Sherman Hill News

[Better Life dude]

Sometimes I don't know which thread a picture belongs. So I'll choose openings/closings for this project. This is an empty 2 story storefront on the corner of Center & 19th. Street in Sherman Hill. This street used to be where all the traffic went before the new MLK Parkway opened up.

On my walk the other day I noticed the tentative plans posted on the front door. The building is to be rehabbed and the ground floor will be a womens wellness and mid-wife clinic. Upstairs would be a 2 bedroom apartment I believe. This building will look great once it's done. It has "great bones."

[dogbo]

Yes, I happened to notice this too when I walked by during the house tour last weekend. It will be nice to see the storefront windows back in place.

[DMRyan]

Not sure if it's still in the works, but at one point, the developer of the building was attempting LEED Certification for renovation as well.

It's been empty so long that it's lost all commercial rights. Remember when MLK Parkway/Harding Road zig zagged around this building when it was a grocery store?

[Philby]

its good to finally know what is going on in this building, ive noticed activity on and off for about 6 months but never knew what was going on. hopefully this sparks development all along that street (smokey row building, planned parenthood, church)

[dogbo]

The ground (or snow) has been marked at 1614 Woodland to show where the row house will sit. Very exciting! Also, the two white apartment buildings across the street on Woodland have changed hands and 1611 Woodland will be sold as a single family property. The price is $125k and the house contains approx 2500 square feet. There's some restoration needed but some of the original features remain intact such as the staircase and fireplace. Woodland could really be taking off!

A lot of good news here. I predict that Woodland Ave is going to have some very good years in the near future. There are still some opportunities for restoring both apartments and single family homes on this street for those with the money and vision.

Those two "apartments" were long ago raped of their former grand exteriors they once held when they were originally built as single family houses. I've many times looked at those two places sitting up so stately above street level and wondered what was hiding behind the ugly wide white steel siding. It sounds like we will know soon!

[ShermanHillGuy]

1617 is pretty bare bones as far as the original millwork, etc. 1611 has some surprising finds and is most conducive for an easy conversion back to single family. Wish someone who was looking for such a project would buy 1611 and get it rolling

[dogbo]

I'm confused. I thought you said both properties were just sold?

[ShermanHillGuy]

They were sold as a parcel of properties. New owner is selling some, keeping some. So 1611 is available.

[Young DSM Social Club]

Who is selling the properties? Other properties? Costs? I would be curious on pricing at least and who is selling ... Thanks!

[ShermanHillGuy]

Woodland Investments owns 1611 Woodland. You can contact 240-8714 if interested. There are other properties for sale, all have signs in the yards. I hesitate to list them all as I don't know what you're in the market for...or if just curious. I know I've had people tell me they'd love to live in Sherman Hill but they found it too expensive. I know of at least two properties for sale that are very reasonable and need some cosmetic work. These are 1611 Woodland and 664 18th at $169,900. Or there are always the Olive St Condos which are very cute and very affordable. Hope this helps!

[ShermanHillGuy]

Oh, forgot to mention - 1611 Woodland listed at $125,000.

[Philby]

Here's some more info for 1611 Woodland.

http://desmoines.craigslist.org/rfs/549969494.html

[Aulus]

A couple of things:

After work, I looped through downtown to drop off some paper work. On my way home I noticed there is some work going on at the row house on High. they've peeled away a section of the wall cladding on the west side, exposing the lowest courses of the brick work around the foundations.

I also saw an excavator sitting at 1614 Woodland and it looked like they have started digging into the foundations of what was there before in order to build the new foundations for the row house.

As to 1611 Woodland, the oversize dumpster behind it is now stuffed full of old carpet, so some one has been doing some work there.

[Aulus]

Does anyone know what is going on at or plans for the old office building at 1707 High?

I see work being done there, off and on, but no signs or news in the paper.

[Better Life dude]

They've been renovating it for several months. I don't know who the new owners are, but inside it's been a total gut job and on the exterior, they've relocated the front entrance to the parking lot side. I guess it shows confidence of the owners in the ability to attract businesses needing office space on the edge of downtown.

Same story for the recently rennovated office building a block away at 16th & High Street. That building was a gut job also and it has as its first tennants a dental practice.

[wmjindsm]

My landlord told me who was going in there, but I can't exactly remember who it was, but it was something like an accounting firm.

[DMRyan]

Nice to see that ugly, long vacant office buildings built during the urban renewal days can become newly rehabbed places for smaller businesses to move their office to. BCC Advisers is the company moving to 1707 High Street from The Financial Center downtown.

[Better Life dude]

FYI: The Sherman Hill neighborhood has a new, updated web site. The nieghborhood has also adopted a new descritive branding message: "Sherman Hill - A Distinctive Downtown Neighborhood". Like all good brands, it works on several levels.

