Updated: Eyesore Gas Station is Gone

BEAVERDALE, Iowa - (August 30,2022)

The longtime eyesore at Beaver and Douglas Avenues is gone at last!

A large piece of equipment from DeCarlo Demolition knocked down the former Phillips 66 station this week.  It had been abandoned 14 years ago.

Property owner John Knapp is leasing the site to Scooters, a drive-through coffee shop.

The eyesore at the intersection of Beaver and Douglas Avenues has long vexed neighbors, who quickly tired of its boarded-up windows and deteriorating parking lot blocked off by huge cement barricades.

The improvement project nearly fell through when the Des Moines Planning and Zoning Commission insisted on a walk-up window, as well as outside seating.  The seating area would have required an indoor restroom for customers, which Scooters did not want to do.  P&Z then denied the permit to build the Scooters, but an appeal to the city council overturned the P&Z denial.  Because P&Z had rejected plans for the project, it required six out of seven city council votes.  The council ultimately voted 6-0 to overturn P&Z denial with Mayor Frank Cownie, at-large council members Connie Boesen and Carl Voss, and ward councilpersons Josh Mandelbaum, Joe Gatto and Linda Westergard voting for the Scooters project.  

Timeline for completion of Scooters is not known.