A few years ago, Justin Mandelbaum had his sights set on a development that included a movie theater, a bowling alley and other entertainment venues at a then-vacant lot at Fourth Street and Court Avenue.

He kept those plans pretty close to the vest until they were submitted to the city of Des Moines in February 2014, along with plans from four other developers for what was then a city-owned parking lot. City officials opted for a grocery store and apartment development from Hy-Vee Inc., Knapp Properties Inc. and OPN Architects. Their project is within a few months of completion, with the apartments set for occupancy on a floor-by-floor basis on Feb. 1 and the Hy-Vee set to open later that month — Hy-Vee said it would announce the official opening early in the new year.

With construction traffic thinning at that site, the city of Des Moines is preparing to shutter the Fifth and Walnut street parking ramp on Jan. 15 with an eye to demolishing the structure in the spring.

The City Council on Nov. 7 approved spending $31,000 to close off the ramp. Assistant City Administrator Matt Anderson said it has not been determined who will pay the $3 million to raze it.

That brings us back to Mandelbaum. Not one to give up on his dreams, Mandelbaum has proposed The Fifth, a 32-story, $106 million structure for the parking ramp site. Plans to date are nothing short of snazzy, with a movie theater, jazz club, day care and 568-stall parking ramp among the amenities mixed in with 200 market-rate apartments and other commercial space. Anderson’s crew in the city’s economic development office is working toward a final development agreement with Mandelbaum, with hopes of having the agreement ready for City Council approval by the end of the year. The preliminary agreement has caught a lot of attention from other developers. It calls for the city to underwrite expected losses on the parking ramp for 20 years, with repayment beginning 21 years after the ramp opens. Read more

Also worth noting is that with a projected start date in 2017, Mandelbaum will miss the deadline for a 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatement that expires at the end of this year. It will be replaced by a 10-year, sliding-scale program.

Where does Mandelbaum, also the driving force behind the unique Mainframe Studios on Keosauqua Way, stand on his end of the project? When the Business Record asked whether he had lined up financing or a general contractor for the project, Mandelbaum said he had “nothing new to report.” Anderson said he doesn’t know where Mandelbaum stands on those elements of the project.

Mandelbaum did say that separate plans by Blackbird Investments and Nelson Construction & Development to develop luxury apartments downtown “reaffirm the market.” In other words, he isn’t sweating the competition.

Also in question is the availability of parking after the Fifth and Walnut ramp closes. Anderson said there is a clear need for parking in the area. Under the preliminary agreement with Mandelbaum, The Fifth will provide around 200 spaces of public parking a few years down the road.

The top level of parking at Fourth and Court will be reserved for apartment tenants and, possibly, Hy-Vee employees, said Knapp President and CEO Gerry Neugent.

That leaves surface spaces that might be open during non-peak hours at Hy-Vee. Maybe some will be available, or maybe not.

Anderson does have some thoughts on distribution of open space.

“We originally discussed with Hy-Vee to allow public access to their parking during certain hours. However, because this is their first downtown store, they want to wait and see how the parking is used operationally,” he said. “However, if 50 spaces are unused every Friday and Saturday night, I think the most efficient operational use of those spaces would be to contract with someone like Full Court Press or other large restaurants in the area for employee parking. Contracting with one large user would be simpler than charging each individual patron and monitoring the lot, although that is also an option. But that will be at Hy-Vee’s discretion.”