The granite-clad office tower that Wells Fargo abandoned downtown is getting a dramatically different second life: an 11-story, 157-room boutique hotel with a rooftop restaurant and bar. Plans filed with the City of Des Moines in October lay out what the $48 million conversion of 206 Eighth St. will look like once it is finished.
The building would operate under Marriott's upper-upscale Le Méridien brand, according to planning submittals filed with the City of Des Moines. Plans include illuminated exterior features. As the Des Moines Register first reported, the renderings show the hotel could give the building a far lighter, brighter look than its original corporate shell.
The design narrative was submitted October 6. Plans call for 157 guest rooms.
From Bank Headquarters to Boutique Hotel
The project traces back to August 2026, when the Des Moines City Council approved preliminary terms for an Urban Renewal Development Agreement with DMCRE2 LLC, the local development entity formed by Jonathan Koester and Michael Stessman, according to the Business Record. City agenda documents from October now target a construction start in February 2027, with overall completion expected in spring 2028 — a shift from initial city staff reports in July 2026 that had contemplated late-2026 preliminary site work.
Converting a corporate office tower into an upper-upscale hotel involves more than a fresh coat of paint. The project would turn the former bank headquarters into a hospitality destination.
A Discounted Deal That Unlocked the Campus
None of this would be happening without Wells Fargo's exit from downtown. The bank created the vacancy in January 2023 when it decided to leave its central business district buildings and consolidate local workforce operations into its suburban Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines, where it had long been one of the city core's largest employers, according to CoStar. The Wells Fargo transaction involved more than 1.4 million square feet; Skyview was available while other space was leased back.
The Business Record reported that DMCRE1 paid $32 million for four Wells Fargo buildings. The portfolio carried an assessed value above $56.2 million, and CoStar later recognized the deal with an award.
Adjacent Blocks Are Being Reshaped Too
The hotel conversion is not happening in isolation. DMCRE2 LLC also purchased the historic Founders Building at 207 Ninth St., directly west of the proposed Le Méridien, for $10 million in July 2025, with plans to convert the three-story, 53,868-square-foot structure into office space, event facilities, and a spa, per property records cited by CoStar. And in July 2026, the city council approved a separate Urban Renewal Development Agreement for an adjacent former Wells Fargo surface lot at 900 Vine St., near West Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, clearing the way for a $42.25 million, five-story mixed-use project slated for spring 2027 construction, according to Axios Des Moines.
Together, the projects amount to a block-by-block experiment in whether downtown Des Moines can convert a bank's abandoned corporate campus into a mix of hospitality, office, and mixed-use space. Questions still remain about the exact structure of any local financial incentives or Tax Increment Financing tied to the Le Méridien's Urban Renewal Development Agreement, how parking will be allocated in the adjacent 1,600-stall Mulberry garage, and how the boutique hotel will compete with established downtown convention hotels such as the Hilton Des Moines Downtown.
