Author’s note: This is my final column for the Des Moines Business Record, which has carried my musings since 2012. Beginning next month, the Elbert Files will have a new home at a sister publication,  dsm magazine, where it will appear in weekly newsletters and online. 

The decision to move city offices from Des Moines’ historic City Hall to a former insurance headquarters across from the Pappajohn Sculpture Park is a once-in-a-century opportunity to inject new life in the city’s on-again, off-again downtown riverfront.

In recent decades, a lot of time, energy and money has been spent to rejuvenate the riverfront.

And, while associated projects like the East Village and downtown housing have flourished, the Principal Riverwalk, a key piece of the 1990s Des Moines Vision Plan, has not lived up to expectations. Not even construction of an iconic arched pedestrian bridge and renovation of a historic railroad bridge — both providing dramatic viewing platforms — did the trick.  

But now there is another opportunity. Soon Des Moines’ riverfront City Hall, Police Station and Armory will be vacated, as will a nearly 100-year-old U.S. Courthouse after the construction of a new $136 million courthouse across the river. 

Unfortunately, the city and federal government have approached the moves as individual projects, and none have produced attention-grabbing alternatives. 

Rather than waiting for individual developers to step forward, local leaders need to take control, like what happened more than 125 years ago. They need to organize and do community-wide planning to decide what new uses best accommodate a future riverfront. 

Part of that effort is already ongoing in the multicounty Iowa Confluence Water Trails project. 

Decisions for future uses of the sites of today’s public buildings, along the entire riverfront, should be part of that process.    

That is how those buildings got there in the first place. 

At the turn of the 19th century, the downtown riverfront was lined with billboards, brick-making plants and other factories that discharged waste directly into the river.  

In the late 1890s, business and civic leaders, led by local women’s clubs, were inspired by the City Beautiful Movement that evolved from the “White City” of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. They decided to clean up the riverfront, remove the junk and factories and create a modern, clean Civic Center District with public buildings clad in stone.

Between 1900 and 1935, seven public buildings were erected along the downtown riverfront. 

The first, in 1903, was the Public Library, which underwent a $30 million conversion to become the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in 2011. 

In 1908 two more buildings were added: a U.S. Post Office, which was converted to the Polk County Administrative Building in 1979, and the Des Moines Coliseum, which burned down in 1949. It was replaced by a downtown YMCA, which was demolished in 2015 to make way for the recently opened U.S. Courthouse.

In 1912, City Hall was built (and remodeled in 2018 for $7.4 million). In 1920, the Municipal Courts and Public Safety Building (Police Station) opened, two blocks south of City Hall. And in 1935, the Des Moines Armory was built, one block north of City Hall. 

In 1929, a U.S. Courthouse opened between City Hall and the Police Station. 

Six of the original riverfront public buildings are standing today, and four are available for redevelopment. It will be a shame if the city and federal governments approve individual efforts without first creating a broader vision. 

The possibilities are endless. 

They include affordable housing in the Police Station building and high-end condos at City Hall, like Harry Bookey built at the Christ Science Church on Grand Avenue and developer Dean Jensen did with the former Roosevelt Grade School near my boyhood home in Ames. 

Other possibilities include retail, restaurants and hotels; artist studios, like Mainframe Studios; performance venues; recreational uses, like a bowling alley, indoor golf, a climbing wall or pickleball courts.

What’s needed now is a community group that can put together a wish list covering the spectrum. 

Then, put the list on the table, see how it fits together, check out financing options and go from there.