The Kum & Go convenience store at 2211 University Ave. will close on Feb. 16 and the property will be sold, company officials announced. Photo courtesy of Google

Kum & Go plans to close its convenience store at 2211 University Ave. and sell the property to “someone who shares our commitment to connecting and enriching the local community,” Niki Mason, the company’s senior vice president of store development, announced in a news release.

The store will close on Wednesday, Feb. 16. Associates who work at the store will be retained, officials said.

“While we remain invested in this area and want it to flourish, we see an opportunity to support the community in a different way at this location,” Mason said in the release.

The announcement comes as plans are moving forward to begin redeveloping an area bordered by 24th and 25th streets and University and Carpenter avenues. Merge Urban Development, a Cedar Falls firm partnering with Drake University, plans to construct two five-story mixed-use buildings on the northern part of that block. The buildings will include apartments and office and commercial space.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall. A similar project is planned on the southern half of the block at a later date.

This week, the Des Moines City Council approved designating 77 acres east of Drake as an urban renewal area. The area is roughly located between Forest and University avenues and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and 25th Street and includes the Kum & Go property.

One of the goals of what is called the Carpenter Renewal Plan is to facilitate “redevelopment in order to activate new economic investment leading to increased tax base,” according to materials provided to the council.

A spokesperson for Kum & Go said the company doesn’t yet have a buyer for the property.

The store, which opened in 1998, sits on about 0.6 acre. The property, which includes the land and a 2,860-square-foot convenience store, is valued at $534,300.

Kum & Go, in its release, said the convenience store at 3104 University Ave. will continue to serve the Drake area. In 2019-20, the Des Moines-based convenience store chain razed an aged structure at that site, replacing it with a new structure.

In its release, Kum & Go said it was making a donation to IMPACT Community Action Partnership “to further support the Drake neighborhood.” The local nonprofit works to reduce the barriers and burdens that Central Iowa families in poverty experience by increasing access to essential needs.