The pandemic prompted Des Moines developer Jake Christensen to slow down plans to restore property at 2525 Grand Ave. to its original use as hotel. Architectural rendering by Slingshot Architecture

What: Renovation of former motor lodge-turned-apartments back to original use
Where: 2525 Grand Ave. in Des Moines
Estimated project cost: $18.3 million
Developer: Jake Christensen
Architect: Slingshot Architecture
Background and update: A request to rezone 2525 Grand Ave. in Des Moines to allow a bar to operate on the property will be held at 5 p.m. Monday by the City Council.

The property includes a three-story building that originally operated as a Howard Johnson motor lodge. The hotel opened at the site in 1962; more than 25 years later, the building was converted to apartments. Developer Jake Christensen plans on returning the building to a hotel.

The project also includes converting a medical building on the property into a bar, which prompted Christensen’s rezoning request that was approved by the city’s Plan and Zoning Commission in May.

Christensen’s development plans for the property became public in fall 2019. He had planned to begin restoration of the hotel building in spring 2020 with completion slated for early 2021. The pandemic, however, slowed those plans.

Christensen, in an email to the Business Record, wrote that the project is “slowly moving forward.” Plans now include starting construction in the first quarter of 2022 with completion in early 2023, he wrote.

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