End of an era: Go inside the Kaleidoscope at the Hub as demolition begins

It's the end of an era as interior demolition has begun on the 38-year-old Kaleidoscope building downtown. Crews are tearing down the east half of the shuttered mall to make way for a $100 million housing skyscraper that will change the Des Moines skyline.Inside, it’s dark, dusty, and gutted. Crews have taken down interior walls and ceilings that held shops, offices, and restaurants of the once-thriving downtown mall. Soon, the outside walls will come tumbling down."This is the first step of what we hope is a $100 million development," Des Moines Assistant City Manager Matt Anderson said.Anderson is encouraged by the progress. It's taken years of on-and-off plans to get to this point. It's a far cry from the heady days of 1985 when the Hubbell family built the massive mall and office complex. At the time, it was designed to revitalize downtown Des Moines shopping and take advantage of the new skywalk system.But over the years, business slowed and the mall closed. More recently, developers came along with a new idea to replace part of the mall with a new 33-story skyscraper with affordable housing and a killer view."Replacing this really obsolete building with a residential tower means you're just moving with the cycles of the real estate development and land uses around the country," Anderson said.The demolition of the old building and construction of the new tower will take several years, and that means Walnut Street will be closed between 5th Street and 6th Avenue for a while.The city says the result will be a game changer for downtown Des Moines and its skyline."There's a lot of symbolism to building a skyscraper. We don't build too many skyscrapers around here, so the symbolism is just as important to the real estate we get," Anderson said. Developers say they are putting the final touches on financing the new tower. The city expects final plans to come before the city council later this summer or early fall.