Question about Downtown DSM

[wartknight]

I am not from the DSM area originally and since moving to Ankeny 6 years ago, have spent very little time in downtown DSM.
I was down there for lunch today with a client and walked through the skywalks a little. Has there always been that much empty commercial/retail space in the downtown area?
It seemed like every store front was empty.
Was there a time when all that was full or was it overdeveloped?

 

[Stewo]

I'd say that the past few years have really killed off many of the stores.

 

[LamaLooper]

I have worked on/off in downtown Des Moines. Retail space in the skywalks has declined to the point of non-existence. I think Younker's pulling out was the doomsday sentence for any "real" retail business down there. On the brighter side...Court Avenue is rocking and overall the whole downtown is a much and cleaner place than it used to be.

 

[Stewo]

I have worked on/off in downtown Des Moines. Retail space in the skywalks has declined to the point of non-existence. I think Younker's pulling out was the doomsday sentence for any "real" retail business down there. On the brighter side...Court Avenue is rocking and overall the whole downtown is a much and cleaner place than it used to be.

+1

Downtown DSM is actually a pretty decent place. There's a lot more going on there then you would think.

 

[delt4cy]

The skywalk is stuck in the 80's. Until it gets a makeover and viable/visable connections to street level entrances the system is doomed to fail IMO. It is very nice during the winter months though.

The traditional "core" of downtown is taking a pounding with Wellmark heading to the gateway and a number of outdated office spaces. I think a new Hotel to connect WFA and the rest of downtown would be a tremendous addition.

Overall the downtown redevelopment we've seen in the past 2-5 years has been phenomenal though. I actually lived downtown last year and would never have considered it 5 years ago.

 

[jumbopackage]

The skywalks are sort of outdated, I would say. Malls in general are sort of on the decline, and the skywalk (which was barely a mall in the first place) is no exception.

A little redevelopment would be great in the next few years, but I wouldn't trade what's happened in the court ave. area for the skywalks at all.

They are great in terms of utility, though.

 

[Knownothing]

I work in Downtown Des Moines. I think what you wanted to say was that Retail in the skywalks is doom to fail. The actual skywalks while outdated are great in the winter time.

 

[Clones21]

I work in Downtown Des Moines. I think what you wanted to say was that Retail in the skywalks is doom to fail. The actual skywalks while outdated are great in the winter time.

Amen.
+4,000,000,001

 

[Al_4_State]

I've only lived here for about a year, but as others have mentioned, the entertainment scene downtown has absolutely exploded recently, and I think that is huge. I would much rather have that than retail. I think people generally go to the burbs, or right in their neighborhoods for retail, and head downtown for fun. I think if downtown keeps a mix of corporate offices and strong entertainment options, it will be just fine...

 

[AIT]

Parts of downtown Des Moines are thriving, but the skywalks aren't one of those parts. They're very utilitarian, and serve their purpose well. Retail in the skywalk has been bad for as long as I can remember, and it's gotten steadily worse.

 

[bufante]

Minneapolis has a great version of our skywalk system and they were doing fine last time I was there, a couple of years ago.

The question is, how much time do you have to shop when you are downtown for work? And how much would you shop on the weekends down there?

 

[CYdTracked]

For awhile a lot of the empty spots filled back up and I'd say just within the past year a lot of those same spots have closed up. Tough economy and the fact that a lot of your customers are during the lunch hours makes it a tough place to survive. I have always felt that if you started a food place you'd survive though. I'd bet a Jimmy Johns would do a TON of business downtown since Subway and Quiznos always have huge lines plus their sandwiches are more affordable.

 

[wartknight]

Did I really post this in the rivals forum? Oops.

 

[mplscyclone]

Minneapolis has a great version of our skywalk system and they were doing fine last time I was there, a couple of years ago.

The question is, how much time do you have to shop when you are downtown for work? And how much would you shop on the weekends down there?

I'd term it more like "Des Moines has a poor man's version of Minneapolis' Skywalk System".

