R&R Realty Group has begun upgrades to its Three Fountains Office Park in West Des Moines, improvements that leaders say will modernize the buildings for the next generation of office users.

The company plans to spend about $3.5 million in the coming months to renovate common areas in the park’s nine buildings to make them more contemporary, update HVAC systems, which will lower energy costs for tenants, and demolish spaces that are dated and not reusable.

“It’s really thinking about how we modernize these buildings, not only from a customer experience, but also making sure the buildings operate more efficiently,” said Adam Kaduce, president of R&R Realty Group’s Real Estate Advisors. “We’re really looking at modernizing these properties.”

Three Fountains, on Westown Parkway, has about 660,000 square feet of office space.

The improvements will include common area modernization, restroom renovations, technology enhancement, new building automation systems and updated mechanical systems and components. 

Kaduce said three buildings will get updates to the common areas. They are the Highland building, the Crestwood, and the Edgewater. Those are in addition to the improvements that have already been made to the Veridian building.

Other buildings will have HVAC system updates. 

“So it’s really targeted at where the need is,” Kaduce said. “We looked at where we think we have the most opportunities to upgrade our interiors [and] where we have some HVAC that needs to be updated. It’s targeted at where we think the improvements are necessary, but it’s across all the buildings.”

He said that while building interiors change over time, R&R is making sure “that our common area finishes are contemporary but timeless and meet what customers are looking for today.”

“Class A office space has changed a lot and we want these buildings to always be at that level,” Kaduce said.

While R&R will be investing with tenants as they move in, “this $3.5 million is just what we’re doing outside of tenant spaces,” he said.

R&R developed the park about 40 years ago when the area was primarily farmland.

Paul Rupprecht, executive vice president at R&R Realty, said the company was intentional about creating different characteristics for each building, “so you don’t have that cookie cutter look to the project.”

He said Three Fountains has been “an evolution of a lot of different organizations that have rolled through here, very prominent organizations, local companies, regional companies and even national companies.”

“It’s been a great location and we’ve seen kind of an attrition with new companies coming in here,” Rupprecht said.

While the park suits smaller users well, there are also opportunities for larger users, Rupprecht said.

“Maybe the future Pioneers or large insurance companies could be sitting in the park someday,” he said.

He said it’s unusual in today’s market for one company to own the same property for 40 years, and over that time the needs of customers changes.

“We’re reading those changes and making those changes,” Rupprecht said. “The modernization, that is key and that’s what we’re doing with our customers.”

Kaduce said the buildings in Three Fountains have historically stayed “well-leased,” with a lot of professional service customers.

“The Westown address is still popular, and these plans were built with a size that’s really easy to demise, so it’s very flexible from a use standpoint,” he said. “There’s just been a really timeless design that’s really worked for us to continue to repurpose.”

Kaduce said R&R Realty began design work with its in-house design staff last year to ensure that each building has its own unique character. He said the expected timeline for the improvements is about three months.

He said R&R wants the Three Fountains Office Park to be part of the evolution and growing vibrancy that is occurring in the western metro.

“As we look at his corridor, looking at what West Bank did to this area and the hopes of redevelopment of Valley West Mall, we want to be part of that,” Kaduce said. “We’re putting money into these projects and we want to be part of the success in this area.

“As a developer, we’re excited about what the future is,” he said. “Occupancy here has remained strong. We have a lot of customers who want to be here and we want to make sure these buildings continue to reflect the vibrancy of the area.”