Smoky D’s BBQ Restaurant partnered with Nationwide Insurance to provide a street-level restaurant within Nationwide Insurance’s building located at 1200 Locust. Featuring Iowa’s fastest growing catering and carry-out business, Smokey D’s serves award winning BBQ to the renovated Des Moines Western Gateway area.

Baker Group provided design build mechanical and plumbing systems to meet the demands of both Smokey D’s and other future retail tenants that will be coming to Nationwide’s 1200 Locust building. A 45-ton cooling tower was installed on the roof of the 1200 Locust building to serve a condenser water loop that runs throughout the street level retail area. Future tenants, including Smokey D’s, will be able to utilize the condenser water loop to serve water source heat pumps located within each tenant’s space.

Construction of Smoky D’s took place in an occupied building, and Baker Group was in constant coordination with the owner’s group so that the projects effect on Nationwide’s employee comfort and productivity was minimized. Baker Group successfully installed the mechanical and plumbing systems to serve the specific restaurant/ retail HVAC and plumbing needs which needed to be separated from the existing office areas for both comfort and tenant metering purposes.