Real estate developer Richard Hurd’s resume includes sparking redevelopment in areas others shied away from.

Around 2009, Hurd acquired property in the 1200 block of Eighth Street in West Des Moines that had been home to a Ford dealership. The property was redeveloped to include a strip shopping center and Kum & Go convenience store. New development is now occurring south of the properties.

In 2013, Hurd bought properties in the 200 and 300 blocks of Grand Avenue in West Des Moines. Tired-looking buildings that had housed fast-food restaurants were razed, and a Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh was built on the site. In recent years, new construction in the area has included a Wendy’s restaurant and retail store for Erik’s Bike Shop.

Hurd has also redeveloped properties along Ingersoll Avenue and renovated the former Dow Jones building at 4125 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines.

Now Hurd has his sites on the northwest corner of Valley West Drive and Westown Parkway. In early March, he bought property at 3501 Westown Parkway that had been home to Iowa Realty Co.’s corporate and commercial offices. (In 2021, the real estate company consolidated its West Des Moines offices to one location at 5901 Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines.)

The Westown Parkway property is located in an area ripe for redevelopment, said Hurd, founder and president of West Des Moines-based Hurd Real Estate.

“Over the years, we’ve bought a lot of properties and we’ve turned them around either by rehabbing or redeveloping them,” he said. “We hope to do the same thing here.”

Hurd has not yet made plans for the 2-acre Westown Parkway parcel that includes a one-story, 11,184-square-foot office building constructed in 1970.

“Sometimes buildings are worthy of being repositioned and sometimes it may make sense to just start over,” Hurd said. “I don’t know the answer yet.”

What Hurd does know is that the area, which is anchored by a struggling Valley West Mall, remains of interest to retailers. The Valley West Drive and Westown Parkway intersection is less than 600 feet from the exit ramp of the heavily traveled Interstate Highway 235. Several big-name retailers, including Hy-Vee, Target, Kohl’s and Office Depot, are within a mile of the intersection.

In addition, the area east of Valley West Drive and south of Westown Parkway is being redeveloped. Construction of a new headquarters for West Bank at 3330 Westown Parkway is nearing completion. In August 2021, ClaimDOC moved into renovated space at 3448 Westown Parkway. A dilapidated hotel has been razed that was to the west of Hurd’s Westown Parkway property.

“My hope is that with the new West Bank building and hopefully with us getting something going, that will start a trend to redevelop the whole area,” Hurd said. “There are still a number of retailers interested in that area. The city has a program in place to assist with redevelopment, so we’ll see what happens.”

Hurd acquired the property at 3501 Westown Parkway for $2 million. The property is valued at at just over $2 million. The transaction was recorded March 6.