Wells Fargo owns 12 downtown Des Moines properties with a total value of over $125.5 million. Click on each pinpoint in the map to find out more about each property.

Wells Fargo owns 12 properties in downtown Des Moines, including six surface parking lots, four office buildings, a warehouse and a 1,600-space parking garage.

Company officials have said they will continue to use the office building 801 Walnut St. and will vacate offices at 206 Eighth St. and 800 Walnut St. Officials have not said what their plans are for a smaller office building at 207 Ninth St., the parking garage or the surface parking lots.

A company spokesman has said officials are “evaluating options” for the properties, including selling them.

The value of the downtown property owned by Wells Fargo totals over $125.5 million.

The surface parking lots owned by Wells Fargo include 8.2 acres of semi-developed land.

For several years, city officials have wanted to see the surface parking lots developed into housing, restaurants or entertainment venues, Matt Anderson, Des Moines’ deputy city manager, said.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to see some higher and better uses of those properties, most of which have some great visibility from [Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway],” he said.

What will be challenging, however, is finding occupants for the office buildings Wells Fargo is abandoning, Anderson said.

Options include converting the office properties to residential or hotel uses, he said.

While hundreds of apartment units have been added to downtown in the past decade, there’s room for more, he said. “I’m not concerned about the market’s ability to absorb more multifamily. There still seems to be plenty of demand for it.”

There may also be interest from a company looking to occupy 100,000 square feet or more of Class A or Class B office space, Anderson said. Often companies located across the country put out queries seeking large blocks of space with nearby available parking, he said.

“Most of the time we ignore those inquiries because we can’t meet their needs,” Anderson said. “Now when the [Greater Des Moines] Partnership’s economic development folks are at regional trade shows, they’ll be able say that we’ve got space available. … We might be able to attract some new deals that we otherwise couldn’t attract before.”

Interest remains high in the Des Moines area for “high-quality” real estate properties, said Justin Lossner, a managing director of JLL Des Moines. Typically, users of space that ranges from 2,000 to 8,000 square feet look in the suburbs for places to lease, he said. “There are far better and more option in the suburbs, which has put downtown at a disadvantage.

“But if someone could buy a high-quality downtown asset with a large floor plate that could easily be multi-tenanted and provide amenity-rich experiences, there’s going to be an appetite for it,” Lossner said.