Aubrey Dunbar, who opened so many boutique businesses in Adel that some folks in the Dallas County community began calling it “Aubreyville,” is leaving town a year and a half after he poured $1 million into the renovation of a three-story building known as Grandeur on the Square.

The florist and interior designer who started in business in Valley Junction with Carriage Florist opened Cameo Rose, a business that will remain after he leaves, with business partners a decade ago. Within 18 months, he’d added Aubrey’s Inspiration in a 10,200-square-foot space in spanning two buildings on the south side of the Dallas County Courthouse square; that business will remain open until about mid-November. In March 2004, he opened the 12,680-square-foot Grandeur on the Square, which housed the Gilded Emporium restaurant, Dreams Boutique and Obsessions, all of which closed earlier this week.

Dunbar said he’s leaving Adel not because his businesses aren’t making it financially, but because of the time commitment needed to oversee them since his son, Garth, who helped him design the buildings and develop the business plan, moved to St. Louis. Dunbar said his decision to leave Adel, where he’s lived for nearly 30 years, is fueling “fears that Main Street is dying.”

“I don’t know why it should, just because I’m not going to be there anymore,” Dunbar said. “Other people can do it. I got it started, and they can continue it. At this point, I just want to calm my life down.”

He said that though recent high gas prices had reduced the number of people traveling to Adel from out of state to visit his and other “destination” businesses, traffic on a recent Saturday was back to normal with 200 to 300 people visiting his shops.

Dunbar’s exit leaves a couple of holes in Adel’s retail district and lots of speculation about how they will be filled. “It provides someone with a new opportunity,” said Adel Mayor Jim Peters, who noted the extensive remodeling had done on his retail spaces makes them almost “a turnkey deal” for the right businesses. Both the Aubrey’s Inspiration and Grandeur on the Square buildings were recipients of 2005 Main Street Iowa awards for “rehabilitation and preservation at its best.”

Dunbar, whose Grandeur on the Square building is listed with Iowa Realty Commercial for $1.3 million, said he’s in a position to be choosey about the eventual buyer and will hold out as long as he can to ensure it remains a retail space. However, with the Dallas County Courthouse closed for repairs until sometime in 2007, the 5th Judicial District warning that it will need more space for court operations, and county and state government offices already occupying several buildings on Adel’s historic, brick-street-lined square, prime retail space is already at a premium.

Dan Juffer, the president of Adel Partners, the town’s chamber of commerce, said his group wants the buildings to be used for retail purposes. “We’d prefer it remain retail, because the taxes would then go to the city,” he said. “However, we also understand that having the county offices located in Adel is a huge boon to the retail community.”

Adel Partners fields frequent inquiries about the availability of retail space, he said. For example, Gortz Haus Gallery, an art gallery, frame shop, flower shop and bistro in Grimes, “very much wanted to locate” in Adel six years ago, Juffer said, “but couldn’t wait for a location to open up. Now, we have these locations open. It’s a fast reversal of the problem.”

In addition to Grandeur on the Square, several others are on the market or may be listed soon. Among them is the current Adel Public Library, originally a Presbyterian church, which will be vacated when a new library opens later this month. The city is accepting bids on the property, which has a business/commercial zoning classification.

Juffer said the sudden availability of retail space in Adel is cyclical. “Through a normal cycle, businesses come and go,” he said. “They always seem to leave in bunches and come back in bunches. Right now, this would be a ‘down’ cycle, but we’re poised to come up very quickly because of the location to the metro area.”

Located about 12 miles west of Interstate 35/80 on U.S. Highway 6, Adel is close enough to the metro area to consistently draw customers, “yet far enough away to maintain a small-town feeling and charm,” Juffer said. “It’s a natural place for entrepreneurs.”

Adel’s ability to use its charm and ambience to become a destination community is already evident in businesses such as the Destination 33 art gallery, the Atherton House gift shop featuring the work of artisans from around the world, a quilt shop, antique stores and a classic car shop specializing in high-horsepower vehicles out of a restored Ford dealership built in the early 1900s. For that reason, leaders are eager to protect the authenticity of its buildings around the square, many of which were built in the mid-1800s.

For the past 18 months, city officials have been exploring incentives to retail merchants to help them rehabilitate old buildings and build Adel’s reputation as a destination community. Dunbar and Gary Curnes, who owns Brick Street Muscle classic car business, purchased and rehabilitated buildings, then asked the city if any financial assistance was available, Peters said.

“Neither came through city offices with a specific plan,” Peters said. “It was more open-ended.”

Two options being considered by the Adel City Council are a revolving loan fund or a direct grant to building owners. Any incentive program would be tied to design guidelines, said City Administrator Chad Bird. “We give a lot of money for industrial development in this state,” he said. “How much do we help retail development?”

Anticipated growth as the metro area pushes further west also raises the stakes for the county-seat town of 3,500. “Growth is good,” Bird said, “but we need to be planning now how to direct that growth and use it to our advantage.If we experience a fraction of the growth Waukee has seen, what will happen to our downtown area?”

The incentives are still in development, but “an event like just occurred will cause us to act more quickly,” Peters said.