Joel Aschbrenner

jaschbrenn@dmreg.com

A homegrown real estate developer, a whiskey-maker and a restaurateur are teaming up to turn a century-old railroad maintenance shop near Valley Junction into a beer hall, distillery and food truck incubator.

When it's finished, the multi-tenant building will be called The Foundry.

The 25,000-square-foot brick building, which stands near 11th Street and Railroad Avenue in West Des Moines, was originally built to repair rail cars. A $4 million renovation of the property is scheduled to begin this spring and the businesses could open as soon as September, said owner Jorgen Jensen.

Jensen, a Des Moines native turned Denver-based real estate developer, and his partners recently purchased the building. They have been working behind the scenes for nearly two years, looking for the kind of tenants they hope will create a destination in a now easily overlooked industrial area south of Valley Junction.

“This is a highly creative project and an innovative mix of new uses,” he said. “I think Des Moines is ready for something like this.”

Beer hall

A European-styled beer hall, called simply The BeerHall, will be owned and operated by Nick Kuhn, a restaurateur, food-truck owner and former engineer. It will measure about 6,000 square feet and will include seating for about 250. There will be space for live music and events as well as an outdoor beer garden.

“It’s really the nucleus of the whole facility,” Kuhn said.

Distillery

Foundry Distilling Co., a new distillery being launched by Templeton Rye co-founder Scott Bush, will occupy about a third of the building. Bush, who still owns a stake in Templeton but is not involved in day-to-day operations, said his new distillery will be unaffiliated with the Templeton, Iowa,-based whiskey-maker.

Foundry Distilling will make several kinds of clear and aged liquors. Bush’s specialty is whiskey, but whiskey takes several years to age, so he plans to make and sell clear liquors in the meantime.

Bush called the distillery an “experience-oriented” business. The building will feature a glass wall between The beer hall and the distillery so patrons can watch the distillation process.

Commissary

The third tenant of the building will be a nonprofit commissary kitchen called the Justice League of Food. A food truck incubator of sorts, it will provide kitchen space that food truck owners can rent to prepare and store their food.

Kuhn, who will manage the commissary, hopes it will help new food truck operators break into the industry. Under current laws, food truck operators must prepare and store all food either on their trucks or in commercially licensed kitchens. The lack of rent-able kitchen space in the area has been a barrier to entry for would-be food truck owners, Kuhn said.

Kuhn also wants the nonprofit to provide business training for new food truck owners and job training for the homeless.

He needs to raise about $1.5 million to launch the nonprofit and plans to begin fundraising in the coming weeks.

Backers of the The Foundry hope the three businesses will support each other. The distillery will be an attraction. The beer hall will serve the distillery’s liquor. There will be space outside for food trucks to park and sell food to beer hall patrons.

“The confluence of these three visions is probably the coolest part of the whole thing,” Kuhn said. “Conceptually, there is nothing else like it.”

The Foundry sits between the Jordan Creek Trail and the Valley Junction’s main business district. Backers hope it will help connect the two.

“The building itself lends itself to activating another part of Valley Junction and extending the district,” said Zachary Mannheimer, the former head of the Des Moines Social Club, who advocated for the food truck commissary. “It should be a popular spot for nightlife and the bike trails.”

The building, known as the Rock Island Railroad car barn, was constructed in 1899, according to Jensen. It originally operated as a train car repair facility, serving the rail hub that once occupied the land south of Valley Junction. In recent decades, it has been used for storage or sat empty.

The Foundry's ownership group, Rock Island Development, includes Jensen, and local investors Colin Panzi, Mike Kentfield and Travis Becher. Brett Heyl of Denver-based Slate Urban Development is co-developer of the project.

Jensen said too much of the building’s historic character has been removed to qualify for historic tax credits, but aims to restore as much of its original look and feel as possible.

The name The Foundry is “a nod to the building’s industrial past, but also a nod to the fact that this will be a place where things are made and people come together,” he said.