Des Moines Business Record
Jan. 19, 2008

Small businesses relocate for Wellmark’s new downtown campus

Stacks of invoices, family photographs and old newspapers clutter Charles Eldridge’s small office at Eldridge Welding & Machine Inc. in downtown Des Moines. Taped on a wall above the notes and industrial drawings is the pen used to sign the 70-year-old building away to the city.

Before business closed on Tuesday, Sept. 4, Eldridge used that pen to sign a stack of papers that were reviewed by his attorney and notarized by a city official. Eldridge approved the transaction and signed the papers. For Eldridge, closing the doors on a building that has housed the family business for four generations wasn’t easy.

In 1937, Eldridge’s grandfather bought a home at 523 14th St. in downtown Des Moines and converted it to a welding and machine shop. It was passed on to Eldridge’s father, then to him, and then he passed it on to his son Scott, who now holds control of the company.

“We talked and talked and talked and had the lawyer come down,” Eldridge said. “This has been going on for a long time because I didn’t want to move. There are a lot of family ties here.”

Many small business owners located on the footprint of Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s planned 500,000-square-foot headquarters feel the same way as Eldridge does about relocating their businesses. Businesses between 12th and 14th streets will have to either relocate or close by February or April, depending on how much demolition is needed to make way for the insurer’s new headquarters. Wellmark has agreed to pay $12 million to relocate the businesses. The city has already awarded a construction period tax abatement up to $1.4 million in an attempt to lessen the burden of relocating the businesses.

Wellmark had not comment for this story as of press time.

Fear of the future and the loss of loyal customers rests heavily on the mind of Michael Garner, owner of Elegant Touch Cleaners, who has already had to relocate once before. His dry cleaning business was displaced from 15th Street and Grand Avenue when Meredith Corp. expanded its headquarters downtown.

“It’s still frightening; it’s very frightening every single time because you don’t know how much of your customer base you’re going to lose,” he said. “If we have to move outside of the downtown core, I’m screwed. I am just screwed, it will be just like starting the business over again, and I am really afraid of that.”

The move for Garner is going to be the hardest part. He has to relocate his staff and equipment from his location of 17 years. “I’ve had many sleepless nights,” he said. “I didn’t get all this gray hair for nothing. I’ve got employees to think about. I am real concerned.” Garner has found a new location near his old store, but wouldn’t reveal the new location until the deal is finalized.

Matt Anderson, an economic development coordinator for the city of Des Moines, said the city has been involved with three relocations, which have all gone “smoothly.” The majority of relocations have been done privately through Wellmark and the building owners.

“I think it went as smooth as it could. Asking someone to move their business is always difficult,” Anderson said. “It’s been a team effort, and I commend those businesses that are moving. The business owners were very cooperative with assisting with us.”

Brad Smith has co-owned Lucky’s, a small corner bar at 11th Street and Grand Avenue for five years. After hearing that Wellmark would stay downtown, he knew Lucky’s wouldn’t relocate and would be closing for good. Smith and his two business partners own two other venues in Des Moines.

“We’re not crying in our beers or anything; we’ve known it’s inevitable,” Smith said. “It’s too bad that another cool old building is being crushed by another parking garage and insurance building. I would much rather see this be torn down for something cool instead of another lame parking garage and insurance building. That pretty much vacuums culture away from downtown.”

Smith said that the building’s owner, Joe Coppola, dealt directly with the city for the sale of the real estate.

“I’m sure it will be beneficial for downtown in the long run,” he said. “It’s hard to stand in the way of progress.”

Garner, whose 1,500-square-foot dry cleaning facility at 1220 High St. serves downtown residents, has mixed emotions about the Wellmark decision. He’s not opposed to the insurer building downtown and thinks it will help the downtown area thrive.

“I think that Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a good thing, I’m glad they’re not moving to West Des Moines,” he said. “We’re just hoping that the city and Wellmark are fair with us. We know we have to go.”

For the handful of business owners who have dealt with the city, fair is what the city has been.

“The city was actually been quite good to deal with, in all honesty,” said Brad Vasey, who owns Howard Martin Body Service along with his father, Fred. “Downtown is changing, and it has to change.” We realize that, and the city has treated us fair.”

Vasey said the city and Wellmark showed him and his father a handful of buildings throughout downtown and Des Moines as possible new locations. Unable to find a suitable site, the Vaseys, decided to construct a new building at Southwest 61st Street and Park Avenue in Des Moines.

Leaving the 61-year-old building at 528 14th St. for a new building in Des Moines is a change that 64-year-old Fred Vasey saw coming.

“We knew this time was coming; it wasn’t a total surprise. We see what is happening in downtown Des Moines,” he said. “It’s good for downtown Des Moines. It’s a real big move because we’re going to lose a percentage of our business until we get our location established out there.”

Eldridge was pleased the evening he signed the papers from the city. After hearing terrible stories from people who had to relocate in the past, Eldridge couldn’t be happier. “It has been handled much better than I thought it was going to be,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about dealing with the city, and this was very pleasant. [Philip Wagman, of the city of Des Moines Real Estate Division] didn’t pull my chain and try to deceive me.”

Eldridge Welding & Machine will move two miles from the site where his grandfather started the business. Eldridge said the new location at the corner of Illinois Street and University Avenue will have more space and be better suited to handle the heavy tooling equipment used by the company. The city has agreed to cover all of Eldridge’s moving costs.

