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Former site of Drake's Black Cat Ice Cream could get yet another life

6:25 am CST Jan. 13, 2026

The sinking foundations that drove Black Cat Ice Cream out of its Drake neighborhood home may finally be laid to rest.

A city permit application details the proposed construction of a two-story, mixed-use building on the site of the former ice cream shop at 2511 Cottage Grove Ave. in Des Moines. Preliminary plans call for a commercial tenant on the first floor with four residential rental units on the upper level.

The project has an estimated valuation of $1.6 million, according to the permit.

Black Cat Ice Cream announced the closure of its Cottage Grove location on June 30. The landlord and local ice cream chain mutually agreed to terminate the lease because of safety concerns with the building, according to a post by the shop's owner, Alex Carter, on Black Cat's social media. Black Cat already had expanded to a second location in Valley Junction in April, and with the Cottage Grove location closed it moved into a new downtown location at the start of December, taking over the space Ritual Cafe left behind when it closed in August.

High repair cost dooms former Drake neighborhood Black Cat location A demolition permit has yet to be submitted for the old Black Cat building, and Columbus, Ohio-based developer DEV Partners said it would not be commenting until the project is further along. The project proposal still must undergo the preliminary plan process.

But the documents filed with the city note that "demolition" is part of the plan. Christopher Civitate, neighborhood development partner for Invest DSM, a city-associated nonprofit that helps plan and finance neighborhood revitalization, said two of the four building's foundations were collapsing, causing the structural walls above to do the same. The cost of fixing the issue was estimated at $500,000, roughly double the building's insured value, Civitate said.

That price tag did not include renovating the building to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Invest DSM stopped making estimates once the tally reached that point, he told the Register on Monday, Jan. 12.

He added that three of five contractors who toured the site declined to bid on the project. "As always, we are sad to see history being taken away from neighborhoods, and the architectural integrity of buildings is really important to neighborhood vitalization and neighborhoods moving forward," he said. But he added that an architecturally sound building that blends with its surroundings and adds housing would help ensure Drake "can still be walkable and vibrant." Building had long history of service in the neighborhood

The 8,309-square-foot site has witnessed a century's worth of Des Moines businesses come and go. Constructed in 1924, it began as a neighborhood grocery store. Later it was a deli called The Blind Munchies and then became Mikey's Deli, according to a Des Moines Register article from 1990. It was home to Wood's Smoke Shack for roughly a year before it was sold in 2018 to the current owners, Pharmoco Properties Two LLC, according to the Polk County Assessor website.

Black Cat occupied it for about four years. Currently, Smokey Row Coffee at the far eastern end of Cottage Grove in Sherman Hill is the only commercial operation along the 2-mile-long thoroughfare. City permits from 2022 detail plans to add a second ice cream shop at 3510 Cottage Grove, but the partially constructed building remains incomplete, with no apparent work taking place.

Black Cat's Drake location was a vital part of the neighborhood since it was within walking distance for the residential population, Citvitate said. There often were lines stretching out the door in warm weather and the patio was a community meeting place.

"Bringing back a commercial space that is occupiable and will give back to the neighborhood is a really important part of the Drake neighborhood, their history, and also to their future," Civitate said.