Frank Cownie remembers getting a call from his dad, who wanted to offer some advice as Cownie’s first City Council campaign came to a close. It was the same day his dad died, just before Cownie was to take the stage for a debate with his opponent.

It’s one of many memories he shared as he reminisced on his 20-year career as Des Moines’ mayor and his time spent on the City Council and on various boards and commissions beforehand.

Cownie, 75, will end his fifth term as mayor when Connie Boesen is sworn in on Jan. 8. Before he was elected mayor, Cownie served two years on the City Council.

He ran and was elected mayor in 2003 and took office in 2004 after then-Mayor Preston Daniels announced he would not seek reelection. He was previously elected to the City Council, filling an opening created when George Flagg didn’t run again. Cownie also served as chair of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

During his time in office, Des Moines has seen major growth and a revitalization of its downtown district, including the East Village.

Cownie, whose family owns Cownie Furs, said the transformation of downtown was the result of a collaboration of elected officials, business owners, bankers and the limited number of people who lived downtown at the time.

“We asked, ‘What can we do to make this place more exciting, more inviting?’” he said. “There was a change that was taking place.”

Downtown Des Moines was once the hub of retail for Iowa, Cownie said, but with the exodus from downtown over the years as shopping malls in the suburbs became popular, “we had to look at what downtown Des Moines needed to be.”

There was disagreement initially about what the vision should be, as some people wanted to level the area and build strip malls and parking lots, he said.

“We rebelled, and our little group, our Downtown Des Moines Incorporated, we said no. What we really need is people living downtown, so we started pushing to do that,” Cownie said.

He pointed to the success of the Brown Camp Lofts and the Plaza.

And we pushed people to take some of those old warehouses and do it and they had success, and as that slowly transitioned, so 25 years ago, we were pushing to have that happen,” Cownie said.

Today, there are as many as 17,000 people living downtown with more residential units planned, Cownie said.

“That has created an interesting situation where people are not only working downtown, but they’re living downtown,” he said. 

He credited in great part the people who live downtown for the ongoing revitalization of downtown Des Moines.

“It’s the people living down here that changed it and made downtown Des Moines that really special place and a place where people want to be near,” he said.

Cownie cited not only the surge in downtown housing, but also the advent of walking and biking paths that connect downtown to the region.

He said it took a concerted effort by the city to approach business owners in the East Village to revitalize the neighborhood, which the outgoing mayor said was once an Army-Navy store and buildings with “nasty,” false storefronts. The city worked hard with people “who thought there was something great in the East Village and that we ought to work together to do it.”

He said Archie Brooks was on the City Council at the time, and the two of them worked to help facilitate change.

“We worked really hard with those business owners and say, ‘If the city redoes Locust Street and the sidewalks, will you as property owners redo your businesses and take all those fake fronts off and open up those brick buildings?’ and even on new stuff, lots of brick and stone – and they agreed to do it,” Cownie said. “And now, what a great, walkable place. This is destination retail. We really have some exciting stuff, but it’s happened again with elected officials working with business owners and property owners and trying to make some good things happen.”

It’s that communication with residents and businesses over the years that has made a difference, Cownie said. 

“To me, that’s been the essence to a lot of the work that I’ve done,” he said. “It’s listening to the residents. It’s listening to neighborhood organizations. Listening to businesses and finding out what makes this place [a place] where you want to expand your business, grow your business, start your business. What would make Des Moines that place?”

Cownie said he views the revitalization of downtown as one of the major achievements that happened during his time in office.

“It could have just faded away and been nothing but a bunch of empty buildings,” he said. “We have planned together, we’ve thought together and we’ve made it a special place.”

Is there something Cownie would like to have seen accomplished during his time in office that has been left undone?

“There’s a never-ending list of things,” he said. “Whether it’s working on Second Avenue or Sixth Avenue, working on parks, and how we move people around and upgrade our streets, it seems every time as I considered running, [we’d] have another set of things to be done. The work at City Hall is never-ending. Sure, there’s all kinds of stuff I’d like to think we could get done and call it a day, but when we’d get there, there would be another pile of things that needed to be done.”

What influence did Cownie’s parents have on him?

“I gotta tell you, I never thought I would ever consider, or anyone else who is halfway sane, running for elected office,” he said. “But to me, I guess I reflect back to my family and my dad. He served on the school board and so did my mom. But he always stood on that we live in this community, we have a business in this community, and our employees are here. We have been able to survive and make a living here. We need to give back to our community to make it better.”

He volunteered early on with business groups, the American Cancer Society and the Red Cross, among others.

“I felt those were good services but I could serve on boards and commissions that would benefit the whole of the community and listening to them was important in that I needed to be a good listener and try to work with anybody and everybody possible to make this community what it should be to fulfill the dreams of those that live here and make their lives better.”

Cownie said he feels that he’s become more understanding of the needs of others and their circumstances, “and try to figure out ways to assist them and help them and boost them.”

What advice would he give to city and business leaders to continue the momentum of downtown and the region?

“For me, most importantly, we need to think together and work together because circumstances are going to change, technology is going to change, where people work, how people work, where people live, how people live, the amenities that they want around them, we need to continue to listen and work together, plan together and create together,” he said. “The groundwork we do today, hopefully, is the foundation work for the next 100 years.”

After he leaves office, Cownie plans to focus on the family business, “and dream with my family and try to figure out what that next move is.”

Cownie said his dad, Charles, who died in October 2001, always had advice for him, even on the day he died.

Cownie recalled a voice message that his dad left, calling from a flip-phone he had just learned to use. “Frank, call your dad. I’ve got some advice for you,” was the message that was left, Cownie said, speaking in a gruff voice trying to imitate his dad.

“He would usually talk about how you’re not doing this just for yourself. You’re doing it to better Des Moines. Stay in there. Listen to others. He was big on convening and working together,” Cownie said.

He received his dad’s final words of advice earlier in the day after visiting him at the hospital after receiving the message. Cownie said he intended to go back to the hospital after the debate that evening.

“I saw people working on the campaign and my daughter and he [a campaign worker] comes up on stage and said your dad just passed,” Cownie recalled, getting emotional as he spoke. “So I excused myself from the debate and said to everyone, ‘Sorry, I have to leave. My dad just passed. I’m headed to the hospital.’”