“We’re sorry we’re going, but we’re going to a bigger place and we’re pleased with that,” he said.

Des Moines Business Record
Jan. 23, 2008

They see it as a peak in their careers.

Bill Knapp II and Gerry Neugent, the top two executives at Knapp Properties Inc., have acquired 100 percent of the company and a 20 percent share in William C. Knapp LC, the primary holding company for Knapp family holdings and investments. The transaction will be finalized by the end of the month.

“It’s a high point for me,” Neugent said, who has been the president of Knapp Properties since 1993.

Bill Knapp II, a nephew of Bill Knapp and chairman of Knapp Properties since 1999, said he’s had a lot of opportunities to grow, even before he thought he was prepared.

“I’ve been given opportunities way before I’ve deserved them,” Knapp II said. “Bill has been very generous to give myself and Gerry this opportunity. We plan on taking advantage of it and will do the best we can to protect and grow the assets of the Knapp family and our partners.”

Collectively, Knapp Properties and William C. Knapp LC control nearly 2.5 million square feet of retail and commercial space and more than 7,000 acres of farm and undeveloped land in Central Iowa and the state. William C. Knapp LC, the holding company for most of the land Knapp Properties manages, has 20 partners.

Bill Knapp has been able to continually increase the value of his real estate holdings for 15 years because of his ability to remain flexible and purchase large amounts of land in the right places without having debt on it, Knapp II said. This is a philosophy Neugent and Knapp II will continue during their tenure at Knapp Properties.

“Bill always said if you buy enough land in enough different places, there will be some sort of development on it,” Knapp II said.

Knapp’s transition out of the company has been in the works for years. He had asked Neugent and Knapp II to start preparing his estate for his death. Knapp didn’t want his family trust to inherit the management company when he passes away, Knapp II said. Knapp, 81, still has an office at company headquarters in West Des Moines and plans to stay active within the company.

“We still vote on things all the time,” Neugent said. “Just sometimes (Knapp’s) vote carries more weight.”

For the past three or four years, most of Knapp Properties’ day-to-day operations have been handled by Neugent and Knapp II, so the announcement of the sale wasn’t a shock for either of the new owners, but a seamless transition. For Knapp II, it isn’t about filling his uncle’s shoes, but continuing his legacy that’s important.

“He’s almost like a legend in his own time,” Knapp II said. “There isn’t a person connected to real estate in Des Moines that doesn’t have a Bill Knapp story, that’s worked for Bill Knapp, bought from Bill Knapp, sold to Bill Knapp or partnered with Bill Knapp in some shape or form. I don’t think it’s possible to fill Bill’s shoes.”

Nor did the announcement of the transition didn’t come as a surprise to others in the commercial real estate community.

Kevin Crowley, chief operating officer of Iowa Realty Commercial, told the Business Record in a phone call that he thinks the change in ownership will be smooth for the company.

“Bill Knapp is an icon, and it’s tough to see someone like that transition out of business,” he said. “At the same time, Gerry Neugent and Bill II are great businessmen and have been the guys that have kept Bill in the game for a long time. They have great vision. It should be a smooth transition and a great opportunity for those guys.”

Rick Tollakson, president of Hubbell Realty Co., said he knew Knapp would put strong leaders in his place.

“Bill II and Gerry have been with Bill for a long time,” Tollakson said. “I really think this is Bill giving them greater opportunities in the organization. Knapp Properties is a top-ranked company, and they are one of the best. We have a good business relationship with them, and they are great competitors.”

Tollakson said his company has learned a lot about Knapp as a competitor and respects the impact he has made to the marketplace.

Tollakson doesn’t see Knapp sitting still after the sale of the company is complete. “I think real estate is in his blood,” Tollakson said. “You just don’t stop doing what you have a passion for just because one day you wake up and want to enjoy a few other things. He will always have a passion for real estate and a passion for Des Moines.”

photo caption: Bill Knapp has been in the real estate industry for 58 years. Last week he announced the sale of Knapp Properties Inc. to executives Bill Knapp II and Gerry Neugent. The deal will be finalized at the end of the month.

Des Moines Business Record
Dec. 19, 2007

Whether it was the Davis Brown Tower in downtown Des Moines or Aviva USA’s new headquarters in West Des Moines, 2007 was a solid year for the local commercial real estate industry.

Major announcements from two of the largest employers in Greater Des Moines set the theme last summer. In August, Aviva USA announced it would relocate its headquarters downtown Des Moines to a 71-acre parcel in West Des Moines. A month later, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced it would build a headquarters between 11th and 14th streets in downtown Des Moines.

Bill Knapp II, chairman and chief executive officer of Knapp Properties Inc., said 2007 was one of the biggest commercial real estate years he has seen in a long time for downtown commercial movement.

“If you put Wellmark and Aviva and the two hospitals together in 2007, when they were all announced, that would have to be the largest year I can ever remember in the metro area,” he said. “The last two or three years, we’ve been fortunate to have large projects, most which have taken place downtown.”

Rick Tollakson, president of Hubbell Realty Co., agreed that the Wellmark and Aviva campus announcements made large waves in the commercial real estate community.

“The biggest impact we saw in commercial real estate was with Wellmark and Aviva moving out of downtown,” Tollakson said. “Not just moving out of downtown, but they are moving into their own buildings. That’s going to free up a lot of leased space.”

