A residential architect’s renovation of an historic east-side duplex followed an economic downturn that forced him to shut the doors of his start-up company.

Before the recession, Boston native Ron Berkey and his business partner had plans to relocate Urban Elevation LLC to 816 Des Moines St., northwest of the Iowa Capitol Complex. Instead, Berkey closed the business and joined The Durrant Group Inc. as a project manager before deciding to retrofit the 110-year-old building into leasable office space.

One of two proposed 1,200-square-foot office spaces has been completed, and Berkey hopes to find a lobbyist or small law firm to occupy it. He envisions the space, which in the late 1980s was occupied by gubernatorial candidate Lowell Junkins when he ran against Gov. Terry Branstad, as a cozy area where a tenant could meet with clients.

With an upstairs lavatory, hardwood floors, second-floor carpeting and a grand staircase, the finished space looks more like an apartment or town home than commercial space.

“You see a lot of this in Boston, also,” Berkey said of some historic properties in the city where he lived before moving to Des Moines in June of 2000. “There are a lot of old buildings that have been renovated, and so they already have the detailed woodwork and everything like that. So it has that built-in, residential, homey look.”

Berkey said he owns and manages two apartment complexes in Boston and two in Des Moines. He purchased the Des Moines Street property for $142,000 in 2007, after deciding that the rents were too high at Urban Elevation’s leased space in the Soho Lofts building in the East Village.

“I just thought, ‘Well, I could get a mortgage cheaper than what I was paying for rent,’” Berkey said. “You know, the architectural plans were very cheap.”

The building and land have a combined assessed value for tax purposes of $114,500, according to the Polk County assessor’s website. Berkey said he is asking $1,500 a month for Unit A on the west side of the duplex.

He said the space is listed with CB Richard Ellis/Hubbell Commercial broker Jan Berg.