DES MOINES, Iowa — Friday marks one week since construction has been stalled on the massive 515 Walnut Tower project in downtown Des Moines.

The project’s developer, Joe Teeling of the St. Joseph Group, LLC, told WHO 13’s Katie Kaplan that work was affected by unexpected delays in securing a large loan earlier in October.

Last week, WHO 13 obtained a copy of the following email that was purportedly sent to subcontractors by Andy Beal of Beal Derkenne Construction (BDC), the project’s main contractor:

All, 

BDC have been pushing hard for prompt payment on this project with Ownership and have exhausted all of our abilities to produce the necessary subordination agreements, project documentations, agreement, etc, etc to facilitate the Owners new financing solution on the project.  The date for closing on this financing has crept several times in the past few weeks.  Meanwhile, BDC has actively provided multiple default notices to Ownership detailing the payment inaction and defining next steps for remedies.  

On 10/14/25, BDC (reluctantly) agreed in good faith to extend the 2 prior default notices issued, to today 10/24/25, given Ownerships confirmation of financing closing today.  As you can see below, they have come close, but payment will not be received today in order to maintain site progress Monday.  Per below email from Hall Structured Finance, they are expecting payment to be furnished to BDC somewhere between Monday 10/27 and Wednesday 10/29.

Effective end of day 10/24/25, work will cease at the site until payment is received. Upon payment, BDC will turn checks and /or ACH’s around to all trades impacted instantly.  We are not anticipating a demobilization at all, but I would ensure your staff remove any personal tools that may be needed until payment is received.

BDC fully expects this to be resolved imminently. Unfortunately, we must draw the line in the sand at a point to protect our team. 

If you have any questions on this, please call Mike Derknne or I to discuss.    

Thanks, Andy

Beal has not responded to repeated attempts by WHO 13 to contact him at his office or via his cell phone.

Over the phone, Teeling described the project as “ambitious,” but denied that it was having a “financing issue.” He said that his company had paid everything except for the October payment. He had anticipated the loan would go through on Oct. 10, but with so many people involved and paperwork to fill out, the date was delayed due to “a couple of little items they needed to solve.”

As of Friday, Oct. 31, Teeling said the loan had been approved and was expected to be funded by early next week. Once the funding comes through, they will be able to get caught up with any money owed to subcontractors, he added. He anticipated workers would be back on the site shortly after that.

The loan was expected to fund “all of the equity needed for the rest of the project,” he said. 

Subcontractors, who are brought in to complete specialty jobs like pouring concrete, erecting framing, and installing plumbing, are often paid monthly, and some were “worried” and “frustrated” they might have to find other gigs in the interim, a source told WHO 13. In addition, some of these third-party vendors had brought in equipment, like lifts for drywall and taping, which are reportedly rented out of pocket for the month and include drop-off and pickup costs. Some of the subcontractors were worried they might not be reimbursed for these expenses if the funding did not come through soon, said the source.

According to the City of Des Moines, the roughly $150 million project includes a 33-story skyscraper that will house 390 residential units.

The project, which broke ground in early 2025 and has an estimated completion date of 2027, has lost at least a week of work. However, Teeling said that the project had already once been behind schedule before work began digging into the ground and that crews were able to catch back up.

Hopefully, they will be able to do it again.