• Full Court Press is gearing up for summer as other businesses reflect  on 10 years downtown

Starting with a Buzzard Billy’s restaurant on Court Avenue, Full Court Press’s seven founders have built the company to include 21 stakeholders by rewarding loyal longtime employees with ownership interests in newly established bars and restaurants.

Patrons of downtown bars, clubs and restaurants are finding new venues even as established owners mark milestones in the Court Avenue Entertainment District and more housing options are offered to those entering the work force.

Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Co. and Johnny’s Hall of Fame are among the businesses reinforcing their presence near the city’s core as The Gas Lamp, Club 504, Mickey’s Irish Pub and Americana LLC open downtown.

The Lift is celebrating its 10-year anniversary at 222 Fourth St., and Bob Tursi’s Exile Brewing Co. is breaking ground on a commercial brewery near Western Gateway Park.

Now, as young professionals flock to fill downtown housing projects devised and delivered by developers Hubbell Realty Co., Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates Inc., and AP Transfer Lofts’ co-owners Jake Christensen and Mike Nelson, one band of bar owners is coming of age.

Twenty-one people represent the investment group tied to Full Court Press (FCP), the foundation of which was formed nearly 20 years ago when brothers Andy and Dan Massoth partnered with acquaintances Tracy Maughan and Chris Mayo to open a Buzzard Billy’s restaurant in Waco, Texas.

Operating as MSD Innovations Inc., the four partners launched that establishment in 1993 as floodwaters devastated Des Moines. Arriving here in 1999, with the addition of Carroll natives Jeff Bruning, Scott Alongi and Kent Middeldorf, FCP got started when the entrepreneurs opened a Buzzard Billy’s at 100 Court Ave.

Now, nearly two decades after the Floods of 1993 ravaged the Upper Midwest, FCP and its affiliate companies have grown to include 14 bars and 350 employees managed by seven original founders.

Nine of the watering holes are located within walking distance of Principal Park and the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. Other downtown operators, including The Lift founder Amedeo Rossi, have watched closely as the nightlife and entertainment scene evolves.

“Ten years ago, there was a lot of uncertainty about the direction of the Court Avenue area,” Rossi said. “There were still residual effects of the floods. Very little housing existed.”

The Massoths, Andy, 47, and Dan, 44, said they and their partners saw an opportunity to capitalize on consumer demand as they opened The Royal Mile, FCP’s second downtown bar. “In Central Iowa, there was a mass number of mature adults that were thirsty for something outside the realm of normal nightclub, Bud Light, Miller Lite crowd,” Dan Massoth said. The brothers had their own uncertainties.

“When we opened Buzzard Billy’s in 1999, you could go out and stand on Court Avenue on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night and you wouldn’t see a dozen people the whole night, some nights,” Dan Massoth said. “There were nights we walked down the sidewalk of Court Avenue, and looked up and down and said, ‘What in the world are we doing here?’”

Now, as FCP introduces more individually branded bars and restaurants while the city’s infrastructure is improved, customers are appearing to consume crab Rangoon pizza, $3 cheeseburger baskets, and dozens of varieties of German and British beers.

“After the Royal Mile opened and took off, it seemed like the city would then do a little more in the area,” Andy Massoth said. “Then we’d open another one and they’d do a little more. Now, the city has done so much, too, it’s been back-and-forth over a 10-year period.”

Mayo said an influx of affordable- and market-rate rental units is helping things along.

“The housing, too, is full of younger people with disposable incomes,” he said. “A lot of them are servers and work in this environment.” Mayo, 42, befriended Andy while attending Utah State University. He reflects FCP’s culture of attracting, retaining and rewarding service-oriented employees by offering them ownership opportunities.

Operating as Underdogs Inc., Andy and Dan Massoth each own 8 percent of Mullet’s, the latest FCP-associated company at 1301 S.E. First St., the farthest FCP has strayed from the central business district. The other 19 owners each hold a 2 percent to 7 percent stake in the business.

Justin Berkley, an Underdogs investor and longtime FCP employee, said he was offered a stake in Fong’s Pizza, but shied away because he wasn’t sure if the concept would take off. “We were sorely mistaken,” Berkley said, adding that he and others jumped at a chance to buy into Mullet’s.

“Even going from Buzzard Billy’s to Full Court Press, we brought three owners into the business,” Andy Massoth said. “With Mullet’s, it was kind of a full-on situation where the other 14 owners are all basically loyal employees and have been with us for a long time. We gave them a chance to get into the business a little bit.”

Don Short and Gwen Page, investors in Sbrocco and Fong’s Pizza, respectively, played big roles in getting their enterprises up and running.

Short, owner of West End Architectural Salvage, spearheaded the remodel of FCP’s only owner-occupied real estate into Sbrocco, a restaurant and wine bar at 208 Court Ave. “He basically put up a lot of the money to convert it,” Andy Massoth said. “He was also the main designer. He and his West End crew did a lot of the build-out and built all of the tables and the bar from scratch.”

Fong’s, which operates under the banner of Half Court Press Inc., is one of the FCP crew’s newest affiliates. “Gwen Page worked at the High Life Lounge for us for years and always talked about how she wanted to open a pizza place,” Andy Massoth said. “Almost jokingly – that’s the way a lot of our conversations go as a group – we started talking about a place that was Chinese-Italian.”

Half Court Press struck a deal to lease the Fong’s space at 223 Fourth St. following the closure of King Ying Low, which was one of Des Moines longest-standing Chinese restaurants.

“We weren’t actively looking to open a new place,” Andy Massoth said, noting that the available real estate allowed Page to fulfill her vision. Besides, the Fourth Street property ended up being a good fit. “It was a good opportunity; the rent wasn’t very high,” he said.

In 2010, FCP and its affiliate companies generated nearly $15 million in revenues, Andy Massoth said. And other than Buzzard Billy’s, which was forced to close in Des Moines following the Floods of 2008, each of the partners’ bars and restaurants continue to operate.

“We went into a risky area, and it was the first time we went into a place that had failed before,” Andy said, referring to a former restaurant that had occupied the basement level of 100 Court Ave. before Buzzard Billy’s moved in.

Now, as FCP negotiates to reopen that bar in another downtown location, the company continues to promote its food and beverage offerings at Hessen Haus and other establishments.

“I think it’s fair to say that our business increased during the recession,” Dan Massoth said. “I think we have the right formula. One thing is we hold our prices as low as possible, and our clientele knows that.”

The Lift and The Royal Mile both opened in 2001.

“A myriad of business and the acceleration of downtown housing began,” Rossi said. “These small businesses, like The Lift, provided a needed spark in the right direction. Ten years is a time to reflect on how far the area has come.”

“The four words we hear most often is ‘we don’t go downtown,’” Dan Massoth said. “And we are hearing that less and less. Starting in 1993, everything we have is in downtown areas.”