The folks at Blackbird Investments are a creative bunch with no lack for development ideas or the enthusiasm to pull them off. With that in mind, the story of how the team of family and friends was drawn to a cluster of former military barrracks at Fort Des Moines, south of Army Post Road and east of Southwest Ninth Street on the south side of Des Moines is interesting. As it turns out, the project resulted from a President’s Day outing by Hugh O’Hagan in 2013. O’Hagan is an old pal of Blackbird partner Justin Doyle and was aware that Doyle wanted to do a multifamily housing project. One of Blackbird’s specialties is the re-use of historic buildings. O’Hagan and his son were on their way to Blank Park Zoo when they drove by Fort Des Moines. O’Hagan sent Doyle a text message saying he might have found a property for the affordable housing project. The next day O’Hagan and Doyle walked the property. Within 24 hours, give or take an hour, Doyle had made an offer on the property. At the time, O’Hagan worked for an insurance company. These days, he is a partner at Blackbird. Read more about the Fort Des Moines project here.