“A lot” may be an understatement; if you factor in the relocation of the Davis Law Firm to its new building, downtown Des Moines will see 750,000 square feet of office space freed up.

“Periodically, we’ve had trends like that in our marketplace, where owners (want their own buildings),” Tollakson said. “It just takes a while for the market to absorb it.”

Downtown Des Moines wasn’t the only Central Iowa newsmaker in 2007. Two major hospital expansions were announced. Ground was broken on Ankeny’s Prairie Trail, a 1,000-plus-acre complex that will house a town center and planned office space. The Village of Ponderosa in West Des Moines saw some of its 330,000 square feet of retail and commercial space filled by VisionBank, Estilo Salon & Day Spa and Central Financial Group. West Glen Town Center in West Des Moines and the East Village in Des Moines both experienced continued growth.

In early December, Marsh and McLennan Cos. Inc. announced it would expand its new Urbandale facility. The $31 million would expand the building under construction at the Paragon Office Park by another 51,000 square feet, making space for an additional 450 workers.

For Kevin Crowley, chief operating officer of Iowa Realty Commercial, seeing the Marsh and McLennan transaction slip through his company’s hands wasn’t easy.

“In 2007 we lost the Marsh deal to R&R Realty Group, and that hurt,” he said. “But I can’t tell you the number of $500,000 to $2 million deals that we did that are just the bread and butter of the business. I’d rather do that than have one King Kong deal.”

Tollakson said CB Richard Ellis/Hubbell Commercial had another record year and pointed to a solid year of occupancy in the commercial sector. “Leasing seems to be continuing on; we always like it to be stronger, but it’s pretty steady,” he said. “For the most part, the commercial sector was pretty strong.”

Gerry Neugent, president and chief operating officer of Knapp Properties, said his company’s office and industrial leasing was also “active” in 2007.

“We’ve had as good of a year as we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We have had a good volume of deals we leased.”

Crowley said leasing was “soft” for Iowa Realty Commercial and doesn’t predict more movement on the leasing side until 2010.

“The traditional office space sales are soft,” he said. “There isn’t as much velocity in the market that we’ve seen in past years. I don’t see it picking up or changing until 2010.”

Although national headlines painted a grim picture of the credit crunch and a plummeting housing market, the commercial markets in Greater Des Moines felt few effects in 2007.

“Iowa is not the coasts,” Tollakson said. “We don’t have 15 to 20 percent appreciation in home prices.”

Tollakson said because most of the credit crunch problems happened later in 2007, the effects weren’t really felt by commercial brokers. He said most brokers started dealing with people who were “serious” about buying and selling, and knew what it’s like to deal with the financial marketplace.

Crowley agreed and said the credit crunch that is plaguing the coasts and larger cities won’t hit Des Moines’ commercial sector.

“Overall, the credit crunch shouldn’t hurt us. In Greater Des Moines we’re really insolated from the major swings that the national media really like to talk about all the time,” he said. “We’re not going to see what is happening in Florida or California.”

Crowley did note one effect from the credit crunch that he saw here.

“In commercial development for the first time lenders are looking beyond the partnerships that are doing the development and looking at personal credit also,” he said. “It’s going to be business like it used to be, with stiffer underwriting.”

Des Moines Business Record
Jan. 2, 2008

Another strong year appears to lie ahead for area commercial real estate developers in 2008, with a flurry of activity on the horizon. With solid groundwork laid in 2007 for major development projects across Greater Des Moines, developers see an opportunity for more growth.

“Activity breeds activity,” said Rick Tollakson, president of Hubbell Realty Co. “You’ve got a lot of projects under construction, so that puts a lot of people to work building projects.”

Area developers eye the large investments made by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Aviva USA and the two new area hospitals as a sign for strong development growth in 2008.

“The Greater Des Moines area is kind of like an oasis because of the growth generated by Wellmark’s new building downtown, Aviva’s building in West Des Moines and the two new hospitals,” said Kevin Crowley, chief operating officer of Iowa Realty Commercial. “That represents just under a billion dollars in new construction. That type of activity creates other activity, so I consider that a real fortunate thing for this market.”

Although Aviva and Wellmark won’t move into their new quarters in 2008, developers still take note of the large amount of Class A office space that will be left vacant in the wake of those two projects. By 2010, there could be as much as 750,000 square feet of open office space in downtown Des Moines.
For some, the warning signs are already there.

“The big caution flags that are going up in my mind are over downtown Des Moines office space,” said Bill Knapp II, chairman and CEO of Knapp Properties Inc. “There is a lot of vacant space; you have probably the most significant amount of vacancy in downtown in any short amount of time in the modern history of downtown.”

Outside of the core of downtown Des Moines, developers will be keeping a close eye on two landmark development projects in progress. Ankeny’s Prairie Trail and the Village of Ponderosa in West Des Moines both offer a new style of development -- a planned community where people will live, work and be entertained that is a new approach for Central Iowa.

Knapp said the idea of “new urbanism” projects in Ankeny and West Des Moines is “exciting,” and he is eager to see how it will develop in 2008.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how these projects go,” he said. “They are well on their way and in strong financial hands, so I’m just anxious to see how Iowans take to living, working and being entertained in the same area.”

Knapp Properties isn’t the only developer watching the new urbanism projects.

“[Dennis] Albaugh’s Prairie Trail is an unusual type of project,” Tollakson said. “We watch not only what we have, but what our competitors are doing. Variety adds intrigue to the marketplace,” he said.

