Questions, answered.

Your own front door. Every one of the 62 apartments opens straight to the outside, with no shared hallway, its own thermostat, and windows on more than one wall. It is a floor plan the newest buildings in the metro cannot offer at this price. The building was rebuilt from the studs in 2025, so everything behind the walls and every finish you touch is new, and it starts at $699 with water, trash and recycling included.

Everything but the frame. The building spent sixty years as a roadside hotel on Hickman Road. In 2024 we stripped it back to the frame and rebuilt the plumbing, electrical, insulation, windows, heating and cooling, roof and every finish. It opened as apartments in 2025, and the Iowa Finance Authority recognized the project with a 2026 HousingIowa Multifamily Development Award.

Hickman Road is one of the metro's main east-west streets, so restaurants, errands and a convenience store a tenth of a mile away are on the same road you live on. Merle Hay Road, with its retail, dining and services, is 1.4 miles. The nearest DART bus stop is 0.9 miles. Interstate 35/80 is 2.9 miles north, and downtown Des Moines is 6.6 miles straight east on Hickman.

Yes, a fenced dog park on the property with a mural we are pretty proud of. You do not have to leave home to walk the dog.

Three. The Compact is a 231 square foot studio, 12 by 19 feet, from $699. The Standard is a 279 square foot studio, the same width and four feet deeper with room for a dining table, from $725. The Corner is a 471 square foot one bedroom with a bedroom door, a full sofa and a kitchen with a dishwasher, from $899; there are only two, and both are fully ADA accessible. All three are drawn to the same scale with a real queen bed on the Floor Plans section of the home page, and the listings page shows what is open right now.

A queen fits in both studios, with a lounge chair and a small table in the Compact and a dining table as well in the Standard. The floor plans on the home page are drawn with the furniture at true size so you can check before you drive over.

A full kitchen with a new stainless steel refrigerator, range and microwave, a full bathroom with a tiled shower surround, luxury vinyl plank flooring throughout, large windows in every room, and heating and cooling you control yourself. The one bedrooms add a dishwasher.

Yes. Three apartments are fully ADA accessible, including both one bedrooms, and every ground floor apartment has step-free entry from the parking lot to your door.

Water, trash and recycling are covered in your rent. You pay electricity. Fiber internet is wired to the building and available for $50 a month if you want it. Parking is free.

Every dollar it takes to get keys, listed before you apply: a $25 application fee, a security deposit equal to one month's rent, and the first month's rent. There is no administrative fee. On a $699 studio that comes to $1,423. It is higher on the larger floor plans because the deposit matches your rent, and pet fees apply only if you have a pet.

We publish what we look for, so you know where you stand before you spend anything on an application: monthly income before taxes of two and a half times the rent (about $1,750 a month for a $699 studio), a credit score of 625 or above, and two years of rental history. Housing Choice vouchers are welcome, and the income test is not applied to the portion of rent your voucher pays. Not sure whether you clear these? Call and ask before you apply. We would rather tell you honestly than take your $25.

Neither one is automatically a no. If credit or income falls short, a lease guaranty service can stand behind your lease, which often lets us approve an application that would not clear our criteria on its own. It works a lot like a co-signer without needing to ask anyone you know. If the deposit is the problem, a deposit coverage program lets you pay a much smaller fee instead of a full month and keep the difference in your pocket at move-in. Both are priced on your own situation rather than a flat rate, so ask before you apply and we will get you the exact number.

Eighteen of the 62 apartments are set aside for households earning at or below 60% of the Area Median Income, the figure the Iowa Finance Authority publishes each year. We built it that way with the City of Urbandale, and the commitment runs through 2035. If your household is under that line, one of those apartments may be available to you at a lower rent. Ask and we will check it for you, at no cost and with no obligation. Income is verified when you move in and once a year after that. The other 44 apartments have no income limit at all.

Yes, and there is a fenced dog park on site. Dogs are $50 a month and cats are $35 a month, with a $250 non-refundable fee per pet and no breed or weight restrictions. Assistance animals are not pets: service animals and support animals are welcome, with no fee, no deposit and no monthly charge.

Free off-street parking at your door. Because every apartment opens to the outside, you park a few steps from where you live.

Yes, on-site laundry at the property.

Fiber internet is wired to the building. It is optional, at $50 a month, and you can add it when you move in or later.

Call (515) 334-3345 or email viewonhickman@stanbroughrealty.com and we will find a time that works, usually the same week. Showings are not booked online, and a showing takes about fifteen minutes.

Online, from the apartment's own listing. Every open apartment on the listings page links to its photos and the application. The fee is $25, and applications are reviewed in one to two business days.

Online, through the resident portal. You can pay from a bank account or a card and set up automatic payments so it is never late.

Through the same resident portal. Describe the issue, add a photo if it helps, and the maintenance team schedules the repair. For anything urgent, call the office.

Stanbrough Realty, a Des Moines property management company. Leasing, showings, rent and maintenance all go through their office at (515) 334-3345.