A Texas developer may have found “a better mousetrap” for attracting young professionals to West Des Moines with a proposal for a high-end residential development at the Village at Ponderosa.

 

Amit Goel, who at one time had made an offer to buy the vacant Riverfront Y property in downtown Des Moines, presented plans for development of the West Des Moines property today to a working group of the West Des Moines City Council and city staff.

 

Limited liability companies linked to Goel paid $2.75 million in June 2014 to Great Western Bank for 18 lots and Crescent View condominiums, the last remaining properties that eventually were returned to banks after developer Jon Garnaas’ plans for a tony residential and commercial development crashed during the financial crisis.

 

Goel and designer Dennis Reynolds, who also designed the Garnaas project, said the plan is to complete the development in phases with an eye toward attracting young professionals who otherwise would turn to apartment complexes in the East Village and other areas of downtown Des Moines.

 

Plans call for a total of 500 residential units in four buildings, a 100-room hotel and single-family housing. Nearly 44 percent of the area would be devoted to open spaces. Some areas could be devoted to a dog park for tenants, bocci courts and public art. There will be roughly 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities.

 

“It’s a really unique product type,” Reynolds said.

 

The development would be near West Glen Town Center and the Mills Crossing office and retail project that is being developed by Hurd Real Estate Services.

 

Goel said a residential development should help drive shoppers to West Glen, which has suffered from high retail vacancies since the recession, and would benefit from the niche retailers that are being brought to the Hurd project, including the Fresh Market grocery and outdoor retailer REI.

 

Retail will not be part of the Village at Ponderosa project, Goel said, mainly because he doesn’t not want to compete with established retail specialists.

 

If approved by the city, construction on the first phase could begin this year, with second-phase construction following in 2016.

 

Councilman Jim Sandager repeatedly asked Goel if he had contingency plans in place in the event of a spike in interest rates or other unforeseen turns in the economy. He also expressed some concern that the multifamily market is nearing the saturation point.

 

Goel responded that “I don’t know how to answer that.”

 

However, Reynolds said the failure of Garnaas project was due in large part to the launching of the development “before the money was there to pay for it.”

 

“From an urban design standpoint, to me it’s all about context,” he said, noting that when Garnaas launched his project, cornfields occupied most of the land between the Village at Ponderosa and Jordan Creek Town Center. The area has filled in with retail centers and housing since that time.

 

Goel said his project would draw the highly skilled young professionals to the area, where they can have easy access to nearby shopping, dining and entertainment venues.

 

“We are creating the mousetrap where you can have these people here stay; they don’t have to go downtown,” he said.

 

Mayor Steve Gaer and City Manager Tom Hadden were enthusiastic.

 

“This is exactly the type of project that West Des Moines needs,” Gaer said. “To me, this is when 1 plus 1 adds up to 4.”

 

Hadden said he frequently walks through the Village at Ponderosa, in all more than 95 acres that were once occupied by a golf course, and has never considered it a “failed development.”