Who will fill up the 1.5 million square feet of office space that will soon be available in downtown? That’s a question a lot of people are asking. Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield’s headquarters development is moving right along and so is Aviva’s new headquarters out in West Des Moines. We just got the huge new Davis Brown Tower and along with it, their previously vacated office space in the Financial Center.

According to some, this huge space vacancy may affect not only income to downtown property owners but also could raise taxes for homeowners and cut revenue for city services as well as Des Moines Public Schools because more vacancy means decreased commercial property values as well as local condo residents’ home values.

Right now Des Moines receives about $140 million in taxes coming from commercial property owners. If the vacated space is not re-leased soon, that’s a huge impact to our local economy. Right now before these big moves, there’s already an awful lot of empty retail space through out the skywalk, the whole bottom floor of the Bank of America Building, most of buildings along Locust Street between 7th and 6th and in particularly along where I live, the Liberty Building has floors 4, 5, 6, and 7 empty and the Des Moines Building across the street is mostly empty. Didn’t the city or county need new office space or courthouse space? I just don’t get why they don’t lease up some of this space.

Commercial developers will need to be more creative in the packages they offer to lure some business from suburbia back to or for the first time to downtown. I know the economy is not to great right now, but its my opinion that the city should consider this a number one priority act and do something now to get the current glut of space rented before even more is dumped onto the market.

My wish list of things that I would like to see go into some of this empty space includes:

• More fast food, like Wendys, McDonalds, Chipolte, Pizza Hut, etc. that stay open till 9pm
• Some chain restaurants like Applebees, Chilli’s, or Ruby Tuesdays
• A movie theatre showing first run, mainstream films
• Mainstream retail, like Old Navy, the Gap, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy
• A grocery store, like Trader Joe’s or Hy-Vee
• A video store, like Blockbusters
• A department store, like Nordstroms or Macys

I can dream, some day, if not today.

By MulderDSMcloseAuthor: MulderDSM Name: Larry Bradshaw
Email: admin@livingdowntowndesmoines.com
Site: http://www.larrybradshaw.net
About: Please see www.larrybradshaw.netSee Authors Posts (383)

Rate this story:

Similar Posts:

None found

Permalink | Trackback URL | 1,425 views
Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Taxes