Though the housing market slump and credit crunch loom over the nation’s residential sector, their effects on the commercial sector might be limited in 2008. Last year developers started to see tighter underwriting requirements and a need to have more capital on hand, a trend that is likely to continue.

“You’re going to see more developers putting real equity in their projects,” Knapp said. “[The housing slump] isn’t going to be a huge problem, but it will have some effect.”

What raises concern for commercial developers more than the housing slump is the upcoming election. By the beginning of 2008, the he-said, she-said game called politics will be full steam ahead and will rear its head in the economy.

“The one thing that will always bother you about going into ’08 is that it’s an election year, and we’re constantly going to be hearing about how bad things are and how this person is going to make our lives better,” Tollakson said. “It’s that negativism that makes people uneasy. There gets to be an anxious feeling with people, and so they tend to hold back a little bit.”

Crowley thinks the economy will stay strong for most of 2008; it’s after the election he’s worried about for commercial developers.

“After the election it will be a toss-up, and I am not even sure if it matters which team wins,” he said. “The economy usually takes a pause after the election.”

Others in the market feel the election impact might be small on the commercial sector and see taxes as the big issue.

“I think taxes are going to be raised after the election,” said Gerry Neugent, president of Knapp Properties Inc. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat, we can’t sustain the deficit we’re having while at war without raising taxes, and that does concern people like us who are in the investment and capital assets business.”

Looking past the upcoming election and housing slump hurdles shouldn’t be a problem for most of the area commercial developers who have an optimistic outlook for 2008.

For Hubbell, 2008 may be another big year. On schedule to be completed in 2008 are its Drake University student housing project and its Court Avenue apartments and condominiums.

“2008 on the commercial side is going to be very strong,” Tollakson said. “We feel pretty bullish for next year. Everyone is predicting a much better year in 2008 than this year in 2007, and 2007 was a pretty good year for us.”

Iowa Realty Commercial has the same zeal for 2008.

“Overall we continue to have growth in our sales numbers,” Crowley said. “I believe 2008 is going to be great.”

Des Moines Business Record
Nov. 12, 2007

An Iowa State University official sees it as an investment in the future.

The school plans to spend more than $150 million on proposed construction projects, most of which will break ground by the end of next year.

“It’s an investment in the future of the university; it’s an investment in the future of Iowa,” said Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance at Iowa State.

“In recent years it’s typical to have two or three major construction projects going on,” Madden said. “This is more major projects than you would normally find.”

With eight major projects taking place next year, including renovations at Jack Trice Stadium and a new $80 million research laboratory for biorenewable fuels, to be completed in 2012, Iowa State is taking aggressive steps toward its future.

“If you look at each of these, you’ll find they are critically needed,” Madden said.

Some are needed more than others. In 2004, the College of Veterinary Medicine was placed on limited accreditation because its facilities were deemed inadequate. Two years later, the college broke ground on a $48 million teaching and diagnostic laboratory in hopes of returning the college to full accreditation. The project is scheduled to be completed in the fall semester of 2008.

“Those buildings are 30 years old,” Madden said about the College of Veterinary Medicine facilities. “As medical technology in the field changes, those buildings have become obsolete.”

The university isn’t only updating buildings; it’s looking toward the future. Iowa State is planning to build an $80 million research facility to keep pace with the boom in alternative fuels. The Biorenewables Complex will be located on the west side of the campus between the College of Design and Howe Hall. The complex will house a research laboratory and the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering. The state approved $32 million in funding for the lab last spring. Iowa State will search for additional state and private funding for the rest of the complex. The facility is to be completed in 2010.

“The biorenewables facility really reflects the current state commitment in the area of the biorenewables,” Madden said. “The state wants to be a leader in that, and we’re pleased that the legislation provided the funding for that.”

The chemistry department will also receive a new building. Construction of a $74.5 million building is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008. The 82,000-square-foot facility will create additional classrooms and laboratories for the department. The Iowa Board of Regents approved the project at its Oct. 31 meeting. Renovations to Gilman Hall and Davidson Hall are included in the $74.5 million budget. The project will be funded with $15.6 million in private funding and $58.9 million from the state.

Jacob Petrich, professor and chairman of the department of chemistry, said the expansion for the department was “critical” to the success of the school’s future success and pointed to the ebbing number of faculty as a result of the poor facilities.

“In the past 10 or 12 years, all of our competition has attained a new building or addition,” he said. “You can’t hire faculty if you don’t have the facility for them to work in.”

The last major addition to the chemistry department was in 1964.

Petrich said the new building will have a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that will allow for more laboratory-intensive research. He said the department’s current system is inadequate.

Another key project that will take place next year is renovations to the Maple, Willow and Larch residential hall dining center and the Oak and Elm residential hall dining center. The Maple, Willow and Larch dining facility will receive a $13 million update. The new dining center will function as a community center similar to the Union Drive Community Center that was built in 2003 on the west side of campus. The new facility will seat 560 students and will house six food specialty stations. Another $2 million will be invested in smaller renovations at the Oak and Elm dining hall.

Carol Petersen, associate director for ISU Dining, said she saw a “large demand” for a dining facility with a variety of choices on the east side of campus. “We wanted to make the east side of campus more popular to the students.”

With strong tax revenues in Central Iowa and low interest rates, Madden said it’s a good time to issue bonds for the upcoming projects. “We’re in a favorable financing climate and this is helping the Iowa economy,” he said.

