More than five years after initial plans were envisioned, momentum is building at West Glen Town Center. Tenants are opening their doors at a “lifestyle center” that has encouraged not only local business growth but also the development of other similar mixed-use urban centers in Greater Des Moines.

“I think we’ve already been mimicked and it’s a compliment to us,” said William Van Orsdel, lead developer and investor for West Glen, located west of Interstate 35 on George M. Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines. “It’s the wave of the future.”

Construction is nearing completion on three main components of the development. Town Center East, a 186,000-square-foot building with retail and residential space that fronts a promenade, was designed with a “new urbanist” approach, with materials, style and depth that create the illusion of several buildings. Two buildings comprise the Avenue of the Arts for a total of more than 48,000 square feet of retail space.

These Main Street Village buildings join several others that have been completed in the past year and a half. SuperTarget opened in July 2004. Midwest Clothiers completed a building earlier this year that now houses its clothing store, Sarto, as well as Siren, a women’s fashion boutique, and Wireless Universe. Joseph’s Jewelry Stores completed an 18,000-square-foot showroom and corporate headquarters in June.

Van Orsdel said about 250,000 square feet of space remains to be built, including The Hub at West Glen, a performing arts building and Town Center West. The North Village, a 17-acre office site located directly north of SuperTarget, will likely be the final phase of the project. Project specifics will likely be dictated by market demand, he added.

Ladco Development Inc. has announced plans for the Village of Ponderosa, a mixed-use development located north of West Glen that Van Orsdel said will complement the town center.

“We’ve been very pleased, not only with the pace of construction but even more importantly with the pace of tenants being accepted,” Van Orsdel said. Tenants have been secured for about 75 percent of the available space and 25 people are already on a waiting list for the town center’s 61 apartments, though leasing will not begin until Jan. 1. “We are building momentum that will carry us forward a lot more rapidly. It’s a lot of hard work to get it this far, but it has come to fruition with the vision that we held.”

Van Orsdel said West Glen was planned with the hope of serving as a location for locally owned businesses to expand their presence in the Greater Des Moines area.

“We felt that the West Des Moines momentum was strong enough to attract a lot of retailers and get them to think about expansion,” Van Orsdel said.

Three Dog Bakery, Sticks and Schaffer’s all have chosen West Glen as the site for their second Greater Des Moines location. It will be the 15th location for Boesen the Florist and the fourth for Campbell’s Nutrition. Kathy’s Fashions will relocate to West Glen from Windsor Heights next month. (Schaffer’s and Boesen’s will share a free-standing building scheduled for construction in 2006).

“We had looked for a second location for quite some time and we needed to be in an area that would allow dogs to come in, a place that was easily accessible and in an area that’s dog friendly,” said Diana Emehiser, owner of Three Dog Bakery. The business model will be similar to that at her existing store and bakery in Valley Junction, but she hopes to benefit from the traffic at West Glen’s dog park, as well as the development’s pet-friendly apartments. The store will install several dog treat machines throughout the park.

Diane Lahodny, owner of Campbell’s Nutrition, will take a different approach with her West Glen store when it opens in mid-February. The store will offer soft goods and a line of vegan shoes, leather-free options for Greater Des Moines vegans, and Lahodny also plans to “focus on local products wherever possible.”

Sticks will open a store on the Avenue of the Arts – marked by a large exterior mural – in April. Marketing manager Katie Wengert said the interior space will be different from the East Village store, and the company hopes to incorporate different lines of merchandise into its new site.

Several others business owners have launched their new businesses at West Glen with the hope that it will serve as a jumping-off point for future expansion in Greater Des Moines.

“We have a business plan that calls for more than one spa, and we felt this would be a good first location for us,” said Rhonda Marcucci, who opened The Spa at West Glen with business partner Brenton Koch. “We didn’t want to be in a shopping mall and we didn’t want to be off by ourselves. We wanted synergy with businesses that service our targeted market.”

Marcucci, a certified public accountant and former business development executive, and Koch, a facial plastic surgeon, opened the doors of the full-service day spa on Dec. 7 for pedicures, manicures and retail and gift certificate sales. The rest of the salon, offering facials, massages, body treatments, cosmetic services and medical spa treatments, will open next month. The owners are offering all new services at half price “until we’re perfect,” Marcucci said.

