The competitive office vacancy rate in downtown Des Moines has decreased by 38 percent since 2011, the Downtown Community Alliance said last week.

“Downtown office vacancy rates are falling largely due to the elimination of uncompetitive older office space that is no longer viable in the marketplace,” Glenn Lyons, president and CEO of the Downtown Community Alliance, said in a news release. “Through its conversion to residential or its redeployment for other uses … we have seen a decline in office vacancy.”

Office space that has been taken off the market in 2012 includes:

• 132,418 square feet at the Des Moines Building, 405 Sixth Ave., which is being converted to apartments, offices and retail.
• 93,654 square feet at the Fleming Building, 604 Walnut St., which is being converted to market-rate apartments, offices and retail.
• 97,278 square feet at the Equitable Building, 604 Locust St., which will be converted to apartments, offices and retail.
• 227,906 square feet at a former Allied Insurance Co. building at 700 Fourth St., which was bought by the Des Moines Redevelopment Co. as a possible site for a convention hotel.