Madden sees the large boom in projects on campus as a catalyst for the Central Iowa economy, because a majority of the firms contracted for the construction are local. “These are good economic development activities for the state of Iowa,” he said. “It’s a real economic boost for the Central Iowa economy.”

Last spring, the state of Iowa put a moratorium on additional state funding for new capital projects, pointing to a slowdown for any longer-term projects for Iowa State.

Iowa State doesn’t foresee many problems in handling the large number of construction projects. “One would rather be dealing with the challenges of these projects moving ahead than not having projects,” Madden said. “It’s a very large number of projects, and we’re fortunate to have both the public and private support to be able to do this at this point in time.”

Des Moines Business Record
Dec. 26, 2007

Last year marked an important year in commercial development for Greater Des Moines, and 2008 looks to reap the benefits of that progress.

West Des Moines had a banner year for commercial and industrial construction, with commercial development pushing past the 1 million square-feet mark. That’s the third-largest year since 1978. The construction of Jordan Creek Town Center in 2003 and the Wells Fargo campus in 2004 produced multimillion-square-foot years.

“It was a very good year in 2007,” said Clyde Evans, director of community development for West Des Moines. “We certainly had a lot of retail development as a result of Jordan Creek. I think that a lot of the office uses that we’ve been dealing with are looking at areas around Jordan Creek.”

Evans noted Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s interest in a location directly across from Jordan Creek before it chose to stay in Des Moines and Aviva USA’s announcement it will build its headquarters just a few blocks away.

“The Aviva announcement was huge for us,” he said. “They are going to grow that company to be a very dominant player in North America. It was a very significant project for us, on par with the Wells Fargo project.”

Another area of significant commercial development for West Des Moines centers on the expansion of several health-care projects. Iowa Health-Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center and the Iowa Clinic all have large-scale projects in the works for West Des Moines.

Evans said the city is working on three surveys in conjunction with the University of Northern Iowa to find out what the future has in store for the medical sector in West Des Moines.

“We have a very heavy concentration of medical in West Des Moines,” he said. “We think there can a very good future there.”

Even with the strong year in 2007, Evans still has his sights set high for next year.

“2008 is going to be a bigger year than last year,” he said. “There are a couple of projects that we’re working on, and if we get these projects, we will very easily have a good shot of beating our second-best year ever.”

For Des Moines city officials, 2007 wasn’t just a good year; it was a key year for development downtown. Wellmark’s decision to stay downtown, the continued construction of the Davis Brown Tower, Principal Financial Group Inc.’s new day-care center and parking ramp, AlliedNationwide Insurance’s expansion project and continued growth of the East Village and the Court Avenue district were all highlights for the year.

“You think of downtown as an evolution, going from the fact that it’s been a strong employment center and it’s getting stronger with the different projects, but now there’s this qualitative element with the retail and housing developments,” said Rick Clark, Des Moines’ city manager. “All of that takes the whole downtown to a completely different level than it has ever been before. That’s pretty dramatic stuff.”

Matt Anderson, an economic development coordinator for the city of Des Moines, echoed Clark’s thoughts on the growing retail sector downtown.

“One of the bigger changes in downtown is some of the retail and restaurant venues that have opened,” Anderson said. “You have some nice pockets of retail popping up that are filling in the gaps, and those are the things that are bringing people to downtown after 5 o’clock.”

Anderson said with the growth of retail downtown, recruiting bigger corporations to the area will be less of a challenge than before.

“It’s those things that will make our jobs easier next time we have to go out and compete for that next large corporate expansion,” he said.

Enticing more companies to locate to downtown Des Moines will be on the minds of city officials as a large quantity of office space will be vacated by 2010. Some estimate that upwards of 750,000 square feet could become available.

“Vacant office space can be both a challenge and an opportunity,” Anderson said. “Sometimes we’re faced with short turnaround to attract a company, and if you don’t have the available space you’re going to lose the company. We’re cautiously optimistic that space will be filled.”

Besides facing the hurdle of finding new tenants to fill the soon-to-be-vacant office space, Clark said downtown is making progress that hasn’t been seen before.

“It’s almost like we’ve turned a corner here in downtown Des Moines. At long last this image of a downtown which has all of the major components to make it lively and attractive seems to be coming together,” he said. “All of that is powerful because what it does is it makes people have confidence and a sense of excitement and expectation and that’s what gives a city buzz.”

City officials are also looking outside downtown for further commercial development in 2008. Retail development in neighborhood areas will be a priority.

“You have a strong downtown and spreading the energy around the rest of the city is a real emerging goal,” Clark said.

The Riverpoint West project, a mixed-used development with an estimated 700,000 square feet of commercial space, will be one of the “largest projects in the city’s history” Clark said.

“That will have a significant impact on the city and on our ability to provide a product in a market that we can’t provide in downtown right now,” he said.

In addition to West Des Moines, other suburbs also saw sound commercial development in 2007.

Steve Franklin, community development manager and chief planner for Urbandale, said 2007 was a “steady” year for commercial and industrial construction.

“2007 remained steady for the number of permits issued,” he said. “One hundred fifteen permits are anticipated for 2007 with an estimated value of $79.1 million.”

Franklin singled out the new Marsh and McLennan Cos. Inc. project and a Home Depot store as key deals for the city.

“The city is happy to get anybody here, but Marsh and Home Depot were great for Urbandale,” he said.

