After a more than 2 1/2-year effort to concentrate its Des Moines metro employees on its West Des Moines campus, Wells Fargo has finally sold off the office complex that once was among the largest owned by a corporation in downtown Des Moines.
Records filed with the Polk County Recorders Office on Monday, Aug. 18, show that DMCRE1 LLC, with a mailing address in Grand Island, Nebraska, has acquired the seven parcels for $32 million. Public documents also show Bankers Trust Company as the mortgage holder in the transaction, at $19.5 million.
The documents list Gordon Glade of Grand Island, Nebraska, as the representative for DMCRE1. The price was less than two-thirds of the assessed valuation of the properties.
City records show the sale of the buildings, comprising more than 850,000 square feet of floorspace, was agreed to in December. They had been on the market since early 2023.
Glade did not respond to a telephone call from the Des Moines Register seeking comment. A spokesman for Wells Fargo declined to comment on the sale.
Plans filed with the city in April call for converting one of the buildings, an 11-story, 188,679-square foot structure built in 1988, into a 170-room hotel with a top-story restaurant. A second, three-story building with 53,668 square feet of floorspace, located at 207 Ninth St. and dating from 1910, would be converted into meeting and office space and a spa with ground-level parking.
The buildings are valued at $958,100 and $1.1 million, respectively. The document lists the hotel as a JdV by Hyatt boutique property. It provides no timeline for the conversion.
Wells Fargo previously indicated it would lease back some of the space it was selling to house functions that will remain downtown. Those still housed in the city center include its legal department and a division that helps retailers provide consumer credit for major purchases such as furniture and appliances.
In addition to the buildings at 206 Eighth and 207 Ninth sts., the transaction includes:
The total tax assessed value of the properties is $56.3 million for about 1.4 million square feet of developed space including the parking garage. Des Moines City Council cleared the way for the sale by terminating incentive agreements it reached with Wells Fargo for the 800 and 801 Walnut St. buildings and the parking garage.
In an interview with the Des Moines Business Record, Glade indicated that only 800 Walnut St. would be available for resale.
Wells Fargo also has sold a major office building on Westown Parkway in West Des Moines as it moved most of its offices to the 157-acre campus at 800 S. Jordan Creek Parkway, also in West Des Moines. It is assessed at nearly $196 million, according to the Dallas County Assessor’s website.
It also let lapse naming rights for the downtown arena that is Iowa’s largest, now Casey’s Center, that it had held for 20 years.
Once the Des Moines metro’s largest employer, Wells Fargo has shed more than 1,000 jobs in more than 80 announced layoffs since April 2022.
(This article has been edited to correct the dollar amount of the sale.)
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wells Fargo completes long-planned sale of its downtown Des Moines buildings
Reporting by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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