Argonne Building's $7.25 million renovation nearing completion; tenants will begin moving in soon

Argonne Building’s $7.25 million renovation nearing completion; tenants will begin moving in soon

The building was in total disrepair before work began on it. 'I think in the last 50 years, nobody cared about it,' developer says.

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KATHY A. BOLTEN | Dec 2, 2020 | 2:47 pm |

3 min read time

A worker fixes a hinge on a door in the entryway of the Argonne Building at 1723 Grand Ave. in downtown Des Moines. The $7.25 million historic renovation of the structure is nearly complete. Photo by Joe Crimmings

Walk into one of the apartments units at the Argonne Building in downtown Des Moines and you’ll have a sense of what living in the building a century ago was like for workers employed in a nearby factory.

“Most of the units are laid the way they were 100 years ago,” said Jackie Nickolaus, vice president of development services at Benchmark Real Estate Group in West Des Moines. “The walls are the same plaster walls. The layout of the bathrooms is the same. The windows are the same.”

The $7.25 million historic renovation of the building at 1723 Grand Ave. is nearing completion.

Two of the building’s 45 apartments have been leased, with renters moving in in mid-December.

The building’s interior was in shambles before the renovation. Peeled paint hung from the ceilings and decades of grunge clung to the walls. The carpet was tattered and wood doors cracked. Outside, a web of cable wires stretched from the roof through individual windows.

“It was a mess,” Nickolaus said. “Just getting all those wires gone was a big improvement.”

Joe Cordaro, principal of Benchmark Real Estate and president of Jarcor LLC, bought the Argonne in 2013 for $870,000. The structure, built in 1915, includes a four-story brick building and a one-story annex.

Decades ago, the Argonne housed workers from a factory – first the Ford Assembly Plant and later the Solar Aircraft Co. – located across the street at 1800 Grand Ave., which now houses Des Moines schools’ Central Campus and Downtown School.

In the 1920s and later, Grand Avenue was part of a “large, dense ‘auto row’ that developed as Iowa became one of the early leaders of auto sales,” according a history overview of the area.

The first floor and annex of the Argonne had retail, an auto garage and five automotive-related showrooms. The Argonne is the “last remaining building containing an auto showroom on Grand Avenue,” according to a history of the building compiled by Cordaro and Nickolaus.

Cordaro originally was going to try to sell the building but couldn’t find any interested buyers, Nickolaus said. “We finally decided to do the renovations ourselves.”

Said Erik Johansen, a project manager for Estes Construction in West Des Moines: “The floors had a lot more damage than we expected. … I think in some ways it’s been a little bit surprising how well everything turned out.”

During the demolition phase, workers discovered trusses made of one-by-six lumber pieces that were laminated together, Nickolaus said. “They are different than anyone has ever seen before,” she said.

Another surprising find was the condition of the wood-framed windows, Nickolaus said. Most of the windows were repaired. The ones with significant damage were replaced with windows that look similar.

The building is on both the state and federal registers of historic places. The project received state and federal historic tax credits. It is also receiving up to $984,000 in financial aid from the city of Des Moines in the form of tax increment financing.

Work on the building is expected to be completed by early 2021.

The structure will include 45 studio and one-bedroom apartments, 10% of which will be leased to tenants who earn 60% of the area’s median income.

Funk Finds Vintage & Retro will lease street-level space that has floor-to-ceiling windows that front Grand Avenue and Eighteenth Street. Space is also available for other commercial users to lease, Nickolaus said.

The one-story annex would be a good place for professional offices or small specialty shops, she said.

Renovation work on the annex is just beginning, “so we haven’t been actively trying to lease the space,” she said.

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Watch a video slideshow that include photos of what the inside of the Argonne Building looked like before the renovation began. To watch, click here .

KATHY A. BOLTEN

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