The Spa will develop quarterly menus with treatments suitable for the season, such as a spring facial that prepares your skin for the intense summer sunshine. The owners also included a meeting room that can be used to hold a business meeting, entertain clients or host a bridal shower.

At Salon Fusion, owner Randy Tran is putting the finishing touches on what he says is a trendy, modern salon. Though the business will focus on haircuts and coloring treatments, he has also included several tanning beds, some of which are voice-guided and equipped with aromatherapy and iPod hookups, as well as an oxygen bar, Only Oxygen, with 32 oxygen flavors – “one more than Baskin Robbins,” Tran points out.

Hair salon customers will have access to a full drink menu, including beer and wine, at no additional charge, as well as valet parking, coat check services and free oxygen and tanning while you wait. Only Oxygen will provide computers, allowing customers to shop Salon Fusion’s Web site for retail products and make salon appointments.

“Our target is three (salons in Greater Des Moines) in five years,” Tran said. The second will be focused on medical spa treatments and the third will be all tanning.

Diane Young will open Trieste (pronounced tree-est), a furniture store that will feature European-style reproductions and unique and hand-painted accent pieces ranging from $5 to $5,000. At age 60, she is transferring more than 20 years of experience in interior design into her new store, just after her husband retired.

“Life begins at 60,” she said. She is undecided as to whether she will open a second store in the future.

Angela Williams is an attorney who left behind a career at Maytag Corp. to open the Great Frame Up, a custom framing store that opened the week of Nov. 28.

“This is something that would allow me to use the other side of my brain,” said Williams, who also owns a consulting business.

She is also one of a handful of Chicago-area transplants who have chosen West Glen to start their business. Marcucci is from Chicago and spent much of her career traveling across the country. Tran also grew up in the Windy City and spent the last two years opening salons in Boston. He has incorporated his big-city experiences into Salon Fusion, but “not with Chicago-type prices.”

Williams grew up surrounded by similar mixed-use developments that generated pedestrian traffic. She expects to see the same thing in West Glen, and believes her business and others will benefit from the level of activity a mixed-use development generates.

“I think it’s needed,” she said of the West Glen concept. “I think people will gravitate to a place where they can walk around and look at the shops and vendors and see the business owners.”

Many West Glen tenants say they were encouraged early on by the noticeable commitment to locally owned businesses, which in some cases was the final bit of encouragement they needed to move forward with their business plans. They hope their businesses will benefit from the collaborative efforts of tenants and the joint commitment to seeing West Glen thrive.

“All of the tenants have that in mind,” Tran said. “Our goal is to get people to West Glen. It’s an exciting new area and I think it’s going to support itself.”

Marcucci said the national chain stores that have settled into West Glen and Jordan Creek Town Center will benefit the community by preventing many people from heading out of town to shop at those stores.

However, “There’s an over-commercialization in this country that’s scary to me,” she said. “To be in a place where there aren’t a lot of chains is great. It allows people to invest in their communities.”

SIDEBAR

Other tenants:

Crave Bar, Grill & Fondue

A fondue restaurant that will be the second for Davenport owners Dan and Colin Sullivan.

Location: Avenue of the Arts North on the plaza

Scheduled to open March 2006

Wok in Motion

An exhibition stir-fry and sushi restaurant locally owned by Hon Wong and Michael Chyi.

Location: Avenue of the Arts North

Scheduled to open in January

Plato’s Closet

Trendy second-hand clothing store carrying name-brand apparel. This franchise store, the first for Plato’s Closet in Greater Des Moines, is locally owned by Steve and Kim Olson.

Location: Town Center East

Opened Nov. 15

Tonic Lounge

Upscale New Orleans-style lounge owned by Marc Mundt. Touted as a haven for University of Iowa fans, it will host Hawkeye Nation.

Location: Avenue of the Arts North

Opened Nov. 15

Los Cabos

Mexican restaurant

Location: Town Center East

Scheduled to open in late December

Kathy’s Fashions:

The second location for owner Kathy Dunbar’s women’s clothing store.

Location: Town Center East

Scheduled to open in January

Also at West Glen:

Frenchway Cleaners

Paris Nails

Jenny Craig weight loss center

H&R Block

Jimmy John’s

First Bank