Timothy Meinch

tmeinch@dmreg.com

The 32-story building would include a 25-story apartment tower above a seven-story parking ramp.

An upscale, nine-screen movie theater would be on the ground level.

An outdoor climbing wall would rise above Court Avenue and jazz club would face Walnut Street.

The $85 million project would replace a city-owned parking ramp.



Details have been hammered out for Des Moines’ next skyscraper.

For the price of $107 million, Justin Mandelbaum will transform Des Moines’ core entertainment district with a 32-story high-rise. It’s called The Fifth, and it will combine a movie theater, a climbing gym, day care, nightlife venues and a parking ramp below luxury apartments.

The massive project, which was announced in July, put a stake in the ground Monday with a preliminary agreement approved by the Des Moines City Council. The plan includes a stack of agreements and various city contributions expected to reach $25 million over the next 20 years.

City officials praised the substantial downtown investment by a local developer. They rattled off a series of needs that the private project addresses, including public parking, at Court Avenue and Fifth Street — adjacent to the downtown Hy-Vee grocery store under construction.

“I would say tonight is really the biggest hurdle for the project,” Mandelbaum said Monday.

The Fifth will bring a nine-screen, upscale movie theater with recliner seating and a new restaurant to Court Avenue.

Main Street Theatres, known for the Aksarben Cinema in Omaha, is the proposed operator of the theater. The same business is slated to run the restaurant, which will serve the theater and nonmoviegoers.

A jazz club is planned for the opposite side of the building, on Walnut Street.

Mandelbaum said he cannot yet name the operator of the rock-climbing facility, but preliminary plans for a climbing wall have evolved: “Climbing enthusiasts will be excited when we’re able to announce.”

The project will add 200 market-rate apartment units, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, and 20,000 square feet of commercial space downtown.

The parking ramp plans also grew beyond early plans, to satisfy a dilemma for the city, according to Matt Anderson, assistant city manager.

The high-rise will replace a deteriorating city-owned parking garage at Fifth and Walnut with 620 stalls. The city already planned to shut it down this year because it has exceeded its life expectancy.

The developer agreement with Mandelbaum includes demolition of the ramp. The Fifth will include a 568-stall garage that is open to the public.

Mandelbaum agreed to build a larger garage, as long as he broke even financially. To ensure this, the city has agreed to help pay any annual debt payments on the garage that the ramp’s operating revenue does not cover.

“We worked on a really unique and complex financial solution to try and get the public parking built,” Anderson said, emphasizing how downtown parking ramps seldom generate profit.

“Justin said, 'I don’t want to own all that public parking,' and I said I don’t want to own it either.”

Mandelbaum called the parking agreement “the lesser of two evils,” since it would be overly complex for the city to own a garage that is intertwined with a private building.

The project agreement includes a $4 million forgivable loan from the city that will cover the full purchase price of the 1.4-acre lot. That’s in addition to a $10.4 million loan the city plans to forgive “in recognition of development costs that are unique to the site,” according to city documents.

The project will also receive tax-increment rebates estimated to reach $10.4 million over the course of 20 years. And the residential portion qualifies for the standard 10-year tax abatement available downtown.

Anderson said the agreement will ultimately add this property to the tax roll but also help the city get out of the parking business. And it will extend a portion of the skywalk to the north side of Court Avenue.

City Councilman Chris Coleman called it a “hallmark project." The preliminary agreement won unanimous approval from the council.

“This is a wow project that will have significant impact on the community,” City Councilwoman Christine Hensley said.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017, possibly as early as next spring. It will be a two-year project, with an opening planned for 2019.

A website is live for The Fifth, requesting information from potential residents who want on the waiting list.