Floor & Decor, a hard-surface floor retailer with 128 warehouse-format stores in 30 states, is opening its first Iowa location, anchoring an aging West Des Moines strip retail center at 1400 22nd St., city building permit records show.

In addition, the popular Swedish clothing retailer H&M is opening a store in Jordan Creek Town Center, West Des Moines building permit information shows. The store will be the first in the Des Moines area for the retailer. It has a store in Davenport.

Floor & Decor, founded in 2000 in Atlanta, Ga., was issued a building permit valued at $6.4 million on Jan. 20 by the city of West Des Moines, records show. The company is remodeling nearly 79,000 square feet of space in the Westowne Shopping Center, which was constructed in 1972. The space previously was occupied by Gordmans, an off-priced retailer that closed its Des Moines-area locations in 2020.

A West Des Moines building official said Floor & Decor will be adding loading docks to the southwest corner of the building and a customer pickup area.

The strip shopping center, which includes a Michael’s craft store, Dollar Tree and Firestone Auto Care Center, was purchased in November 2019 by Kansas City, Mo.-based Block Real Estate Services. The group, operating as Westowne Center Associates LLC, paid $15.8 million for property.

According to the Polk County recorder, Floor & Decor signed a 10-year lease with the center’s owners in November.

An official with Block Real Estate Services referred questions to Floor & Decor, whose company spokesperson did not respond.

Floor & Decor, a publicly traded company, said in its more recent quarterly report that it planned to open 13 new stores in the first part of 2021.

The permit issued to Floor & Decor was among commercial building permits valued at more than $332.1 million issued in 13 Des Moines-area communities and Polk County in January, a review of the permits shows.

Other permits of interest issued include:

• One valued at $2.3 million for a tenant improvement at Jordan Creek Town Center, 101 Jordan Creek Parkway. H&M will occupy more than 22,000 square feet, spread over two levels. The store will have a street-level entrance. An elevator and stairs are being installed to allow customers access to both levels, a West Des Moines building official said.

• One valued at $273.5 million for a Microsoft Corp. data center at the Osmium project, 5855 S.W. Kerry St.

• One valued at $12.6 million to renovate a five-story office building at 611 Fifth Ave. in downtown Des Moines. The Weitz Co., an architectural, engineering and construction firm, is relocating its corporate headquarters and other company divisions to a downtown office building owned by Knapp Properties.

• One valued at $1 million for construction of a new, free-standing Starbucks store that is being built at 2255 E. First St. in Grimes.

Commercial building permits valued at more than $332.1 million were issued for projects in 13 Des Moines-area communities and Polk County in January 2021, data from the permits shows.