Impossible as it seems, the Hub Tower seems to have fallen off the map of downtown Des Moines in recent years.

The 20-story skyscraper was part of the downtown renaissance of the 1980s; its developers sported prominent business names – Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa, Iowa Power and Light Co. and Hubbell Realty Co.

All but Hubbell have been absorbed by other companies, but the building’s past and the fact that it has enjoyed high occupancy rates may have rendered to an afterthought that structure looming above the retail-oriented Kaleidoscope on the downtown skywalk system.

But the building has been in receivership since November 2009, and by the end of this year, it will lose the last of its big tenants when Aviva USA moves to new digs in West Des Moines and its affiliated company, Aviva Investors, moves a few blocks down Walnut Street to the Davis Brown Tower.

Hubbell Realty continues to own the Kaleidoscope, but it no longer has an ownership interest in Hub Tower. The two share lobby and elevator space, but little else.

Iowa Realty Commercial has teamed up with court-appointed receiver Donald Shapiro, chairman and CEO of Foresite Realty Partners LLC in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, to find tenants and market the property.

Shapiro considers the building – well maintained, well operated and requiring little in the way of capital improvements – to be one of the top office properties in Des Moines. Success has been its enemy.

“When a building is well leased, it loses its notoriety,” he said.

With the loss in 2009 of CitiMortgage Inc. as a major tenant and Aviva’s pending moves, Hub Tower’s 281,771 square feet of office space will be about 15 percent occupied unless new tenants are found.

The building was purchased by Des Moines commercial real estate broker Kurt Mumm and other partners for $18 million in 2006.

“I told him I admired his courage when he bought it,” said Kevin Crowley, chief operating officer of Iowa Realty Commercial. “It looked like a smart deal when it was done.”

But three years later, CitiMortgage had abandoned the 108,626 square feet of space that it rented for $18.50 a square foot, or a little more than $2 million a year in rental income, according to a year-end financial report filed as part of U.S. Bank’s foreclosure on its loan to Mumm and partners.

For its part, Aviva will take $3 million in annual rent out the door when it moves to its new headquarters in West Des Moines.

All of those departures lead to negative cash fl

However, Shapiro and Crowley seem undaunted by the numbers.

As a sign of the building’s up-to-date systems, they point out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conferred its Energy Star designation on the building last year.

In addition, Jason Lazano, an Iowa Realty Commercial broker who is working with Crowley and Shapiro to market the property, points out that other than normal improvements tenants might require, the building is not in need of major capital investment.

It just needs tenants.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of showings that we’ve had,” Crowley said.

Shapiro is required to file reports on the building’s status in Polk County District Court. He said in the January report that EMC Insurance Cos. has toured the building and is in need of 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of office space. A law firm toured the building, but indicated the Hub Tower is no longer on its “short list.”

In addition, information has been sent to a national broker representing an insurance company that needs 20,000 to 24,000 square feet of space beginning in the third quarter.

And, the Greater Des Moines Partnership has received information that might lure an unidentified user that needs 150,000 square feet of space.

“We believe that there is a tenant market that will come in the next two years,” Crowley said.

Selling the building is secondary to filling it with tenants and generating cash flow, Shapiro said.

Rick Tollakson, president and CEO of Hubbell Realty, noted that his company expressed an interest in buying the tower a few years ago, but didn’t like the asking price. He pointed out that Kaleidoscope occupancy has dropped to 50 percent as the result of CitiMortgage and Principal Financial Group Inc. moving out of offices.

Tollakson and Shapiro also said that some changes to downtown need to occur to enhance retail and office occupancy. They both mentioned that the Walnut Street Transit Mall is an impediment to filling retail spaces.

“Everyone recognizes that it was a bad idea,” Tollakson said. He said Walnut should become a street again with parking on either side.

“That stretch of Walnut Street could really be something,” he said.

Shapiro’s 5-year-old company operates in 16 states. He said the stress in commercial real estate is a result of a market that expanded at a rapid pace and was overvalued and over-leveraged.

Crowley believes Hub Tower will benefit from marketing that began 17 years ago and came in an unlikely form.

“This is going to sound silly, but the ’93 floods were significant in that a lot of people thought about Des Moines,” he said.