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About 70 market-rate apartments are slated to hit the Des Moines market in June, when ND 25 SW 5th LLC is scheduled to complete the renovation of the L & L Insulation building.

Jake Christensen, co-owner of Nelson Development, said the build-out got under way last spring.

“It’s progressing pretty well,” Christensen said of the $9 million initiative to convert the nearly 100-year-old warehouse into the AP Lofts.

The seven-story building, which was originally constructed as a wholesale grocery facility, will include three live-work spaces on the ground level and a 60-space underground parking garage located at 328 S.W. Fifth St., about one block south of the Science Center of Iowa.

Christensen said the development will also boast a rooftop patio with a fire pit.

“The rooftop patio has an unobstructed view of downtown and the Capitol and is the largest rooftop deck for an apartment building in Des Moines,” he said.

He added that the original bell-shaped architectural columns and concrete ceilings will be retained, giving the renovated building an industrial feel. Rents for the 500- to 1,100-square-foot units, which have 11- to 14-foot-high ceilings, will range from $585 to $1,150 per month. Ceilings in the ground-floor units are 17 feet high.

“It’s being built from the top down,” Christensen said, noting that cabinetry is currently being installed and new windows are slated to go in as the weather warms.

“We have people interested,” he said, though no official “wait list” has been started. “It will probably be concurrent with the Web site launch,” he said, which is expected to take place within the next 45 days.

The redevelopment’s investors, who include Christensen and two other stakeholders, are financing the project through a mix of state historic tax credits, Enterprise Zone tax credits and a 10-year tax abatement.

Christensen said everything else is being funded strictly through equity, and there is no mortgage on the property.

ND 25 SW 5th LLC purchased the 79,000-square-foot L & L Insulation building, which was formerly known as the Hawkeye Transfer building, for $1.5 million in November 2008.

Nelson Construction is the general contractor for the project, which was designed by Invision Architecture.