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In 2001, someone interested in tearing down the historic Newens Dairy building on the corner of University Avenue and 23rd Street to put in a fast-food restaurant approached Larry James Jr. to see whether this would be something neighborhood residents would want. Instead, Larry jumped at the chance to buy the property and put together a group of investors who would restore the dairy building and construct two new buildings in the 2300 block of University for $5.1 million.

Then it came time to find businesses to occupy the first-floor retail space, and when no one committed to opening a coffeehouse, Larry and his wife, Jennifer, jumped in once again to open one.

Since March 2006, Mars Café has served as a hub for Drake University students, nearby residents and even people from outside Des Moines. Larry has made a latte for presidential hopeful John McCain, and he and his wife have hosted political rallies, a fashion show and many musical acts. The café also has encouraged other locally owned businesses to spring up nearby, including a pizzeria, a tattoo parlor and a video rental store.

“It really adds to the success of this development when you have a draw of a café that people from all over come to,” Larry said. “A lot of people who either work for us or have been drawn to the café have been drawn to the neighborhood as a result, so I really think a coffee shop is a key element in the regeneration of the whole neighborhood.”

“It’s a family room for the neighborhood and beyond,” added Jennifer.

Drake University has welcomed the revitalization as a chance to have more of a “campustown” feel around its grounds.

“It’s expanded the reach of the campus,” said Drake President David Maxwell. “There was not a whole lot of reasons for the campus community to go in that direction, and now you see that it’s pulled students, faculty and staff down to that part of the neighborhood, which is great.”

Something’s brewin’

When Junior League of Des Moines turned part of Mars Café into a modeling runway and hosted a fashion show that packed the place shortly after opening, “that was the first time when I thought, ‘Wow, this is happening. We’re on to something good here,'” Larry said.

Since then, the coffeehouse has increased revenues every year. It boasts a wide range of offerings, from fair-trade and organic coffees, wine and beer and smoothies to paninis, salads and baked goods. The eclectic bill of fare has helped make the café viable daylong as a hangout, office, networking location or live music venue. As part of this effort, Mars has become a strong proponent of the arts, such as letting a new artist hang his or her work on the walls each month or selling local musicians’ CDs.

“We felt it was important not just to be a student business, but to be able to serve the entire community and be a place where people of all different ages, backgrounds could mix, because that’s one of the great functions of a coffee shop, that you can bring people together like that,” said Jennifer.

The Jameses also encourage employees to come up with their own ideas, which has led to new opportunities, such as a unique chai blend. After they encouraged Daniel Bosman, an employee who also works as a disc jockey at KPTL Capital 106.3 radio, to play vinyl Monday night to draw more people in on a typically slow night, Bosman created “Scented Vinyl,” a weekly in-house radio-style program featuring artist interviews, performances and vinyl collections. Now his more than 60 shows are being recorded into an album, and Monday nights are one of the more popular nights at Mars.

Blending ideas

Larry James had a good idea of what he wanted in a coffeehouse after helping set up other cafés when he worked for a Milwaukee coffee roaster. The name relates to the Newens Dairy owner, who used to give motivational speeches as a Drake professor, one of which was called “A Message From Mars.” James also spent a year in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he became interested in Soviet propaganda and the space-race era. The café has a few Russian posters and drink names with “space” references, but the Jameses try to keep the place simple. Tables and chairs fill a modest open space with tall windows and the décor is a mix of red and tan colors, metal panels and dark warm-toned woods.

The couple put a huge emphasis on quality control. They send every employee to Milwaukee for training and have worked with the roasting company to ensure that Mars’ coffee is brewed well, covering everything from the amount of water used per coffee serving to the cleanliness of the coffee container to how long coffee sits out before it has to be dumped.

“It’s so easy to make bad coffee or just have a bad service experience, and if that happens, a customer won’t return, ” Larry said.

With Larry working as an attorney at Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen P.C. downtown and Jennifer as a freelance writer and editor, historic preservation consultant and caregiver for their daughter, Celia, the Jameses hired a full-time manager to run Mars. However, they are in the coffeehouse at least once a day. Larry’s brother used to be an owner as well, but has left the business.

“It takes a lot of time,” Larry said. “There are times when I would rather not come in here after work from my job downtown, but we know in order for it to be successful, there’s a certain owner presence that has to be involved on a day-to-day basis.”

Building a community

The Jameses moved to the Drake neighborhood in the late 1990s when Larry was attending Drake Law School. They began fixing up homes in the area before they got involved with the 2300 block project.

Larry James describes himself as the “idea guy” behind the block’s redevelopment. The couple had only a 10 percent stake in it, with other investors such as Larry’s father and individuals from Regency Commercial Services joining in, but Larry helped work on rezoning issues, financial incentives and other needs, while his wife helped get the Newens building on the National Register of Historic Places.

As of last year, the Jameses no longer have a stake in the real estate part of the project, but their work has led to an eclectic mix of local businesses in the neighborhood.

When Tony Lemmo, owner of Café di Scala in Sherman Hill, attended Mars Café’s soft opening and saw the changes on the block, he said, “It hit me: the coolness of (the block), just an older building, older block, close to the university, surrounded by neighborhoods and other businesses. It just made it a really funky, eclectic area.”

Lemmo opened Frank’s Pizza in the same building as Mars a year ago and is still waiting to see how it takes off. He has found that most of his customers are not Drake students as he expected, but rather nearby residents and people visiting the Varsity Theatre or a Drake event. As a result, he has cut out lunch hours, except for Saturdays, and is open on Sundays.

He likes the campustown feel, but also would like to see improvements, such as more development east on University and for the street to remain a two-lane road the entire day to slow down traffic. But, he said, “Having that block totally refurbished really kind of broke down that whole image, that idea that it’s not cool to go east of 24th Street.”

The area could be in competition with the new Drake West Village, which will offer 9,000 square feet of retail space, some of which will be occupied by a Starbucks Corp. store.

Though Drake President Maxwell sees this as an opportunity to create a destination center around all of Drake’s campus, Lemmo worries that it may hurt the 2300 block of University. Meanwhile, James sees Starbucks as a way to educate consumers on coffee drinks, but believes his product is of better quality and will remain popular.

“What’s going to make Des Moines and Central Iowa more attractive to people and stay here after college and settle here is going to be the venues that really in the last five years have opened around town that really cater toward arts and the community,” he said. “I think that’s really the key to attracting and retaining good talent.”