Franklin has mixed feelings about 2008. The election and the current housing market are going to play important roles in how things will turn out, he said.

“When you get to an election year, sometimes people get nervous and sit tight, especially with the economy taking a little bit of a dip,” Franklin said. “My gut feeling says people are going to sit tight and see what’s going to happen with the election. What (the politicians) say really influences people.”

Iowa State Daily
April 10, 2003

Armed with his trusty five-string, farmer David Losure stood atop his pasture with one mission in mind -- to
pick off a pack of coyotes. Losure had lost more than 30 piglets in a week to coyotes before he decided to
take action against the beasts in the best way he knew how.

“I took my Studebaker truck, my dog, Lucius, my shotgun and my banjo to the top of the hill of my farm,”
says Losure, laughing as he remembers the night. “If I could see it, I would shoot it. If I couldn’t, I would
play my banjo.

“I was on that hill until 1 a.m. playing to establish my presence. I haven’t lost a pig since.” Losure may not have lost any more pigs, but he did lose his farm after the floods of 1993.

“We had a record low for hogs and record high for corn that year because of the flood and short crops,” he
says. “Either one of those I could have withstood, but not two in one year.”

Despite a two-year battle with the bank, Losure says he looks to the loss of his family farm of 46 years as a
new beginning -- a chance to show Iowa that he had much more than farming to offer. Making banjos and
giving lessons became his full-time career.

“In the long term, [losing the farm] was one of the best things that happened to me -- I wouldn’t have picked
up teaching [the banjo],” he says. “If I wanted to eat, I had to figure something out to do.”

Losure creates his banjos in a small two-room workshop in his home off a narrow rural gravel road near
Kamrar. Inside his workshop, tools line the back wall and a small desk is crammed amid an array of broken
banjos. Perfectly formed wooden circles dangle above the table waiting to be added to the end of another
Losure masterpiece. Sawdust particles float in the air, illuminated by the light streaming in from two large
windows.

“I have made about 12 and I’m currently working on seven more,” Losure says, towering over his table with
banjo pieces scattered about.

Losure uses wood from Oregon’s coastline, the Appalachian Mountains and Iowa to craft his instruments. He says he prefers woods with intricate textures, swirls and lines in the grain. Tiger-striped maple, flaming walnut and borrowing madrone are some of his favorites.

“I like wood that has stuff going on -- plain wood is boring,” Losure says, holding a piece of flaming walnut,
the beginning of a new banjo’s neck. “I have some people who want an instrument that has nothing in it but
Iowa wood. I can do that too.”

Depending on Losure’s schedule, he says the construction of a new banjo can take from several weeks to several months. “The weather conditions don’t affect my banjo-making,” Losure says. “As long as it’s warm enough that my fingers work and there are good tunes in the CD player, I’m set.”

Losure’s specialty is a traditional five-string, open-back banjo.

“They all have their own voice,” Losure says of his completed instruments. “When you strum it for the first time, it sounds like something coming alive in your hands.” Losure’s banjo-making may make an impact on the buyers of his banjos, but the luthier, or a banjo maker, is only a small part of a long history of the instrument.

According to “America’s Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century,” the origin of the banjo can be traced back as early as the 17th century, brought to America by African slaves.

Losure thinks popular interest in banjo playing is making a strong comeback.

“There are hotbeds of this music -- it’s really thriving in urban areas now,” Losure says. “Right now the people who used to do the punk in Seattle are finding it again. You get some young kids with purple hair playing the same tunes I’m playing.”

Losure describes “house parties” with “a couple of dancers, a fiddler and a banjo player crammed into a small
room.”

“It can go till dawn,” he says. “Raves are nothing new.”

Despite Losure’s busy schedule, the basement of Frank Rieman Music, 417 Douglas Ave., in Ames comes alive with the sounds of twangy banjo music once a week. Mary Swander, distinguished professor of English, walks down those basement stairs once a week with her support dog’s harness in one hand and a Losure-crafted banjo in the other.

In 1996, Swander was involved in a car accident, leaving her without the use of all four limbs. She says she has made progress from being confined to a hospital gurney, to a cane and then to the use of a support dog in seven years.

Swander says she has played music all her life, beginning with childhood piano lessons. She says she began playing the banjo because a banjo’s narrow neck makes it easier for her to play than other instruments. When she saw Losure’s flyer on campus advertising banjo lessons three years ago, she took the opportunity.

“The music helped get my coordination and mood back,” Swander says. Losure says he has seen people recover from trauma more quickly by using music as a form of therapy.

“Mary was really a wreck for awhile there, and I have watched her blossom playing that banjo,” Losure says. “I have seen people work out of some pretty dark stuff with playing instruments.”

To Losure, teaching isn’t a challenge.

“I don’t consider it hard to teach -- it’s an adventure and a journey,” he says. “I teach people to teach
themselves.”

Iowa State Daily
April 12, 2004

Sixteen Story County residents affiliated with Iowa State have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Of the 228 permits issued in 2003 by the Story County Sheriff’s Office, 16 belong to individuals employed or enrolled at Iowa State.

Although these people have permits to carry concealed weapons, this does not mean they can carry firearms to work or to class. ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said firearms are prohibited on campus. “Unless the person is in a police role or a contracted security role for the university, no firearms are allowed on campus,” Deisinger said.

David Webber, graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering, has had a permit to carry a concealed weapon for 20 years. Webber was trained as a police officer at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.

