A new business could open in the former Spaghetti Works building on Court Avenue later this summer, the president of the Omaha, Neb.-based restaurant company said.

Shelly Stokes said Spaghetti Works is selling the space and has a potential buyer who has submitted a contract and is doing their due diligence. She would not identify who the potential buyer is.

“We are optimistic that hopefully we will have a new business for that space by mid-summer,” she said.

Stokes said she does not have a clear idea what that potential buyer might put in the space, which is nearly 8,000 square feet on the ground floor. The upper stories were converted into residential space with separate owners.

“From what I’m hearing, it will be a very nice fit for Court Avenue and hopefully bring some added attention to it,” she said.

According to the Polk County assessor’s website, the former Spaghetti Works space has an assessed value of $879,000.

Spaghetti Works made the decision to close the restaurant, at 310 Court Ave., in March 2023. It had been in that location for 45 years.

At the time, Stokes cited concerns with safety in the Court Avenue district and the effect that had on business at the family-oriented restaurant.

“I think Des Moines has adopted the attitude that Court Avenue is a dangerous place,” she told the Business Record after the restaurant closed. “And unfortunately for us you don’t bring your family into a dangerous place. So with all that’s gone on … it was just a death sentence for us. There was nothing we could do to come back from that.”

Stokes said the face of Court Avenue had changed in recent years and that “a family restaurant no longer seemed viable.”

Stoke said at the time that the restaurant survived the floods that went through downtown, and saw many changes downtown, many of them positive, but couldn’t come back from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing face of Court Avenue.

“Unfortunately, after we got back from COVID we saw the face of Court Avenue change to more of a bar district and there were some safety concerns,” she said in March 2023.

The restaurant closed abruptly on March 23, 2023.

The company’s restaurants in Omaha and Ralston, Neb., remain open and are doing well as Spaghetti Works celebrates its 50th anniversary on May 15, Stokes said.