Scott Turczynski looked up at the vacant 140-foot-tall grain silos that make up the skyline of the growing city of Bondurant, Iowa.
“Can you imagine the view at the top?” » asked Turczynski.
Turczynski’s vision for the grain elevators, often seen as another part of Iowa’s agricultural landscape, is to transform them and the surrounding land into a multi-use entertainment area unique to Bondurant.
The 54-year-old Iowa native is the chief operating officer and one of three founders of HRTLND Cos. and director 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 events center and new community spaces.
Development will begin with Turczynski’s passion project — and the next phase of his career — a distillery opening in 2025 on the site.
Turczynski saw the “for sale” sign for the grain elevator property in 2022 as he drove through Bondurant, which got him thinking about his possibilities. He made an offer to purchase the land in November 2023.
“First it was the towers, right? And can they be renovated for living in? Can you make them into a condo or something? And there’s probably a handful – maybe 35 structures around the world – they’ve done this for “They’ve built hotels, museums, condos, apartments, dormitories… all kinds of things like that,” he said.
Landus previously owned the site, which was put on sale in 2021 due to old age and damage caused by the August 2020 derecho.
Revitalizing the downtown Bondurant skyline
Turczynski believes the Grain District will be the first of its kind in Iowa.
While he searched for old farm buildings like the Landus site that are now commercial spaces, the closest to Iowa he identified was in Minneapolis.
“There was a very similar set, like two sets, maybe even three sets of towers by one of the lakes up there. And they converted these old (silos), even building between them and everything.” , he declared. .
The project would more than double the size of downtown Bondurant and accommodate its burgeoning population as the second-fastest-growing city in the state. The city’s population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, is 7,365, an increase of nearly 91% from the 2010 census.
He began talking with the city of Bondurant and the real estate company that listed the property. Turczynski and Bondurant officials drafted a plan to work together to develop the space according to his vision and include city-funded public improvements.
Bondurant City Administrator Marketa Oliver said that when Landus announced it was closing its operations at the Grain District site, her team met with developers interested in the property.
“We’re very excited because I always say the Bondurants 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 we embrace our agricultural history , and that’s our horizon,” 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, townhomes and businesses.
Turczynski said he has so far taken core samples from the grain silos to test structural integrity and consulted with other experts before the project began.
“It’s a little scary,” Turczynski said when asked about leading a one-of-a-kind project. But he has already moved on in business. “It’s not like I’ve never done it before, right?”
His efforts to revitalize the silos into condos and create the Grain District in Bondurant made him one of the The Des Moines Register’s 15 People to Watch in 2025.
T12 Distillery to focus on spinal cord injury education
When planning the distillery, from its name to the educational drink labels, Turczynski made sure to tell 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 near the driveway of his home.
“No cuts, no bruises, just a broken vertebra,” Turczynski said.
He said the emergency room doctor told him he had a spinal cord injury and wasn’t going to walk again.
Recalling his accident, Turczynski said: “I had the feeling that if you are lying on your stomach and you have your knees bent with your legs in the air, I had that feeling and I told them asked to push my legs down, which obviously they knew something was happening at that point. »
Turczynski said he underwent weeks of intense therapy to learn how to use a wheelchair.
“I’m stubbornly independent. I won’t ask for help, even though I probably need it until I fall out of my chair, right? And that’s just something I refuse , and the people around me now are with me I got used to it,” he said.
The T12 distillery is named after its spinal cord injury, which was the lowest and largest vertebra of the thoracic spine, T12.
“I want to create a good product that people could enjoy, and a speakeasy to have a little fun, but I wanted information and education about living with a spinal cord injury,” he said.
Turczynski said he plans to name each of the drinks he sells related to spinal cord injury education and have a brief story on the packaging. Once the distillery has been open for a few years, he wants to donate a certain percentage of the 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 include a tasting room, speakeasy and outdoor cigar patio.
Moving away from commercial subcontracting
Turczynski said he would take his top position at HRTLND on a three-year plan.
But taking risks in a new career is nothing new to him. In 2002, Turczynski and two of his colleagues left their jobs at another commercial contracting company to start HRTLND.
“We went from this little one-room office to what we have here now, plus a location in Cedar Rapids,” Turczynski said while sitting in his modern office on Northeast Broadway in Des Moines .
HRTLND CEO Scott Bleich, who opened HRTLND with Turczynski, said he is excited about Turczynski’s next chapter of opening the T12 distillery and growing the grain district.
“I think he’s a dreamer, and I love that, and I’m so excited to see where he’s going to take him,” he said. “I have no doubt about his success.”
Turczynski said his “dream” is to live in one of the Grain District condos once construction is complete and downtown Bondurant is revitalized.
“I guess I still have an entrepreneurial spirit?” he joked. “Yeah, I just think it could be a really cool place and project for the local Bondurant community.”
Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at sabine.martin@gannett.com or by phone at 515-284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin.
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 Iowa State University in 1994 with a degree in construction engineering.
CAREER: Turczynski was one of three founders of HRTLND Companies in 2002 and is the current COO. He is also a director of The 101 LLC.
FAMILY: Turczynski has three children: Luke, 24, married to Olivia; Maximum, 20; and Ruth, 18 years old.
About the Des Moines Register’s 15 People to Watch in 2025
It’s a Des Moines Register tradition to close each year and open the next by introducing readers to 15 people to watch — people who are expected to make an impact on Iowa in the coming year.
Registered journalists and readers submit nominations, which editors select up to 15. They include Iowans who are making a difference in nonprofit advocacy, the arts, law enforcement, agriculture and fashion design.
We hope you will be as inspired by reading these articles as we were by our profile.