Des Moines Business Record
09-15-07
Moving past Hotel Pattee
BY SARAH BZDEGA
When Howard Ahmanson and Roberta Green Ahmanson announced last
November that they would close Hotel Pattee by the end of the year, Jay Pattee
had already begun construction of five high-end apartments above his Ben
Franklin store. Town Craft, a partnership between Iowa State University and
Hometown Perry, Iowa, was laying the foundation to officially open in the former
First National Bank building, and at least two businesses were looking to open
downtown in the commercial district that runs along Second Street.
Though the spark to relight downtown burned out, business and community
leaders are committed to moving forward, and have several initiatives under way
to support local businesses, boost tourism and even draw a new owner to the
upscale hotel.
"We're not going to stop what we're doing," said Pattee, who's also a member of
the Perry City council. "We feel that Perry is on a roll and has been since the
hotel opened up."
The biggest change residents have noticed is that pedestrian traffic has declined
significantly. Businesses that relied on tourists, including a women's clothing
store and museum shop located near the hotel, have suffered as a result.
"Downtown is still active," said City Administrator Delbert "Butch" Niebuhr, "but
there just isn't the pedestrian traffic we had when the hotel opened and people
stayed and took advantage of the stores and museum."
However, most believe the question is not if, but when, the hotel will reopen.
Bill Clark, president of Hometown Perry, Iowa, an organization Perry native
Roberta Ahmanson started shortly after restoring Hotel Pattee, said Pattee
Enterprises Inc., which owns the hotel, is working with several interested parties,
all of which are from out of state.
"I hope that in the very near future something will be consummated on that," he
said, adding that he expected the hotel to reopen months ago. In the meantime,
Clark said there is 24-hour security in the building and a full-time person in
charge of caring for the hotel.
Wendy Goodale, executive director of Perry Chamber of Commerce, said: "We're
hoping that the people up above don't drag their feet so long that people lose
interest. ... It's been closed long enough. The longer it's closed, the longer it
hurts."
Business as usual
Owners of downtown stores have been affected in different ways. "Each store is
different," Goodale said. "Ben Franklin is fortunate because it has many variety of
things to shop for in the store, but when you have an art gallery or antique store,
those seem to be the ones that get hit a little more."
A few stores in town have cut back on hours, while the Ray B. Smith Museum
Store is open only by appointment or during special events until the hotel
reopens.
Sara Weyer now opens her Around the World clothing boutique located at 1109
Second St., around the corner from Hotel Pattee, just four days a week. Though
she still has loyal customers who visit from around Iowa, she said the effects of
losing the hotel are huge.
"We need something like the hotel if smaller businesses are to really survive,"
she said. "There are businesses that opened because of the hotel," including her
store, which was launched six and a half years ago.
Meanwhile, the Highland Elk Coffee Shop & Bistro has changed its strategy from
selling gifts, chocolates and other merchandise in front of the store, which
attracted tourists, to focusing on its core food business.
Sean Stokey and Brian Magruder bought the building from Nudgers Inc., a Perry
group dedicated to preventing deterioration of downtown buildings, and spent
$1.5 million renovating it. The former Elks lodge, located at 1211 Second St., is
now a coffee shop on the first floor, which has been open for three years, and a
bistro on the second level, open for two years.
Stokey said this was the first major downtown renovation project after the
Ahmansons' work. "It was probably seven years after the hotel opened," Stokey
said, "and I know Roberta had wanted that to happen a lot sooner."
Though the owners have lost significant business from hotel employees and
customers (Stokey estimates about 70 percent of the hotel's guests would visit),
he said, "We always built this on Perry business. We never built it to rely on
tourists."
Not only is he hopeful the hotel's reopening will boost revenues, but he also
believes its sale will help serve as a base for appraising other commercial
properties that have been restored downtown, potentially increasing the value of
his building and enticing outside investors to the district.
Pattee, who has run the Ben Franklin store at 1221 Second St. since 1983, said
the hotel's closing has not hurt his business too badly. "We miss the traffic the
hotel generated," he said, "but it seems there are not too many old-fashioned
dime stores. ... The hotel was the icing on the cake."
Seeing the investment the Ahmansons made to restore the hotel, Carnegie
library and other buildings on the Willis Avenue block inspired him to make his
own investment by renovating the floors above his store into five upscale
apartment units.
A year into the project, he feared the hotel's closing would deter renters.
However, the two completed apartments are already leased, and two others are
spoken for, even with the highest rental rate in town, Pattee said, which is $895 a
month for a 1,800-square-foot two-bedroom apartment. Pattee and his wife will
occupy the fifth apartment.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think Perry would thrive," he said.
When the hotel first opened, Pattee also invested in restoring the outside of his
store, replacing a wooden facade with old-fashioned awnings.
