Malo, the Latin America-inspired restaurant that is part of the former Des Moines Social Club complex at 900 Mulberry St., will close at the end of this month, partners said Wednesday.

But don’t expect the space to remain empty for long, the building’s owner said.

The restaurant’s partners spoke about the decision to close the restaurant a day after the announcement was made.

Paul Rottenberg, who is part owner of the business with George Formaro and Todd Millang, said the decision really revolved around the expiration of their lease for the space and whether he and Formaro wanted to continue with the business. Millang owns the building and acts as the landlord for the restaurant as well as an investor in the business.

“Our 10-year lease is up in May, so we’ve been talking with [Millang] about that for some time,” Rottenberg said. “For George and I, the question was just whether we wanted to renew the lease for another extension, and at this point in our lives, we’ve still got plenty of other stuff going on, we just made a decision we couldn’t make that kind of commitment at this point.”

He said the changing downtown landscape since the COVID-19 pandemic was not a factor in the decision, and that downtown restaurants have adapted to focus more on evenings and weekends as a result of the loss of lunch traffic during the week.

“Having said that, when wondering whether or not you want to extend a lease for five years or more, the overall restaurant business environment combined with the fact that we’re 25 years older than when we started as partners, those are contributing factors,” said Rottenberg, who is 67 years old. “The general industry is pretty tough. The last few years, between COVID and fighting inflation and catching up to some much-needed wage increases, it’s been a tough time to be in the business.”

He said he’s making a decision as not only the owner of Malo but also owner of Orchestrate Hospitality, which manages the restaurant.

“When I look at my situation, it gets harder and harder. Do I want to make sure that I’m still going to be behind all this in 10 years?” Rottenberg said.

Orchestrate also operates local restaurants Centro, Django, Zombie Burger and Bubba. It also operates the Gateway Market and Cafe, South Union Bakery, South Union Bread Cafe, Main Street Markt in Pella, Liberty Street Kitchen in Pella, the Hilton Garden Inn in Johnston, and the Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Altoona.

Rottenberg said making the decision to not renew a lease frees up Millang to do something else in that space.

Millang joined Rottenberg and Formaro as an owner of Malo in 2018.

He said the closing of the Des Moines Social Club followed by the pandemic affected the restaurant’s business. He said the loss of employees at the nearby Wells Fargo and Nationwide buildings also had a significant effect on business.

“Some of that stuff will correct itself, but there’s only so long you can wait,” he said.

He said that he, Rottenberg and Formaro have been talking for a while about the future of Malo.

Millang, who also owns Johnny’s Hall of Fame and RoCa, said he’s been having talks with other potential partners about the future of the Malo space, and he expects that an announcement could be made as early as next week.

“This has all sort of come about sort of quickly,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that there’s going to be something back open real quickly.

Millang said he could be the operator or a partner in that new venture.

Millang bought the Des Moines Social Club building from the city after the club shut down. Since then, Des Moines Firefighters Union Local 4 moved into the back area of the building, providing them a home and a revenue source for renting it out as event space. The front part of the building is now home to Invision Architecture, which Millang said is a good fit because of their focus on historic rehabilitation.

He said he’s now focused on the future and bringing a new tenant into the space currently filled by Malo.

“I’m excited about what will be a quick opportunity,” he said. “I’ll be having quite a few conversations in the next day or two with a couple of potential partners.”

Rottenberg said he would not be involved in that new venture.

The decision to close Malo was difficult, he said.

“It’s not something you come by easily,” Rottenberg said. “I love that space. I think it may be the nicest space from a design standpoint that we did.”