Michael and Evie Barnes, owners of Barnes Properties, have spent more than $1 million renovating the Park Place Apartments at 615 Park Place downtown and they think it’s time more people know that their building offers more than just senior housing. It also provides accommodations for a number of corporate travelers.

Last week, the couple hosted an open house to show off the building’s 10 newly-remodeled corporate suites and other updates, including an upscale lobby, a new library and a $100,000 security system. During the event, they also unveiled plans to build six new penthouse suites on the building’s 16th floor. Owners say they have made these changes with the hopes that Park Place will no longer be the best-kept secret among a handful of Des Moines companies.

“We’re invisible,” said Michael Barnes, whose company purchased the 17-year-old building in 2001 from Mercy Medical Center. “People either don’t know we’re an apartment building or they think we’re a seniors-only building. We’re trying to change that image.”

Carla Parrish, chief operating officer of Barnes Properties, said Park Place offers furnished and unfurnished apartments that rent can be rented on a weekly, monthly or annual basis. They range from a 525-square-foot one-bedroom unit with a monthly base rent of $655 to a 756-square-foot two-bedroom apartment that goes for $795.

“Because we do everything ourselves, we feel we offer a competitive price,” she said.

For a monthly fee, tenants have the option to add amenities to their apartments. They include $100 for a microwave and television for one-bedroom apartments, $50 for kitchen items including dishes and linens, $40 for electricity, $60 for indoor parking and $25 for a telephone. Cable television is included in the base rent, and laundry equipment is located on each floor.

“I tell people just to bring their toothbrush,” Barnes said.

Though the majority of the building’s 142 units are occupied by seniors, Barnes said he wants to expand the range of the building’s tenants to include business travelers and executives who want to live downtown near their place of employment. He added that seniors and business travelers mix well together because both prefer a quiet, clean place to live that offers a number of conveniences and services.

“Most of our clientele is here for a purpose,” Barnes said. “They’re here to work. They want a good night’s sleep and they don’t want to spend a high nightly rate to stay in a hotel.”

Greg Johnson, senior vice-president of American Republic Insurance Co. and chief operating officer of Entrecor, houses visiting out-of-town managers at Park Place. A former tenant himself, Johnson lived at Park Place for 20 months while he commuted on the weekends to his home in Wisconsin before purchasing a home in the Des Moines area. He said he was attracted to the complex’s downtown location, its amenities and the people who staff and manage it.

“If you’re looking for an extremely clean, quiet, convenient and economical place to stay, I highly recommend it,” he said. “Mike has really dressed it up.”

On the third floor, computers connected to high-speed Internet service are available free of charge to residents, as are a newly-renovated lounge with a big-screen television and a library. On the fourth floor, tenants can use an exercise room, an in-house hair salon, and a 6,000-square-foot terrace with a putting green that Barnes said will eventually include an outdoor hot tub and pine trees.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind structure,” Barnes said. “There’s not other building like it in Des Moines.”