Des Moines bar Zora up for sale as embattled owner faces stalking charge

Lee Rood, Des Moines Register
·2 min read
Zora, a multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub with rooftop seating at Ingersoll Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines, is on the market for $4 million.
Zora, a multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub with rooftop seating at Ingersoll Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines, is on the market for $4 million.

Facing legal trouble and slow business, the owner of Zora is seeking to sell the multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub, asking $4 million.

The commercial listing for the 5,500-square-foot building at 2120 Ingersoll Ave. appeared Wednesday, the day before owner Edwin Allen III pleaded not guilty in Polk County District Court on a stalking charge. Police say Allen conspired with his fellow bar owner Steve McFadden in January to stalk and track McFadden’s ex-girlfriend using a GPS device planted in her car.

Allen declined to comment.

Allen, 45, built the Zora Bar & Rooftop from the ground up after purchasing the land for $450,000 in May 2020 and clearing the existing structure, a former Pizza Hut that had been the home of Flanagan's and later the Waverly bar. When Zora opened in August 2021, its manager said Allen, a longtime residential landlord, had spared no expense, pouring nearly $5 million into the project.

The view from the rooftop at Zora, a multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub with rooftop seating.
The view from the rooftop at Zora, a multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub with rooftop seating.

Among its opulent features, the building had a $15,000 custom chandelier made in the form of the Zora logo; a $35,000 chrome commercial-grade griddle stovetop, visible from the dining area; custom exterior lighting; and two levels of rooftop seating with a view of downtown Des Moines, the uppermost one reservable for VIPs.

The bar, however, has often appeared to be doing sparse business, particularly amid a lengthy streetscaping project. Then, on Nov. 26, 2022, 29-year-old Alonzo Lee Kearney was shot to death after a fight broke out in the bar’s parking lot. Police described the scene as chaotic, and though there were more than 20 witnesses, no one was arrested.

The shooting, followed by the January stalking case, generated a lot of negative comments about the business and Allen on social media. And last month, a former tenant of one of Allen's residential properties, Cyndi Collins, sued him under Iowa's Civil Rights Act, alleging he demanded sex from her in exchange for a break on her rent ― just after he'd resolved harassment claims by other tenants with a guilty plea to disorderly conduct.

Allen has fallen more than $8,000 behind on the business’s property taxes, which were due in September, county records show.

He also has twice increased the amount of a $2.9 million, 20-year loan from Community First Credit Union in Ottumwa on the Zora building, which was assessed at $1.51 million in 2022, county records show.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines' Zora bar for sale as owner Edwin Allen faces legal troubles