Bruce Gerleman will open an oyster bar and a fresh fish market, and also begin offering lunchtime chowder, all in the Homestead Building downtown.

Gerleman, who owns both the building and its 9-year-old Splash restaurant, is renovating a 600-square-foot first-floor space with large windows overlooking Third and Locust streets, with a planned Dec. 1 opening date.

The fish market will carry the same ocean fish flown in from Hawaii, Seattle and Alaska for the restaurant. The “Chowder Express” service will deliver chowder in “big buckets” to offices, Gerleman said, or customers can eat in the 26-seat facility.

He said the Splash Oyster Bar will remain open late, and the space, across the street from the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, also will be available in the evening to be rented for private parties.