“I’ve kept my permit over the time period as a safety officer with the hunter education program,” he said. Webber has left law enforcement to do research in natural resources at Iowa State and decided to keep his weapon permit up-to-date. At this time, Webber is not an instructor for the hunter education program. Albert Augustin, animal caretaker for laboratory animal resources, also holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Augustin said he “carries light amounts of cash” for a private company he works for outside the university and carries a weapon for protection. Gene Richardson, mail clerk for facilities planning and management, also has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He said he carries the weapon for “personal safety.”

According to Section 724.4A of the Iowa Code, no one can have a weapon in a “weapons free zone.” A “weapons free zone,” as defined in the Iowa Code, means the area in or on, or within 1,000 feet of, the real property comprising a public or private elementary or secondary school, or in or on the real property comprising a public park. To have a firearm on campus is also in violation of Iowa State’s Student Disciplinary Regulations. A firearm is listed under Section 4.2.1.7 as a violation and could be grounds for expulsion from the university. Deisinger said if a student wants to have a firearm, he or she should not store it on campus and should either find a place off campus to store it or leave it at home. Generally, ISU Police isn’t concerned with people who have concealed weapons permits, Deisinger said.

“I can’t think of a problem or a call we had involving a person with a concealed weapon permit,” he said. Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said permits to carry a concealed weapon are distributed at the discretion of the Story County Sheriff, the Department of Public Safety or the Department of Justice. According to Section 724.8 of the Iowa Code, there are six requirements for a person to be eligible for a permit:
* He or she is 18 or older,
* He or she has never been convicted of a felony,
* He or she does not have an alcohol or substance abuse problem,
* He or she has no history of repeated acts of violence, and
* The sheriff reasonably determines the applicant does not constitute a danger to any person and has never
been convicted of assault or harassment.

Fitzgerald said he set up additional standards in addition to the state regulation for people applying for concealed weapon permits.

“There has to be some rationale as to why you are wanting to carry a concealed weapon,” Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald said he denied a permit to an individual who said he wanted to carry a gun because he liked to take his wife to a restaurant in what he said was not the best part of Des Moines.

“If they come in and they don’t have a justifiable reason, I can deny the permit,” he said. He said he might deny one or two new permits each year. He said about a dozen new people each year come in and apply for a weapons permit. Fitzgerald said that in Story County, even if an individual has passed the state-required checks, a weapon permit is still not automatically given to the person. The state also requires the applicant to pass a 50- question written test and a Story County required acquisition test, where an individual must shoot 70 percent or better in the range.

“If someone comes in and has a legitimate reason for a concealed weapons permit, usually business- or hobby-related, and after I do the check and have an opportunity to visit with them to see what my impression is of the person, I will then go ahead and grant a permit,” he said.

Iowa State Daily
Dec. 3, 2004

As long as Hossein Naraghi conducts research at Iowa State, he will be monitored by the government- issued system known as Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.

Naraghi, who is from Tehran, Iran, said he doesn’t understand why international students are the only ones tracked and he doesn’t feel good about the way international students are being treated by the U.S. government.

“It’s not fair,” he said. “I’m here to study and research. I’m here to do that, nothing else.”

Naraghi, graduate student in civil and construction engineering, is among 2,579 ISU international students being tracked by the U.S. government.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government passed the USA Patriot Act, an act designed to give the government power to protest against terrorism. The act gives the FBI the right to “... make an application for an order requiring the production of any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism...”

Aside from the U.S. government tracking system for international students, ISU officials said there are not any other kinds of tracking systems currently in place at the university. Michael Bowman, assistant director of academic information technologies, said Iowa State monitors network traffic on the ISU computer network.

According to the Residence System Internet Output Policy, a policy has been adopted to limit the outbound Internet traffic from personal computers connected to the campus network. The policy states that “the limit is designed to affect only those individuals running personal computers generating very high Internet output levels without impacting anyone making normal academic use of the Internet from their personal computers.”

Although network traffic is monitored, the content of the traffic isn’t, Bowman said. “We do not look at individual usage; we are managing the network traffic,” he said.

Bowman said Iowa State would need a request from the courts to actually monitor the content of the network traffic. Iowa State doesn’t log what an individual does, analyze what the content of individual network traffic is or flag an individual on the network, he said.

Iowa State’s library system is also not monitored.

“The only thing we keep track of is what people check in and out,” said Fred Gulden, Parks Library information technology officer. “We also keep track of fines students have. “[The library] doesn’t even keep track of what you have checked out,” Gulden said. He said the old computer mainframe that ran the library database before a new one was installed kept track of checked-out books, but that system has been retired.

“There is no way to generate a list of the books that you checked out,” he said. The College of Design is one place on campus where students’ identification numbers are checked against a database. Additionally, electronic door locks are attached to studios and darkrooms within the Design Center. When a student swipes his or her ISU card, the identification number is checked to make sure the student is allowed to enter the room.

Michael Miller, information technology office system specialist for the College of Design, said the identification system is set up for student convenience. The locks give students access to the darkroom and studios 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said.

“The lock itself is a program that can tell what IDs can go in and out of the room,” he said. Students’ names are not loaded directly into the door’s memory, Miller said. No one in the college uses the database in the door to keep track of attendance.

“It’s more of an access thing than an big brother thing,” he said. Miller said it isn’t a simple task to find out who has been in and out of the rooms and the only time he looks to see who has been in and out is when there has been an error, such as when someone props a door open.

ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said the ISU Police Department has the ability to gather information about students, but the process is not done on a regular basis. Deisinger said surveillance cameras on campus are set up for the public safety and are monitored by the ISU Police department or other departments on campus.

Iowa State Daily
Sept. 30, 2003

More than 4,000 people want to see change in the way the U.S. government handles their visas, according to a Yale University-based petition.

An academic visa reform petition is circulating the country, garnering signatures and support from 25 universities and various national organizations. The Yale-based petition calls for the U.S. government to create a more efficient and streamlined visa process.

“People don’t go home anymore,” said Qin Qin, co-writer of the petition and junior in engineering and applied science at Yale. “There is a lot of uncertainty when you go home.”

After Sept. 11, the government has been setting up visa policies and procedures that don’t make any sense, Qin said. According to information distributed by the U.S State Department, policies regarding student visas changed after Sept. 11. All students now have to fill out three new forms to complete their visa application. In addition, an electronic file, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System or SEVIS, must be created and maintained by the student’s institution. Ken Liu, researcher at Graduate Employees and Students Organizations at Yale, would also like to see a change in the way visas are handled.

“There is no process to appeal and there is nothing you can do,” Liu said. People have been delayed in entering the United States for no reason, he said.

“You just don’t know when you’ll get your visa,” Liu said. “You just have to wait, and that is very difficult.” Liu said international students are now afraid to go home, adding there are many students who wish to study in the United States who are still in China.

“America should be an example on how to treat people fairly, and right now we don’t see that,” he said. International students are members of their community, and to deny them their rights as members of that community is wrong, Liu said.

“There isn’t much outcry about ethnic profiling, and I don’t think that is right,” he said. According to the ISU Fact Book, 2,580 members of the Iowa State student population are from a country other than the United States. Six hundred and sixty of them are from the People’s Republic of China.

Liu said China sends the largest number of students abroad. A majority of students forced to stay in China when they try to return to the United States must do so because their visas are not being renewed, he said. Dennis Peterson, director of International Education Services, said he wasn’t surprised to hear about the Yale-sponsored petition. There are other organizations in Washington D.C. that are concerned with this same problem, he said.

“The idea of somehow balancing security issues with visiting scholars needs to be addressed,” Peterson said. He said International Education Services has e-mailed each international student enrolled at Iowa State asking them if traveling home is really necessary.

“People are without information and they are just stranded,” Peterson said. Peterson said the university can’t do much to help students get back into the country once they leave Iowa State.

The visa is in the hands of someone in Washington D.C., he said. There is no typical time period for a visa to be returned.

“Some take a couple of weeks and some take months,” Peterson said.

Yongqiang Huang, ISU graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, said he doesn’t know if he’ll have trouble with his visa when he goes home.

“You need to be able to check the status of your visa,” Huang said. “I don’t understand why it takes so
long.”

Iowa State Daily
Oct. 28, 2003

An International Education Services official at Iowa State has said international faculty and staff will not have to pay any extra fees for being tracked by the U.S. government -- for now.

Early compliance and an already-established system helped keep Iowa State’s cost of implementing the government issued tracking system known as Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, to a minimum, said Dennis Peterson, director of International Education Services. However, with budget cuts looming, a fee for ISU’s international students to fund the program could become a possibility.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service mandated the records of all international students be tracked through SEVIS. All universities must have the computerized tracking system system in place by Jan. 30.

Iowa State has been tracking international faculty and students since 1994, Peterson said.

“We had a good system of tracking international students already,” Peterson said. “It’s our responsibility to make sure anyone who works at Iowa State is legal.”

The cost to implement the SEVIS system was $24,000 -- $10,800 for the software and $7,000 for the computer server that holds the information, Peterson said.

Iowa State received the commercial software early, saving the university $29,200, he said. The software now costs about $40,000. Iowa State covered the cost for the server and the commercial software, rather than implementing a fee for international students, faculty and staff, he said.

A $5,000 fee to be a part of the commercial software database and the salaries of a team of four people at Administrative Technology Services to work with the SEVIS program has also been covered by the university, Peterson said.

However, Peterson said if there is another series of state budget cuts we might have to consider a fee for international faculty and staff.

“I’ve always been against an international student fee, and we’re hopeful that isn’t going to be the case,” Peterson said. “If it comes down to it, we might have to do it.”

The high cost of implementing the SEVIS system prompted one Midwest university to propose a special fee to cover the cost of tracking international students.

The University of Wisconsin--Madison was initially going to charge a fee for international students to help cover the cost of the SEVIS program, said University of Wisconsin--Madison spokesperson John Lucas. Lucas said it was going to cost the University of Wisconsin about $300,000 to implement the government-sanctioned tracking system.

The university planned to charge international students $50 per semester and an additional $25 if they were enrolled during the summer.

The university formed a committee to study the SEVIS fees, after many international students spoke out against the proposed university-sanctioned fee.

“There was a strong backlash on campus,” Lucas said.

In August, the committee decided it would be best to take money from the main university budget to cover the SEVIS cost, Lucas said.

Linda Bellman, Madison, Wis. City Council member for the first district, was among 11 other council members opposing the extra fees for international students. Bellaman said the Madison City Council doesn’t usually like to take a stance with university business, but
this time, the council felt it was important to offer its recommendation. Bellman said the university asking international students to provide money to be tracked was “irksome.”