The link to the site is:
http://www.historicshermanhill.com/index.html

[Ingersoll1978]

FYI: The Sherman Hill neighborhood has a new, updated web site. The nieghborhood has also adopted a new descritive branding message: "Sherman Hill - A Distinctive Downtown Neighborhood". Like all good brands, it works on several levels.

The link to the site is:
http://www.historicshermanhill.com/index.html

Huge improvement!

[DMRyan]

That website looks great. I wonder why the photo tour of the neighborhood doesn't include some of the great brick apartment blocks as well though.

That defintely set the bar for other DSM neighborhood websites to look up to for inspiration.

[ShermanHillGuy]

The photos posted were just the first few - there will be more to come. Its a big job to photograph everything in the neighborhood - even Sherman Hill!

[Mastermind]

GREEN Building practices seem to be picking up steam lately
http://www.businessrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=5&SubSectionID=9&ArticleID=6439

Abandoned market building to set green standard

BY SARAH BZDEGA

Chaden Halfhill doesn't think small. He shoots for the highest possible goal.

That's why his first project as a developer is not just renovating the former grocery market at 800 19th Street in Sherman Hill. He's going for the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating - the highest possible rating - and hopes the project will serve as a model for reviving other old buildings.

"The Green & Main pilot renovation is a demonstration project at its core," he said. "Unlike pursuing an established market and designing for an existing outcome, this initiative is trying to stretch market capacity, defining or exemplifying what needs to be considered integral to existing building renovation."

As developer and general contractor, Halfhill has assembled a 14-member design team. The group is backed by partners that include Barker Lemar and Associates, the Iowa Department of Economic Development and MidAmerican Energy Co.; the list keeps growing. The group is raising money to begin construction and is identified by the brand Green & Main, which Halfhill hopes will be expanded to similar initiatives in the future.

Still, his project faces huge hurdles, especially in raising enough money to reconstruct the building to a premium level. Much of its success relies on grants, such as from the Iowa Power Fund, which he recently applied for.



New sights

Halfhill is not new to such lofty projects. He was involved in the Sherman Hill Association's Hillside condominium project, where he renovated the third floor of a 1910 building into a penthouse valued at more than $400,000. The condo never sold, and it became his residence.

"The project excelled well beyond everyone's expectation to showcase a creative penthouse conversion when it received substantial national recognition throughout the remodeling industry," he said. "Unfortunately, it didn't sell."

Halfhill compares development to art. You take an idea and figure out how to make it real. But Green & Main is more than one project. He calls it an initiative, with the objective of studying how to renovate Iowa's current buildings to achieve a higher energy and environmental standard statewide.

The mixed-use building he bought in October 2006 for $94,775 is similar to many small downtown Iowa buildings, he said. He hopes that a LEED platinum renovation of this building - which has sat empty for several years, is partially demolished inside and has lost its zoning rights - will prove that others can do the same. And by putting several green practices into one site, he also hopes to generate a pattern book of most effective options, which others could implement in their own buildings.

"We are planning to apply a diverse array of best practices from building science to site management and holistically integrate these solutions so that we can evaluate how effective the applications were at meeting financial as well as performance guidelines," Halfhill said.

But the goal comes with obstacles.

It will be one of the first projects to strive for a LEED platinum rating for a major renovation, which means more time and money into research. Plus, rennovation to a smaller building is more expensive; for example, a sprinkler system costs the same in a 6,000 square-foot-building as in a 20,000-square-foot-structure, he said.

"In a small development, cost premiums cannot be diffused over large square footage, so individual square foot costs increase substantially," he said. "This market is untested whether or not we can charge higher rents for high performance renovation."

Also, because the building is a historic structure, the design team has had to incorporate green features without changing the building's character. Rather than moving windows to maximize sunlight, the designers have had to look at how the sun relates to the building throughout the day and find ways to enhance it.

Because it is an old building, it also has many surprises, such as having to remove large amounts of asbestos. (Still, Halfhill prefers to call it "weathered" rather than "rundown.")



Ups and downs

Some choices, such as the site being located in an urban area near public transportation and reusing an existing structure, are pluses for LEED certification. The building also will have geothermal heating, a vegetated wall and roof, sun shading and efficient lighting, among other features.

"We have woven through every possible criteria to prove this building's effectiveness," Halfhill said. He is working to restore its zoning rights with the hope that he can rent it out for its intended use - commercial on the first floor and residential above.

Halfhill hopes to start construction in the next month, and expects it will take a year. The renovated building will serve as a demonstration site for four years, and by then the technology will have evolved, he said.