I will say that in Minneapolis Block E is struggling a lot right now. Also, you get to to almost every location in Downtown (minus the Metrodome) all via skywalk. There is also a Target, and awesome restaurants and dinner options.

I just feel like all of the action in Downtown is Court Ave, and the skywalk is geared towards the working/lunch time crowd.

In Minneapolis, the skywalk is tailored to the workers, people that live there, and the people from the burbs looking for something to do.

Des Moines has a long way to go yet, but has had a lot of positives the past few years...

 

[isubeatle]

i know that after the caucases, Newsweek(i think) said that downtown has really improved and becoming quite nice. it listed some restaurants to eat at, and i heard that those places were booked solid for about 6 months after that.

 

[jumbopackage]

i know that after the caucases, Newsweek(i think) said that downtown has really improved and becoming quite nice. it listed some restaurants to eat at, and i heard that those places were booked solid for about 6 months after that.

There were a couple of articles about it.

I still have to talk people off of ledges sometimes when they come here for work and whatnot, but most everyone thinks it's great (or at least pretty decent) after they've been.

I'd put Court Ave and the East Village up against any town the size of Des Moines' entertainment districts, and quite a few that are considerably larger as well.

 

[CYdTracked]

What they need to do is put some hotels and entertainment near Wells Fargo arena. If you go to Omaha or KC you'll notice there is plenty of lodging and entertainment within walking distance of their nice new arenas while WFA sucks for parking, have to trek a ways to Court Ave. and hotels are few when you consider the ammount of fans that say a 1st and 2nd round NCAA tourney site would need to accomodate.

 

[jsb]

I am not from the DSM area originally and since moving to Ankeny 6 years ago, have spent very little time in downtown DSM.
I was down there for lunch today with a client and walked through the skywalks a little. Has there always been that much empty commercial/retail space in the downtown area?
It seemed like every store front was empty.
Was there a time when all that was full or was it overdeveloped?

The skywalk area is in trouble, but downtown Des Moines is so much better than it used to be. Lots more restaurants, better bars, etc.

The one place that has really grown in the last 8 years is the East Village. When I moved to Des Moines in 2001, the East Village was crap. But now it is so cool. I hope the bad economy doesn't kill it.

 

[jumbopackage]

The skywalk area is in trouble, but downtown Des Moines is so much better than it used to be. Lots more restaurants, better bars, etc.

The one place that has really grown in the last 8 years is the East Village. When I moved to Des Moines in 2001, the East Village was crap. But now it is so cool. I hope the bad economy doesn't kill it.

Nothing against West Des Moines, but I was out at Jordan Creek the other day and looked around and realized that pretty much every place out there - every restaurant, every store, everything with rare exception - is a national chain. Nothing unique or local. Generic "Everytown USA". Contrast that with downtown, where nearly every place is unique to Central Iowa, if not Des Moines.

I don't mind the chains, to be honest, but I much prefer good, local places to generic chains, no matter how good the chain.

East Villiage and Court Ave are almost ALL local places, and the places that aren't entirely local are generally at least regionally local (i.e. Legends).

 

[capitalcityguy]

Nothing against West Des Moines, but I was out at Jordan Creek the other day and looked around and realized that pretty much every place out there - every restaurant, every store, everything with rare exception - is a national chain. Nothing unique or local. Generic "Everytown USA". Contrast that with downtown, where nearly every place is unique to Central Iowa, if not Des Moines.

Welcome to the suburbs.:dull:

The retail downtown has shifted to the East Village. Eventually you'll see more open up around the Western Gateway park once the sculture park opens later this summer. This is going to be an unbelievable boast to downtown DSM once completed. The core will continue to be a challenge and I'm not sure what the answer is. More residents would help. If the project that is planned for the old Younkers building ever takes shape, that will be huge.

I agree with others that downtown has had an amazing transformation that last few years. It wasn't long ago, that the place to be for entertainment was the western suburbs. That has really shifted back downtown within the last couple of years. I can't believe the number of people you see on the weekends in the Court Ave area. It is shoulder to shoulder crowds in many places.