The final touches are almost done on a new retail center in Polk City, which owner Shane Torres said is the first center of its kind in many years in the growing northern Polk County community.

Torres, who is also the owner of Remax Concepts, said the 7,700-square-foot center is about 98% complete and is fully leased. It includes Duck Donuts, which Torres and his wife own, a children’s clothing boutique, a tanning salon and an upscale steakhouse concept restaurant named Arcadia, which will offer all locally sourced ingredients. A 1,000-square-foot covered patio is adjacent to the restaurant.

Torres, 46, has lived in Polk City for 18 years, and said he’s seen it grow from a small, rural community, to a bustling, almost-suburb as the metro expands. Polk City is estimated to have more than 6,500 residents this year, an increase of about 1,000 people since the 2020 Census, according to the city’s website.

It’s an area with big potential with nearby Saylorville Lake and bike trails being regional draws, Torres said.

The center, located behind Torres’ Remax Concepts office near Bridge Road heading toward the Mile Long Bridge, is the latest commercial development in Polk City, which has recently seen a new Ace Hardware store open, a new branch of Home State Bank, a new city hall and several planned housing developments.

Polk City Manager Chelsea Huisman said Torres’ development “aligns with the City Council’s priorities of bringing in more commercial industry, primarily focusing on retail and restaurants.”

She said the businesses located in the center will draw not only residents but visitors from outside the area.

“The city will continue to focus on commercial development, and this project will help showcase the success of commercial development in the community, helping to drive future commercial development,” she wrote in an email.

Torres’ primary focus has been on residential development, but he said he’s been dabbling in commercial development over the years. He said he decided to build the center to bring to his community the amenities that would otherwise draw people to nearby cities like Ankeny, Johnston or Grimes.

“There’s hundreds of houses coming in every year, so that’s not going to slow down,” he said. “We really don’t have much. If you want a nice dinner beyond bar food or pizza, you’re going to Ankeny, Grimes or the backroad to Johnston.”

He had planned to open a coffee shop [he and his wife also own the Blue Bean coffee shop in Johnston] where the doughnut shop now stands, but shifted gears once Scooters opened a block down the road. He and his wife learned of the North Carolina-based Duck Donuts when they were visiting the Outer Banks, where the doughnut shop was founded, and learned it could be franchised.

Torres said the restaurant has been an idea that’s been a long time coming.

“Being involved in the community as long as I have been, I’ve seen it grow to an extremely affluent community, median age in the 30s, so I know they will support an upscale restaurant and they have been voicing it for years and we’ve just been waiting for the right time,” he said.

His partners in the restaurant are Chad Halupnick, president of DCI Group, a general contractor for the project, and Michael Nguyen, who will serve as executive chef and general manager.

The tanning salon and children’s boutique are led by tenants who are independently owned and operated.

The boutique and donut shop are open. The salon and restaurant will open in the coming weeks, Torres said.

Besides wanting to bring something to his hometown, Torres, who is married with three children, said he is motivated to give his children a better upbringing than he had.

“I didn’t grow up with a whole lot,” he said. “We moved probably 20 times by the time I was in the seventh grade. I never started and finished school in the same year … my dad wasn’t around much, my mom was working multiple jobs, trying to take care of us. We lived in — sometimes pop-up campers held together with duct tape. No power. No water.”

He was born in Sioux City. His family moved around, with stops in Texas, California, Arizona and Nevada. Torres finished middle school in Moville, Iowa, and graduated from high school in Leon, in southern Iowa’s Decatur County.

Torres began as a general contractor before he expanded into real estate. As a builder, he said he ended up filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy when the housing market crashed in 2009.

He recovered and began delving into real estate development, with much of his commercial focus being what he described as “rehab stuff.”

One of his first projects was a retail strip center along Hickman Road in Waukee, where his firm maintains an office.

Torres also built the Shooting Star child care center in Elkhart, and owns a three-story, 29,000-square-foot building on University Avenue in Windsor Heights. He also has worked on facade improvements as part of a rehab of buildings on Newton’s town square, and he said he owns some more commercial space in the Quad Cities.

He said commercial growth in Polk City is important because it provides jobs and contributes to the city’s tax base.

“Developing in Waukee is cool, developing some of the other stuff is cool, but if I have the resources and the ability, why not make my hometown the best it can be?” Torres said.

But his top priority is his family, he said.

“It’s funny, because I say all the time my kids are spoiled rotten and then I’m mad at them because they’re spoiled rotten,” Torres said. “I’ve never wanted them to have to want for anything, and they haven’t. It’s hard because it’s a balance. You want them to have everything you didn’t, but you also want to prepare them and know they’re not always going to get everything handed to them.”