxes is terrible," Moore said. "That means that nobody's property is safe."

At least six East Village property owners declined to comment specifically about Hamilton's situation, but none acknowledged complaints about the property. Brooks and Clark say they have received frequent complaints.

Property owner Bill Sexton said the beauty of the neighborhood is its eclectic mix of historic buildings and businesses, such as Hamilton's record store.

"I've been in that building and it's not in bad condition," he said.

Bryan Smith, manager of Blazing Saddle at 416 E. Sixth St. and a board member of the East Village neighborhood association, said his group has no problem with the condition of Hamilton's buildings. He said he is troubled by the city's threats.

"If they deem it viable to do something else with your building, they can consider anything an eyesore," Smith said. "Really, nobody is safe and especially the small people and business owners like us."

[dmluvr]

I don't get it either. No question that changes needs to be made to the east village buildings. But where is the help for these small businesses or cooperation with the these buildings here that they are talking about. These are not in the worst of shape with the buildings in the village. Why not the emphasis with the buildings on grand? Yes--those got new owners now--which is great--but it's going to take a few years they say to get the work done.

Could this be that now that SoHO is done that there is a desire to knock the rest of these down?? I don't know how I feel about this. It appears that we may be loosing some very good eclectic shops if this pans out.

Once again--it appears that the city isn't being pro small business. do they not understand that it's small business and these street level shops that add color and life to a city??

[Young DSM Social Club]

Somebody more "in the know" probably would actually know if this is true or not, but I've been told that some specific person or entity actually wants to buy these buildings and the city is helping them ...

Sounds incredibly sketchy ... if true it would be a great investigation for a savvy journalist ... !

One would think if this was the case, the current owner would be sharing this info, however.

[mistertwister]

It says in the article that there is a specific buyer, with specific plans for these buildings. And it looks to me like Mr. Hamilton will stand to make a considerable profit by selling them.

I would hate to see his eclectic business leave the East Village. I don't want that part of the city to be burgeoning with Gaps, and Starbucks. But I do think he needs to secure some assistance both financial and design wise, to bring his buildings up to a more desirable standard. $12K in improvements isn't going to help this nieghborhood, especially when you consider that the taxpayers via the city leaders, have invested millions of dollars to improve the aesthetic climate for business. Mr Hamilton is now reaping the benefit of that investment and he either needs to make an effort, or move aside and let someone else.

It's the price of progress fellas.

[dogbo]

I'm with MisterTwister on this one.

The guy really lost my respect with his quote, "Do you think I'm going to let someone steal my property? No way!"

As MT states, the guy stands to make a considerable profit with the appreciation of his buildings. That appreciation would not have happened without all the investment that both the city and other private businesses have done all around him. If he truly believes he's in the right, than he shouldn't have to resort to throwing around emotional rhetoric like the quote above. No one is threatening to steal anything. Of course, the Register pulls that very quote out of the story and highlights it in the margin next to the article. Typical media garbage.

[dmluvr]

There goes those damn liberals again and their anti america agenda. Good god!

Well look--the guy is emotional and no question that he would stand some fat gains if he sells. but I respect the fact that he loves in neighborhood and wants to make it more diverse and urban friendly.

Now, mister makes a point regarding making improvements. I dont' disagree with that. 12K does pale in comparison to the millions of tax paying investments. However, he is going to have to get assistance for it and what type of help from the city or otherwise--that will be the question.