The owners of the Edna M. Griffin Building in downtown Des Moines are seeking nearly $2 million in state and local tax incentives for a $10.5 million historic renovation that will convert much of its vacant space into 46 market-rate apartments.

Revive Community Development of Moline, Ill., paid about $1.8 million in June for the six-story structure at 319 Seventh St., where Des Moines entered the annals of the country’s civil rights struggles in the 1940s after Edna Griffin was denied service at a Katz Drug Store because of her race. Read more

Greater Des Moines real estate developer Jim Conlin headed a partnership that had owned the building for a quarter century before its sale earlier this year. Under Conlin’s ownership, what originally was called the Flynn Building was renamed in Griffin’s honor.

A commemorative plaque on the building memorializing Griffin’s historical civil rights efforts will remain in place, according to a staff report to the Des Moines City Council.

The council will be asked at today’s meeting to support Revive Community Development’s application for $865,000 in state of Iowa Workforce Housing Tax Credits. The program requires a local match of at least $1,000 per housing unit. The city plans to meet that requirement through a tax abatement program that provides a rebate of 100 percent of property taxes for 10 years. The tax abatement has an estimated value of $1.25 million, according to the report to the Council.