First Highland Park lost its bakery. Then its hardware store closed.
No need to worry: Now the north side Des Moines neighborhood is slated to get, in their place, not one, but two, coffee shops offering baked goods.
And they'll be side-by-side.
Tracy Adamson said Tuesday she has acquired the Hiland Bakery (Hiland is a common variation of the spelling of the neighborhood name) and plans to reopen it "within a couple of weeks."
Adamson, a food service and hospitality business veteran, said she recently bought the bakery from the Martinson family, which had operated it from 1947 until last summer. She said the sale included the recipes for popular Hiland baked goods and training for a staff of five experienced bakers she has hired.
"I think I have a really, really good staff — as good, if not better than it was before," she said.
She said the bakery also will sell coffee, espresso and cappuccino to go, and that she plans within a few months to renovate a section of the building used for storage so it can serve as a sit-down coffee bar.
At the same time, Drew Kelso, a longtime Highland Park neighborhood leader, says he is carrying on with his plan, announced last fall, to renovate part of the old Hiland Park Hardware store next door to the bakery on Sixth Avenue just north of Euclid Avenue as a coffee shop offering baked goods.
He said he met with Adamson when he learned of her plans and tried to work out a cooperative arrangement. But he and Adamson said they failed to come to an agreement.
Both expressed confidence they can succeed, even if they operate side-by-side.
"The bakery closing was a shot to gut for the neighborhood," said Adamson, whose husband, Jeff, grew up in the area. "We need to get that back open. We have a really bright, young staff. I think we'll make it go."
She said she plans to operate six days a week, up from the four that the bakery used to be open, and revive its custom cake-making business.
"I want a soft opening before the grand opening, but I doubt I'll get one," she said. "As soon as a few people start buying, I think we'll get really, really busy real quickly."
Kelso, who is handing over the presidency of the Highland Park/Oak Park Community Association to Ashley Kennebeck this week, said he hopes to offer a different kind of community gathering place when his coffee shop opens, probably in April. He said his Facebook page for the shop already has 1,100 enthusiastic followers as he posts photos of the preparations for the conversion.
"I've been helping lead progress in the neighborhood for three years, and I think people are excited and will support it," he said. "I think it's kind of unfortunate that there will be two coffee shops, but I have confidence in the product we'll provide."
Des Moines City Council member Linda Westergaard, whose ward includes Highland Park, said the neighborhood is in the midst of a renaissance, and that she believes there is enough demand to support both businesses.
"Whatever Drew does and whatever Tracy does, I hope they are both successful," she said. She noted that the neighborhood has other similar business, such as convenience stores, that thrive despite being in close proximity to one another.
She said the bakery and hardware store closings were the result of retirements, not a decline in business. In fact, Bill Wheeler, who had operated the hardware store since 1986, continues to use a portion of the building for a window and screen repair and key-making business.
"I'm encouraged by everything that's happening in that business district," said Westergaard, who grew up in the Highland Park/Oak Park area, an early Des Moines suburb, and recalls the Sixth Avenue corridor's heyday as a thriving business district. "I believe it can be like that again. I think the time is right."
Kelso said that while he can't reveal the details, several other businesses are scheduled to open in the coming year. He said he will continue to work on neighborhood issues with the Parks Area Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes community projects and events in the Highland Park/Oak Park/Union Park area, and that some exciting changes are just around the corner.
They include an amphitheater in nearby Riverview Park and a project that will narrow a stretch of Euclid Avenue that includes the intersection with Sixth Avenue, providing additional parking and slowing down traffic through the neighborhood.
"It's part of overall social infrastructure we're trying to establish," he said. "It will be more sustainable in the long term."
Adamson, who owns other buildings on the Sixth Avenue corridor, said she thinks the neighborhood is ripe for a revitalization like the ones that transformed the East Village and the Ingersoll Avenue corridor that bracket downtown on the east and west respectively.
"I think it has the same kind of vibe," she said. "Maybe we'll be busy enough that there will be room for two more coffee shops."
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And then there were two: Hiland Bakery to be revived next door to similarly planned business - Des Moines Register
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