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Principal Financial Group employees will soon return to the office, bringing one of the metro’s biggest groups of workers back to downtown Des Moines more than three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaders of the financial services firm, which has allowed employees to work remotely, recently told workers “within a certain radius” of the Des Moines and Charlotte, North Carolina, campuses that they need to report to the office at least three days a week, spokesperson Sara Bonney said in an email Friday.
Bonney did not confirm the news, first reported by Axios Des Moines, that the mandate starts Nov. 6 and applies to all workers who live within 30 miles of the offices. Principal employs about 6,500 workers in Des Moines.
“We’ll continue to offer a variety of work arrangements, including remote positions, and embrace flexibility as a core tenet of our culture,” Bonney said. “We look forward to how this new guidance will strengthen collaboration and connection in our offices.”
Downtown real estate agents have struggled to fill vacancies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 13% of multitenant units in Des Moines were unoccupied in the second quarter of this year ― double the amount of unoccupied space in 2019, according to figures recently reported by the Business Record.
Some agents told the publication they saw momentum in comparison to the previous year, an optimistic sign for downtown businesses that rely on weekday diners and shoppers. In a strategic plan released in February, the Greater Des Moines Partnership proposed reconfiguring empty downtown offices to create spaces suitable for smaller companies and offering incentives to lure businesses to downtown.
Other employers cutting back on downtown space
Principal’s return to office comes as some other key employers have reduced, or are planning to shrink, their downtown footprints.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has allowed employees to work from home since 2020. The company has reached a tentative agreement to sell one of its two downtown offices, at 1200 Locust St., along with a parking garage and lot to the city of Des Moines, which is seeking a new police headquarters and room for other, scattered municipal offices. The City Council voted Monday to hold a public hearing on the $56.3 million sale at a date yet to be set.
Wells Fargo & Co. announced in January that most of its downtown Des Moines employees will be moving to the company’s South Jordan Creek Parkway campus in West Des Moines. The company, which is trying to sell four downtown Des Moines offices and a parking garage, has not disclosed how many workers are affected.
The Krause Group, which owns Kum & Go, announced in May that it had reached an agreement to sell the convenience store chain to the Salt Lake City-based Maverik stores. The Krause Group has not said whether any employees at its 1459 Grand Ave. offices will lose their jobs in the pending sale. A development agreement with the city requires the Krause Group to maintain a Kum & Go headquarters at the office, known as Krause Gateway Plaza, in order to continue receiving incentives.
In another move that will subtract workers from downtown, the Executive Council of Iowa, comprised of the governor and Cabinet members, on Tuesday approved the purchase of a vacant for Wells Fargo office building east of the Des Moines International Airport. The acquisition that will pave the way for vacating the long-deficient Henry A. Wallace Building, which houses 540 state employees adjacent to the Iowa Capitol.
Principal workspace flexible
Principal is one of the biggest property owners in the metro, with buildings valued at $335 million, according to the Polk County Property Appraiser. The company’s holdings include its headquarters at 711 High St. and other major offices at 750 Park St. and 655 Ninth St. downtown.
The company also owns the 801 Grand skyscraper, the tallest building in Iowa, and spent much of the last decade completing a $400 million renovation of its campus.
Bonney, the spokesperson, said Principal had embraced flexible work prior to the pandemic, and designed ithe buildings on its downtown campus to enable employees to choose the environment that best suits them.
“Teams are assigned to neighborhoods within their respective buildings,” she said. “Additional amenities and shared spaces are available across the campus that employees can choose to work from throughout the day. Principal encourages employees to consider the entire campus their workspace.”
Tyler Jett is an investigative reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett. He also accepts encrypted messages at tjett@proton.me.
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