The town also is experiencing new activity with a car wash going in nearby and
new stores opening, including Mary Rose Art Gallery & Antiques.
Public support
The city has jumped on board with downtown redevelopment through a $10
million streetscape improvement project, which will update infrastructure as well
as add beautification features, including sidewalks, street lamps and benches.
The first two phases have been completed, costing about $2.8 million. The
remaining eight phases will be completed over the next few years, as the city
obtains funding.
However, Pattee said Perry's property tax base has increased steadily over the
past decade because of new housing developments. It also has an industrial
park being developed along Iowa Highway 141.
The city is also involved in expanding the Raccoon River Valley Trail by adding a
seven-mile loop along an abandoned stretch of the Union Pacific Railroad. The
bike trail will connect Waukee, Jamaica, Dawson, Perry, Minburn and Dallas
Center.
The city has finalized the purchase of the railroad right of way and is applying for
grants. Paving could begin next year with the entire loop completed as early as
2009. A $6 million project will include the trail development as well as cleaning up
the brownfields area and turning it into a historical and recreational spot.
Niebuhr said the trail could bring up to 7,000 people a year to Perry, making the
need for a hotel greater. The only other hotel in Perry is a Super 8, located along
Highway 141.
Perry also has applied for the third time to receive an Iowa Great Places
designation. It already has been designated a Cultural and Entertainment District
and has 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
To draw more people downtown, the chamber has increased advertising and
sponsored several events this summer, including Friday Fest and Homegrown in
Iowa, a series hosted with Hometown Perry, which featured musicians in Sandra
Louise Dyas' book "Down to the River: Portraits of Iowa Musicians."
But Goodale said, "We don't want to just be event-oriented. We want to build an
economic base."
She thinks the town would benefit by having a full-time economic development
director on staff. "We would like to work together to get one person to be paid to
help feature our small businesses," she said, "and help attract small businesses
into Perry, not just industry."
Hometown Perry
Roberta Ahmanson, who lives in California, has not abandoned the work she
started more than 10 years ago. She still is involved in the nonprofit Hometown
Perry, Iowa's many programs.
The latest is Town Craft. In collaboration with ISU's College of Design and ISU
Extension, the organization seeks to develop new strategies to strengthen small
towns. The idea is to look at factors beyond economic development that draw
people to small towns, including culture, housing and recreation, said project
manager Alan Vandehaar.
The organization plans to host conferences, lectures and other meetings as well
as have design students at senior or graduate levels working on projects at its
Perry location at Second Street and Willis Avenue. The two-story building, owned
by Hometown Perry, Iowa, also contains gallery space.
Vandehaar has been working on the project for a year, splitting his time between
Town Craft and his other responsibilities with ISU Extension. He hopes to hire a
project coordinator by October and could have students at the site this fall.
Town Craft is funded by a $750,000 grant from Hometown Perry, $231,963 from
the College of Design and $36,646 from ISU Extension under a three and a half
year contract.
Town Craft held its first conference in Ames last April, which explored the
implications of the bioeconomy for Iowa's small towns, and plans to hold its first
presentation in its new building in October. It also is working on a project looking
at what makes communities elderly-friendly.
In Perry, Town Craft is involved in developing a Hispanic business network,
which will help business owners learn sound business management practices. It
hopes to expand the network to the larger community and create a model that
will work in other towns. The College of Design has also created a visualization
tool for the city, which gives people a bird's-eye tour of Perry and allows planners
to change features and see how that would affect the overall design.
Reopening the hotel is key to Town Craft's future, Vandehaar said, because it
needs accommodations to host larger conferences. For now, it will have to host
larger events in Ames or Des Moines. "My hope and my understanding is they'll
get some new owners and it will open up," he said, "and we'll continue on right
here and have as many events as we can have."
Hometown Perry also plans to host several more events and programs focused
on culture, arts, entertainment and literacy. Albert Paley, who created
"Reconfiguration," an arch for Soumas Court next to Hotel Pattee, spoke about
his work last week at the Carnegie library. Though a grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts, Hometown Perry also is starting a Big Read program,
which encourages literacy by asking communities to read a single book and then
planning activities related to the book.
The organization, which has 11 full-time employees, also has collected 600
interviews and nearly 15,000 photographs from residents, which it primarily uses
in exhibits around town.
Though these programs draw visitors from surrounding areas, Niebuhr said,
"they don't stay as long as they used to. They're not here overnight. ... We're not
keeping them here long enough to stay in the shops and restaurants."
"I think if [Hotel Pattee] doesn't run," Goodale said, "we will need some type of
hotel. It doesn't have to be that extreme, but when the bike trail is here, people
are going to want places to stay."
Though most business and community leaders have moved on, many will never
forget their surprise at the news that the hotel was closing. "It was a shock to
everybody," Goodale said. "We had no idea. You give us a skip and then you hit
us in the gut."