But so far, he is stuck in the fundraising and planning stages. Though Halfhill has received some donations in time and supplies, the modeling and study of the building has cost more than usual, most of which has come out of his pocket. He also spends 25 to 40 hours a week on the project apart from working at his design/build firm Silent Rivers Inc.

Construction estimates based on the building's design came in higher than expected, and the design team is deciding whether to raise enough funds to implement everything or to cut back and learn from that process.

Marketing has become a key component. Halfhill developed a Green & Main logo and will launch a Web site (http://www.greenandmain.org).



The team

When Halfhill decided to buy the building only a block away from his home, he planned on doing a green building, but nothing to this level. He was most attracted to the building's size, especially because Silent Rivers is not set up to take on large projects.

"The project has a manageable scale and is located in a residential neighborhood, which allows visitors a more intimate experience with the building. This smaller scale also helps people to identify how design decisions and individual behavior can impact a building's performance in a way they might not glean from a larger corporate office complex," said Halfhill, who is developing it under the name Indigo Dawn.

His ideas kept evolving until "I decided I wanted the building to be exemplary in its process of design and construction," he said. And in order to do that, he needed a diverse team.

"I think for the first time we really delved into what it means to be holistic about energy, materials, water, the whole package," said Tony Holub, LEED consultant on the project. Though Holub has since left RDG Planning and Design and moved to Chicago, he has stayed involved.

"It's a unique project and I have to give a lot of that credit to Chaden, who is really open to new ideas and reexamining conventional solutions in order to make real progress toward sustainability," Holub said.

Linda Appelgate, coordinator of Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation & Development (IHRCD), said her group is interested in this project for its look at urban storm water management.

"It's really difficult to find a demonstration site that's in an already built area. The beauty of this one is partly because Chaden has such a broad grasp of the educational opportunities with this site to help the general public, decision makers and leaders learn how to take a dilapidated urban building that is everywhere and turn it into an asset and environmental benefit," she said.

IHRCD is donating $9,800 to help build the green roof, bioswales and paving system for the parking lot, designed to absorb storm water.

"I think it's really come together," Applegate said. "Obviously Chaden's a big thinker, but on the other hand, I think it's totally realistic. It's what we should be doing."

The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) has been connecting Halfhill to potential resources. Jeff Geerts, who is working on a program that would establish green building requirements for projects that receive affordable housing or Main Street Iowa grants, also is interested because of its training and educational opportunities.

"It's a lofty goal," Geerts said. "Iowa does not have any LEED certified platinum buildings yet at this point, but all indications are that Chaden and his team have assembled a very skilled and diverse team of designers, partners, planners and so forth. So I think they'll get the resources and knowledge in place to make it a very successful project."

[Better Life dude]

Way to go Chad - one of my local builder heros!

[Better Life dude]

Here's some special news: This Old House magazine has an article about the Best Places for Families with Kids to Buy an Old House in the United States. Sherman Hill in Des Moines is on their list of 18 towns and neighborhoods in that category. In the feature on Sherman Hill is this:

"A local resident once said, 'You will know our revitalization efforts were successful when families start moving back into the neighborhood,' " says Sherman Hill Neighborhood Association president Donna Hallstrom. That day has arrived, with young families and couples making their way from the 'burbs into this historic neighborhood in recent years.

As someone who live in Sherman Hill - with kids - all I add is "well said Donna"!
Sherman Hill also made the magazine's list of Best Places to Get a Bargain on an Old House; their list of Best Places for First-Time Buyers to Get an Old House; Best Places in the Midwest to Buy an Old House; Best Places to Buy a Queen Anne; and my favorite category: Best Places for City Slickers to Buy an Old House.
Here's a link to the This Old House article: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20208101_20473839,00.html

[rasmeth]

Haven't read the article, but read your post and it sounds great!

[DMRyan]

A few renderings of the Smokey Row project, which is apparently moving forward.

Renderings courtesy of GE Wattier Architects:

[WesternIaGuy]

A few renderings of the Smokey Row project, which is apparently moving forward.

Renderings courtesy of GE Wattier Architects:

Where are they building this at?

[DMRyan]

This is an existing building that used to be the Planned Parenthood Book Store. It's immediately south of the Kingsway Cathedral on Cottage Grove/Crocker.

[WesternIaGuy]

Well I defiantly think a coffee shop is WAY better then a gas station, too bad they didnt use the Church instead.

[Philby]

Well I defiantly think a coffee shop is WAY better then a gas station, too bad they didnt use the Church instead.

This is across the street from the church and on a separate lot than the proposed gas station. The owners have owned this building with the intention of putting in a coffee shop for 3-4 (more?) years and are finally going to get it done.

Plus the cathedral is WAY to big for one coffee shop...