Rowat Cut Stone & Marble Co., a company that was founded in 1882 by a Scottish stone mason who came to Des Moines to work on construction of the Iowa State Capitol, could be sold for redevelopment in the city’s Market District.

Nelson Construction & Development has the 2-acre property at 110 S.E. Seventh St. under contract with an as yet undefined mixed-use development in mind, said Alexander Grgurich, development analyst for the company, which will have $125 million in projects under construction later this year and in 2017.

Grgurich would not disclosed a purchase price. A roughly 3-acre site immediately south of Rowat, at 201 S.E. Sixth St., went on the market Monday for $1.8 million. Several developers are showing interest in that property.

The Market District has slowly emerged as another prime development spot in downtown Des Moines. Formally called the Market District of East Village, it is the area between Locust Street and Martin Luther KIng Jr. Parkway, the Des Moines River and Southeast Seventh Street.

In 2010, the city of Des Moines published a conceptual development plan, and since that time a handful of business and developers, each labeled a pioneer as they announced plans for their projects, have converted old manufacturing facilities and built new structures.

The area’s development potential came into focus again with the announcement earlier this year that Congress had approved funds for a new $140 million federal courthouse. Since the mid-2000s, federal judges, city officials and urban planners have said they prefer a site south of the Des Moines police station.

The city of Des Moines, JSC Properties Inc. and MidAmerican Energy Co. have submitted a site that is between Southeast Second and Southeast Fourth Streets and north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. The property in the 12-acre area is owned by MidAmerican and the city of Des Moines. Businessman Jim Cownie, founder of JSC Properties, had previously talked to MidAmerican officials about the private development potential of some of its property that is located in or near the site.

As with other developers, Nelson Construction & Development’s interest in the Market District predates the announcement that a federal courthouse could be located in the area.

“I think it’s one of the unique opportunities in an urban setting where you can get a large enough parcel to implement a development plan that meets the needs of your consumers,” Grgurich said. “You can create something that adds value for urban tenants.”

“We’re positive on the overall area,” Grgurich said, which features large swaths of industrial and city-owned property that is more conducive to development than a smaller infill site.

Earlier this week, CBRE|Hubbell Commercial listed the present location of Recycling Inc. for sale. The property is immediately south of Rowat.

Broker Riley Hogan said the owners’ decision to sell was motivated more by a smaller commercial development that has been announced for the neighborhood — a 47,000-square-foot office building at 220 S.E. Sixth — than by the proposed courthouse site. Read more in this Insider Notebook item.

Rowat has been owned for the last 31 years by Teresa Van Vleet-Danos, who arrived in Greater Des Moines in 1984 from Omaha with every intention of buying the company.

She went to work selling limestone, granite and marble and parlayed commissions into a down payment on the company in 1985.

Van Vleet-Danos was no stranger to the stone business. Prior to arriving in Greater Des Moines, she had spent 12 years working for Sunderland Bros. Co. in Omaha, another stone supplier. She started as a secretary and eventually managed the stone yard. Read more

Van Vleet-Danos said that if the deal comes together — neither Grgurich nor Van Vleet-Danos would disclose the purchase price — she will find a new location for the business.

She also has a suggestion for the site. Van Vleet-Danos has been a longtime supporter of redevelopment plans for the Market District, with a vision for a luxury condominium project on the Rowat site.

“I think there is a lot of room in this community for high-rise luxury condos,” she said. “Whiteline Lofts is full; where else are you going to go?”