The blue, red, black, yellow and green stripes on the side of the newly renovated building at 515 28th St. in Des Moines are a clue to what's inside.

The colors are those of the world cycling championship and signal the historic former print shop is home to the recently opened Chain & Spoke, Des Moines’ first combination bike and coffee shop

Built in 1925 to house Iowa Lithographic Co., the building had been empty for years before its roof collapsed in 2019 and it ended up on Des Moines’ nuisance property list, a potential target for demolition. RWR Development and Benchmark Real Estate acquired it in 2020 and invested $2.5 million restoring and adapting it for retail and restaurant use.

Jeff Hoobin combined both when he opened Chain & Spoke at the beginning of April. A former pro bike racer, he was an auto enthusiast who wanted to race but found that competing on two-wheelers was much less expensive.

It became his passion, and with his business, Hoobin indulges two others, as well: fine coffee and unique architecture.

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“I wanted a menu that matched the quality of bikes that we’re offering and fit the feel of this space,” he said.

The coffee offerings focus on elevating basics like cold brews and espresso. Each season features a signature drink. For spring it’s a maple cinnamon latte using granola sourced from Iowa and maple syrup from Great Rivers Maple in the Driftlesss Area town of Garnavillo.

Pammel Park Coffee Co. in Winterset roasts the shop’s four coffee blends, named for insider cycling references like the term "prologue."

“Prologue is the first stage of the race where people get their legs going,” Hoobin said. “They know it’s a great way to start the morning.”

High-end bikes complement high-end coffee

Chain & Spoke sells $700 entry-level bikes, but its niche is offerings from high-end specialty manufacturers Orbea and Allied Cycle Works, some of whose models retail for five figures. Chain & Spoke also services bikes.

Spanish manufacturer Orbea is the shop’s “cornerstone brand,” Hoobin said. Users can design their own paint finishes on most models. And Allied is an innovator, with models including one that can quickly convert from a gravel bike to a road bike, ideal for Iowa's two favorite riding surfaces. Essentially it’s two high-end bikes in one, Hoobin said.

“It steepens the head tube, it shortens the chain stays, it makes it a road bike,” Hoobin said. "In 10 minutes you can flip it back and put different wheels on it and you have a gravel bike.”

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The Johnston native, 35, began contemplating opening a cycle café seven years ago after visiting one in Minneapolis. At the time Hoobin, with a background in graphic design, was working in manufacturing, and figured the venture would be a project for his distant retirement.

Then Winterset coffee roaster Matt Hupton convinced him to open a cycle café in Des Moines before someone else did. "He was like, ‘Dude, you got to do it now, or someone else is going to do it,’” Hoobin said.

Rescued building has signature skylight

For more than a decade cycle cafés have been a growing trend nationwide, tied to increased interest in bike trails and lanes, bike-share programs and laws that better protect cyclists on the road, according to NBC News.

Though relatively new to the United States, they're a common part of the landscape in Europe, where the so-called café ride is a popular pastime.

For building owner Randy Reichardt, no tenant could be a better fit. The Des Moines native lived for several years in Texas, where he promoted health and wellness as part of a movement called FitWorth. But like Hoobin, his true passion is cycling, and in his 20s, Reichardt even tried to become a professional cyclist.

Today, back in Iowa, he chairs the Des Moines-based Above & Beyond Cancer Pro Cycling Team and runs RWR, which took on a big challenge when it tackled renovation of the deteriorated 515 28th St. property.

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“It was rough,” Reichardt said with a laugh, “to the point where it had vegetation growing inside. The roof had caved in. Water was coming through multiple locations. People asked me what I was doing, like I was kind of crazy.”

It took about two years, but Reichardt said the building is now in better-than-new shape, with solar panels on the roof and a signature feature, a skylight that opens with a pulley system to let in fresh air. It's the centerpiece of an event space available to host special occasions.

“People enjoy the opportunity to dine inside or transition out when the weather is super nice,” Reichardt said. “So you have this nice natural air coming in. It makes it unique.”

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The 14,000-square-foot building has room left for possibly two restaurants and bars.

“It’s designed for a restaurant space,” Reichardt said. “So I put all the preliminary things like grease receptors in place to allow (a turn-key operation) for a restaurant to come in here and build it out.”

It sits just north of Ingersoll Avenue near the heart of its popular restaurant row, with neighbors like Harbinger, Lucky Lotus, Lachele's Fine Foods and a long-established competitor, Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure, which is marking its 30th year.

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Can bike-oriented business overcome parking challenges?

There appears to be enough demand to go around. On a recent Friday morning Chain & Spoke bustled with people dressed for the office, working on computers. As the morning wore on, a few people in cycling kit trickled in. Three bikes sat outside, parked against the brick wall.

At-large Des Moines City Councilman Carl Voss is an avid cyclist and has been to Chain & Spoke three times already. Most of the metro area’s largest bike shops are in the suburbs, so Des Moines needed a shop like Chain & Spoke, he said.

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“It’s great to see this building revived,” Voss said. “The Ingersoll core is going to be blessed to have this part of the vibe. It’s a great addition to that corridor.”

The avenue is in the midst of a nine-year streetscape project that is converting it into a more bike- and pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare, and biking or walking may be the best way to reach Chain & Spoke. Street parking near the building is sparse and the lots that flank it are reserved for other businesses.

It will be a good test for businesses in Des Moines to see if they must have on-site parking to be successful, Voss said.

“It’s good to see that people are walking to the shop,” he said.

Parking concerns aside, Hoobin said he loves the feel of the building. Bikes on display sit on platforms cut from beams salvaged from the caved-in roof.

“You can see the water damage on them,” Hoobin said. “Being on Ingersoll, being part of the Avenues Area, having a place that’s walkable, it’s only going to get better now that the construction is finished up.”

Hoobin and Reichardt share the goal of getting more people on bikes. Eventually they hope that Chain & Spoke will become a gathering place for cyclists and a place to find information about local races and recreational rides.

Over the first month, there’s been a nice mix of cyclists and people who come in just for coffee, Hoobin said. Some of them tell him they've had bikes sitting at home that they haven't used in years, and have started bringing them in to get serviced and back on the road, Hoobin said.

“We’re only a month in, but I don’t know if I could’ve done this in a different place,” he said.

Chain & Spoke

Address: 515 28th St. Unit 102, Des Moines

Coffee shop hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday

Bike shop hours: 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday

Website: chainandspoke.com/

Parking: Available in front of the building on 28th Street, and on Ingersoll Avenue, High Street

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Chain & Spoke combined coffee, bikes in Des Moines' Ingersoll corridor