Where others see grain silos in Bondurant, Scott Turczynski sees an entertainment district

Scott Turczynski looked up at the vacant 140-foot-tall grain silos that serve as the skyline of the growing Iowa town of Bondurant.

"Can you imagine the views at the top?" Turczynski asked.

Turczynski's vision of the grain silos, often seen as only another part of Iowa's agricultural landscape, is to turn them and surrounding land into Bondurant's very own multi-use entertainment area.

The 54-year-old Iowa native is the chief operations officer and one of the three founders of HRTLND Cos. and manager of The 101 LLC.

Coined the Grain District, the 25-acre former Landus Cooperative site is expected to host a condominium development, a hotel with a rooftop event center and new community spaces.

The development will start with Turczynski's passion project — and the next phase of his career — a distillery opening in 2025 on the site.

Turczynski saw the grain silo property's "for sale" sign in 2022 while driving through Bondurant, which got him thinking about its possibilities. He made an offer to buy the land in November 2023.

"First, it was the towers, right? And can those be retrofitted to live in? Can you make a condo or whatever out of them? And there's probably a handful — maybe 35 structures in the world — that they've done that to. They've made hotels, museums, condos, apartments, dorms … all sorts of things like that, " he said.

Landus previously owned the site, which went up for sale in 2021 because of old age and damage from the August 2020 derecho.

The former Landus site, and future home to the Grain District, is seen on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Bondurant. Lily Smith/TheRegister

Revitalizing Bondurant's downtown 'skyline'

Turczynski believes the Grain District will be a first of its kind in Iowa.

As he researched fomer agriculture buildings like the Landus site that are now commercial space, the closest one to Iowa that he's identified is in Minneapolis.

"There was a set very similar, like two sets, maybe even three sets, of towers on the edge of one of the lakes up there. And they converted those old (silos), even building in between them and everything," he said.

The project would more than double Bondurant's downtown area and accommodate its booming population as the second-fastest growing city in the state. The city's population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, is 7,365 residents — a near-91% increase from the 2010 Census.

He started talking to the city of Bondurant and the realty company that listed the property. Turczynski and Bondurant officials drafted a plan to work together to develop the space into his vision and include city-funded public improvements.

A rendering of T12 Distillery planned to open in Bondurant, Iowa. Provided by Scott Turczynski

Bondurant city administrator Marketa Oliver said when Landus announced it was closing its operations at the Grain District location, her team met with developers who had interest in the property.

"We are very excited because I always say that Bondurant grew up around the elevator, and so the idea of adaptively reusing them is really important because part of our goal is to make sure that we're embracing our agricultural history, and that is our skyline," Oliver said.

The city's partnership with Turczynski includes public and private improvements and amenities, such as a landscaped trail and park space, new roads, townhouses and businesses.

Turczynski said he's had core samples taken out of the grain silos so far to test for structural integrity and consulted other experts before the project breaks ground.

"It's a little scary," Turczynski said when asked about leading a first-of-its-kind project. But he's previously pivoted in business. "It's not like I hadn't done it before, right?"

His efforts to revitalize the silos as condos and create the Grain District in Bondurant make him one of the Des Moines Register's 15 People to Watch in 2025.

HRTLND Chief Operations Officer Scott Turczynski poses for a portrait at his office on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Des Moines. Lily Smith/TheRegister

T12 Distillery to focus on spinal cord injury education

In planning the distillery, from its name to educational beverage labels, Turczynski has made sure to feature the story of his spinal cord injury more than a decade ago.

In August 2010, Turczynski tripped and fell 6 feet from the top of a retaining wall off of his driveway at home.

"No cuts, no bruises — just a shattered vertebra," Turczynski said.

He said the emergency room doctor told him he had a spinal cord injury and he wasn't going to walk again.

Recalling his accident, Turczynski said, "I had the sensation that if you're laying on your stomach and you have your knees bent with your legs in the air, I had that sensation, and I asked them to push my legs down, which obviously they knew something was up at that point."

Turczynski said he went through weeks of intense therapy to learn how to use a wheelchair.

"I am stubbornly independent. I won't ask for help, even though I probably need it right until I maybe even fall out of my chair, right? And it's just something that I just refuse, and people around me now that are with me have gotten used to that," he said.

T12 Distillery is named after his spinal cord injury, which was to T12, the lowest and largest vertebra in the thoracic spine.

"I want to make some good product that people could enjoy, and a speakeasy to have a little fun in, but I wanted information and education about living with spinal cord injury," he said.

A rendering of T12 Distillery, which is planned at a former co-op site in Bonderant, Iowa. Provided by Scott Turczynski

Turczynski said he plans to name each of the beverages he sells to relate to spinal cord injury education and have a brief story on the packaging. Once the distillery is open for a few years, he wants to give a certain percentage of profits to spinal cord injury research.

The idea for a distillery has been in the works since 2021, he said. The planned first phase of its development will feature a tasting room, a speakeasy and a cigar patio outside.

Moving away from commercial subcontracting

Turczynski said he's on a three-year schedule in his top position at HRTLND.

But taking chances on a new career path isn't new to him. In 2002, Turczynski and two of his colleagues left their jobs at a different commercial subcontracting business to establish HRTLND.

"We've grown from that little one-room office to what we have here now, plus a location in Cedar Rapids," Turczynski said as he sat in his modern office space on Northeast Broadway in Des Moines.

HRTLND Chief Executive Officer Scott Bleich, who opened HRTLND with Turczynski, said he's excited for Turczynski's next chapter of opening T12 Distillery and developing the Grain District.

"I think he's a dreamer, and I love it, and I am so excited for where he's going to take that," he said. "I've got no doubt that he'll be successful in it."

Turczynski said his "dream" is to live in one of the Grain District's condos once construction is completed and Bondurant's downtown is revitalized.

"I guess I still have an entrepreneurial spirit?" he joked. "Yeah, I just think this could be a very cool location and a project for the Bondurant local community."

Meet Scott Turczynski 

AGE: 54

LIVES: Grew up in Monona, Iowa, and has lived in the Des Moines area since 1994.

EDUCATION: Turczynski graduated from MFL High School in 1989 and from Iowa State University in 1994 with a degree in construction engineering.

CAREER: Turczynski was one of the three founders of HRTLND Companies in 2002 and is the current COO. He is also the manager of The 101 LLC.

FAMILY: Turczynski has three children: Luke, 24, married to Olivia; Max, 20; and Ruth, 18.

SABINE MARTIN, THE DES MOINES REGISTER

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 31, 2024