Hotel MoLo

Hotel MoLo, a boutique restoration of a 1962 Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge on Des Moines' Grand Avenue, has been in development since 2019 and remains unopened as of August 2026. Developer Christensen Development and architect Slingshot Architecture describe it as a new independent hotel brand rather than a HoJo recreation, with a companion restaurant planned in an adjacent former medical office building. The project has been repeatedly delayed and, at last public update, was targeting a 2025 construction start with no confirmed opening date since.

The place

Hotel MoLo occupies 2525 Grand Avenue, on the boulevard linking downtown Des Moines to the leafier residential blocks west of the city center, near the Drake University area and the Ingersoll Avenue corridor. The site pairs a three-story motor lodge building set back from Grand Avenue with a separate former medical office building next door at 2515 Grand, which the developer plans to fold into the same complex as a restaurant.

The concept

The building opened in 1962 as a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge, one of the chain's Midwest outposts built for the interstate-driving era, with the brand's signature orange roofline and turquoise cupola. It operated as a hotel for roughly a quarter-century before being converted to apartments in the late 1980s, and hasn't held an overnight guest since. Des Moines developer Jake Christensen, through Christensen Development, announced plans in 2019 to reverse that conversion, working with architect David Voss of Slingshot Architecture. Voss has been explicit that the result won't be a Howard Johnson's replica — "This is a new brand," he told CoStar — though the restoration retains midcentury-modern cues, including the original Gate Lodge along Ingersoll Avenue, reinterpreted rather than copied. The project has slipped repeatedly: an initial 2020 groundbreaking and 2021 opening gave way to pandemic-era delays, a 2022–2023 restart target, a summer 2024 target, and, per the most recent reporting, a construction start pushed to the second quarter of 2025. Estimated cost has climbed alongside the timeline, from an original $18.3 million to roughly $22 million.

Dining & wellness

Plans call for converting the adjacent former medical office building into a restaurant tied to the hotel, alongside a restored Gate Lodge that Christensen intends to run as a bar and a heated, year-round outdoor pool with its own poolside bar. As of the most recent reporting, none of these venues had opened, and further specifics — names, chef, menu concept — had not been announced.