DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Downtown Des Moines is anticipating an unprecedented wave of hotel construction, including a 330-room Hilton that opened this week.
The city expects a surge of 951 hotel rooms in the next few years, which is a nearly 50 percent increase from the rooms currently available, the Des Moines Register reported.

Des Moines didn’t add any new downtown hotel rooms between the opening of Des Lux Hotel in 2000 and the Hyatt Place in 2010. A recent wave of construction has added five hotels in the last four years. The Hilton Des Moines Downtown that opened Wednesday is a long-awaited project due to its proximity to the Iowa Events Center. Officials said it’s key to the city’s bid to attract national and regional conventions, as well as thousands of visitors annually.

Assistant City Manager Matt Anderson said the city has an aggressive policy for attracting hotels downtown by providing tax increment financing to developers. For building or remodeling hotels, owners pay property taxes on the assessed value of the building or land prior to renovations, with the length of the agreement depending on each project.

The city has awarded $18.7 million in tax increment financing to six hotel projects since 2014. Officials said there’s a clear return on investment, but many have questioned whether downtown can support the booming hotel construction.

Officials with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office report a man from southwest Iowa was arrested Friday in Nebraska following the theft of vehicles from the Percival, IA area. Deputies with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office received a report a blue 2006 Dodge Dakota and a blue 2008 Ford F350 stolen from a residence in Percival. The Dodge Dakota was located hidden in a barn, in Percival, heavily damaged. The Ford F350 was recovered, also damaged by Nebraska Law Enforcement authorities at a location in Omaha, Nebraska.

Shaun Akers (Photo courtesy Fremont County S/O)

39-year old Shaun Akers, of Sidney, was arrested by the Nebraska State Patrol on a warrant out of Fremont County, for Theft 1st Degree, Operating Without Owner’s Consent, and Criminal Mischief 2nd Degree. Akers was being held at the Douglas County Correctional Center, awaiting an extradition hearing back to Iowa. The Omaha Police Department and Nebraska State Patrol assisted the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office with the investigation.

The Iowa Supreme Court has issued a split opinion saying a man who plead guilty can have his case reviewed after the victim changed his story. Jacob Lee Schmidt of Sioux City pleaded guilty to incest and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse on a younger relative. He asked to have his conviction vacated after the victim recanted. The Iowa Supreme Court ruling says sometimes an innocent person is choosing the lesser of two evils: pleading guilty despite his or her actual innocence because the odds are stacked up against him or her, or going to trial with the risk of losing and the prospect of receiving a harsher sentence.

In its first ruling on the subject, the court says the Iowa Constitution allows freestanding claims of actual innocence, so applicants may bring such claims to attack their pleas even though they entered their pleas knowingly and voluntarily. The court ordered the case sent back to the district court. There were two dissenting opinions from justices Waterman, Mansfield and Zager. The dissent says Schmidt closed the door to an appeal when he pleaded guilty in court and admitted what he had done. It says the majority opinion relies too much on cases in which the defendant steadfastly maintained his or her innocence through trial and all subsequent appeals.

(Radio Iowa)