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Rick Tollakson, president and CEO of Hubbell Realty Co., on Monday asked the Des Moines City Council to take proposals from various developers for a city-owned parking across the street from City Hall.

 

He made the appeal as a team of developers that includes prominent businessman Jim Cownie and, possibly, real estate icon Bill Knapp, announced plans for a mixed-use development that would include structured parking, residential housing, office and retail spaces for the lot.

 

The City Council chose to delay action on the mixed-use proposal submitted by Jake Christensen and Tim Rypma, the lead developers on the City Hall parking lot project.

 

Christensen and Rypma proposed a parking ramp at the center of the City Hall parking lot, with retail and other commercial uses along East Locust Street and housing along East Grand.

 

The parking is needed to offset the loss of parking at a nearby development at 219 E. Grand on property owned by a group that also includes Cownie and Knapp.

 

Up to 600 parking spaces would be needed to accommodate parking needs for the proposed project on the City Hall lot and the project proposed for 219 E. Grand.

 

Cownie said Tuesday that the City Hall parking lot project would bring much needed office space to the East Village, where he recently completed construction of a retail and residential project at 350 E. Locust St. Cownie’s JSC Properties Inc. is located in a penthouse office at the location.

 

Tollakson said the situation is similar to when the city entertained development ideas at 420 Court Ave. Minneapolis-based developer Opus Group LLC had proposed a mixed use project for the site in 2013, which spurred Tollakson to show up at a City Council workshop meeting and call for the city to gather additional proposals. Early last year, Knapp Properties Inc. and Hy-Vee Inc. brought forward plans for a grocery store and apartment complex for the site.

 

Hubbell also submitted a development plan for 420 Court, but lost out to the proposal from Knapp Properties and Hy-Vee.

 

“I went to the council and asked them to open it up,” Tollakson said. “If it had not been for that, there would not be a grocery store coming in.”

 

In the case of the lot next to City Hall, Tollakson said he had been given the impression that city officials didn’t want to move on any development, in part because of the need for parking there. He was not aware that a development was in the works for the site.

 

“I look at it and say this also is a crucial block, and it’s owned by the public,” Tollakson said.

 

He wants the city to issue a request for proposals on the lot. “An RFP always is best,” he said.

 

Tollakson said the current proposal might end up being best, and he doesn’t have a firm plan for the land. But he wants various developers to have the chance to mull the property.

 

“We haven’t spent much time looking at it,” Tollakson said. “It may need parking, and city offices. It could be a cool mixed use. We’d like to throw ideas out on it.”

 

Assistant City Manager Matt Anderson said that as of this morning he did not have a specific timeline for requesting proposals, but plans to present a new process at the City Council workshop meeting on May 18.

 

“We’re working on a procedure and trying to determine exactly what Council would like to see,” Anderson, who leads the city’s economic development efforts, said in an email.