NOTEBOOK: Hubbell owns the Riverfront Y site; now what to do with it?
KENT DARR Nov 2, 2016 | 10:32 pm
2 min read time
430 wordsBusiness Record Insider, The Insider NotebookHubbell Realty Co.’s $4.7 million purchase of the former Riverfront YMCA at 101 Locust St. completed a complicated land swap that started four years ago and has resulted in redevelopment of an unappreciated convention hall to a fancy YMCA, a former warehouse to attractive office space for the Polk County courts system, and the construction of a long-sought convention center hotel.
What hasn’t been settled is redevelopment of the Riverfront Y site.
Hubbell President and CEO Rick Tollakson said the company could sell it or develop it. You get the impression he would just as soon sell.
Hubbell representatives have reached out to other developers and investors who have expressed an interest in the site, including Chicago-based CA Ventures, which is providing $25 million in financing for Blackbird Investments’ 26-story high-rise at the former Younkers site on Walnut Street, and Minneapolis developer George Sherman, who has completed and launched a range of redevelopment projects in Des Moines.
As for Tollakson, he believes a Hubbell development would be difficult, especially one that meets expectations of city leaders and some observers for a high-gloss high-rise. The city incentives just don’t add up to a deal that would make financial sense.
One possible suitor was left in the wings when Hubbell acknowledged in late summer that it would buy the property.
After the purchase, West Bank released the YMCA of Greater Des Moines from a mortgage on the Riverfront Y site and Des Moines Redevelopment Co. was able to walk away from an agreement on the property if other buyers weren’t found.
There has been much talk that local and out-of-town office users are interested in the site. Tollakson believes there is little substance behind the chatter.
Meanwhile, the Hubbell crew is busy putting together a development plan for a 75-acre site south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway that is owned by Norfolk Southern Railway.
RDG Planning and & Design is master planning the project and has conducted focus groups for Hubbell.
The company’s option on the land will expire soon, and Tollakson has some ideas for a development that would lean heavily on residential, including for-sale condominiums and attached townhomes.
Tollakson believes there is a market for condominiums in the $200,000 price range, and he is researching ways to build them.
As for entering the luxury rental market that is being targeted by Blackbird and Nelson Construction & Development for its project at Seventh Street and Grand Avenue, well, that isn’t in Hubbell’s game plan, Tollakson said.
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