Des Moines Performing Arts will submit a concept for the redevelopment of the Argonne Armory building in the East Village to the Des Moines City Council to expand space to meet the increasing demand for its educational programming.

Jeff Chelesvig, CEO of Des Moines Performing Arts, said in a letter to donors that the organization wants to transform the armory into a “state-of-the-art education center.”

“Arts education has never been more needed than it is now,” he said in the letter, obtained by the Business Record.

He said Des Moines Performing Arts’ education programs are expanding year over year to meet the growing need.

“We are well positioned to address this growing need; however, one hurdle remains – the need for physical space,” Chelesvig said in the letter.

Chelesvig told the Business Record that expanding space for educational programming has been in Des Moines Performing Arts’ strategic plan for about a decade, but that the organization has only been in talks with the city about the armory building for about the past year.

“When the Civic Center was built [in 1979], there was very little ancillary space available for anything other than performances,” he said.

That has resulted in Des Moines Performing Arts having to rent space elsewhere to accommodate its educational programming.

“So we decided a long time ago that for us to be able to expand that programming and offer more educational opportunities, we would need to have another space,” Chelesvig said.

And the 67,000-square-foot armory fits the bill, he said.

The space it provides and its proximity to the Civic Center make it an attractive choice to acquire, Chelesvig said.

“It really checked the boxes that we have looked at, starting 10 years ago,” he said.

The armory was built in 1934 to house 10 Iowa National Guard units and the Argonne post of the American Legion, according to the Iowa Architectural Foundation’s website. It sits on a more than 30,700-square-foot lot at 602 Robert D. Ray Drive along the downtown Des Moines riverfront.

The three-story building was designed in the art deco style but is similar to the Beaux-Arts style used for the other public buildings along the riverfront, the foundation’s website said.

Currently, the armory houses the city’s community development and neighborhood services offices. That includes planning and development, urban development, economic development, building inspector and permitting, legal/litigation and information technology.

Those operations will move when the city relocates to the Nationwide building at 1200 Locust St.

Matt Anderson, deputy city manager for Des Moines, said the city is in the design phase for that space and will begin construction drawings this summer, with construction beginning in 2025.

He said that would allow the city to begin moving people to Locust Street in the first quarter of 2026, which fits in with Des Moines Performing Arts’ plans.

“That gives them time to do their due diligence, do any fundraising and do their planning and design and architecture work so hopefully when we vacate the building and hand over the keys, they are ready to hit the ground running and start their project in 2026,” Anderson said.

The City Council will receive what Anderson described as a “concept check” from Des Moines Performing Arts at its meeting Monday. If the council likes what it sees, that will begin a process that eventually will open up a competitive process where other developers could submit proposals to the city.

“We would weigh the pros and cons of the two and then make a recommendation to the City Council for which user they would choose,” Anderson said.

He anticipated that would happen by early summer.

“That’s going to happen pretty fast,” Anderson said. “I don’t know the exact timeline but it’s not going to linger for six months.”

The building is tax exempt, and if a deal with Des Moines Performing Arts is approved, it would go to another tax-exempt property. Anderson said he doesn’t view return on investment as a “direct financial return on investment.”

“This transaction would be measured more in the vitality of the East Village,” he said. “It’s measured in foot traffic. It’s measured in that indirect spinoff that all that foot traffic has on the surrounding businesses.”

Anderson said the 70,000 children and their families that Des Moines Performing Arts’ educational programs serve each year will bring a whole new dynamic to the East Village that will affect the success of businesses in the area.

What could a possible sale price be? Anderson said that will be negotiated.

“One of the reasons we’re moving out is because it needs a lot of work,” he said. “It has HVAC challenges. It needs new windows. It has roof challenges. We know that Des Moines Performing Arts is going to have to invest a lot of money to get the building up to a modern-day standard. That’s part of that next step in negotiating with them is what the economics look like.”

Could Des Moines Performing Arts buy the building for $1? Anderson said it’s possible.

“But we haven’t negotiated that yet,” he said.

Chelesvig said the building at first might be bigger than what they initially imagined.

“But we’ve always thought about the fact that we tend to expand to fit the available space,” he said. “For us, it’s really trying to capitalize on having this additional space to serve our current programming needs and then to have plenty of room to be able to expand for anything we want to do in the future, not only ourselves, but also looking to see if there are ways that we can tie in with other community partners that provide this type of programming as well.”

After Des Moines Performing Arts does its due diligence and a feasibility study, it could start a capital campaign to raise funds for both the acquisition of the armory and any improvements that would need to be done, Chelesvig said.

“The good thing is that the city has indicated to us that they don’t see moving out of the facility until 2026 at the earliest, so it gives us both some time to make sure that this is something that is right for everybody involved,” he said.

According to City Council documents, Des Moines Performing Arts might make a $15 million investment in the building, and make it a local landmark.

He said acquiring the building that would be dedicated to arts education and programming “speaks volumes to the importance we place on arts education.”

“So I think the sky’s the limit when it comes to looking at the possibilities of growing our programming over there,” Chelesvig said.

Related: City of Des Moines takes next step in acquiring downtown office building