DES MOINES, Iowa — City officials hope to make downtown Des Moines more walkable by transforming underutilized parking lots.
In recent years, the city has transformed its parking lots into flourishing commercial and public developments. Now, they’re hoping to partner with private companies that own a plethora of underutilized parking lots in the downtown area.
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Deputy City Manager, Matt Anderson, said that while these spaces were once necessary, lots owned by Wells Fargo on downtown’s south side and others owned by Principal on the north side are underutilized today because of a switch to hybrid work.
“Downtowns don’t have the luxury of spreading out into vacant corn fields or soybean fields. Land is very limited, and so you have to try to get every piece of ground in its most productive state,” said Anderson.
Starting in the early 2000s, the city underwent a similar project in what’s now known as the East Village. The area was transformed from car dealership parking lots to the small business hub it is today. Booting these lots added establishments like Raygun and Zombie Burger.