How is Des Moines' economy doing? (Council Bluffs, Urbandale: real estate, apartments, insurance)

[Go Ne]

Well you know my question, are the suburbs still expanding? Is downtown still vibrant? and are there any new skyscrapers planned?

[Chicago60614]

It's much better now than it's been in decades. I've heard over $2 billion in downtown investment just in the past few years. Newly rebuilt and expanded freeway, and the suburbs are expanding like crazy.

Population growth % the past 7 years:

Des Moines: 13.5%
Madison: 10.7%
Omaha: 8.2%

Those are the two cities Des Moines is commonly compared to, and it grew as fast as a % as well as in sheer numbers than either of the other cities. It's quite impressive, especially compared to Omaha, which fairly larger than Des Moines currently. Around 850,000 to 600,000.

[DMRyan]

There have been some announcements about layoffs lately with the nationwide mortgage crisis, but the sheer amount of job growth here over the past 5-7 years has sheltered the metro from doom and gloom (for now). Despite the big job announcement from companies like Wells Fargo, Nationwide Insurance and Aviva, there have been plenty of smaller announcements from companies like Meredith Publishing, Pioneer, Kemin Industries, John Deere Credit, Hy-Vee, etc. I really don't think things could've been more positive in terms of white collar job growth lately, in light of economic problems.

Downtown is doing fine and is probably the most vibrant that it's been since the 1950's, but still no real skyscraper proposals. Downtown has/is adding millions of sq. ft. of office space, but almost all of the office development has been more horizontal, campus type developments. Nine stories is all that downtown could muster out of all the sq. ft. added.

Of course the suburbs are still expanding at a rapid pace. With the exception of the south metro area, all sides of town are growing/sprawling incredibly, especially Ankeny and the NW metro area of Grimes/Urbandale/Johnston.

[Go Ne]

Originally Posted by DMRyan

There have been some announcements about layoffs lately with the nationwide mortgage crisis, but the sheer amount of job growth here over the past 5-7 years has sheltered the metro from doom and gloom (for now). Despite the big job announcement from companies like Wells Fargo, Nationwide Insurance and Aviva, there have been plenty of smaller announcements from companies like Meredith Publishing, Pioneer, Kemin Industries, John Deere Credit, Hy-Vee, etc. I really don't think things could've been more positive in terms of white collar job growth lately, in light of economic problems.

Downtown is doing fine and is probably the most vibrant that it's been since the 1950's, but still no real skyscraper proposals. Downtown has/is adding millions of sq. ft. of office space, but almost all of the office development has been more horizontal, campus type developments. Nine stories is all that downtown could muster out of all the sq. ft. added.

Of course the suburbs are still expanding at a rapid pace. With the exception of the south metro area, all sides of town are growing/sprawling incredibly, especially Ankeny and the NW metro area of Grimes/Urbandale/Johnston.

Our situation in Omaha is similar except we are still expanding, we are building new towers and our expansion has been West and south because north is the bad part of town and east is council bluffs, which really hasnt had much spill over growth

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Go Ne

Our situation in Omaha is similar except we are still expanding, we are building new towers and our expansion has been West and south because north is the bad part of town and east is council bluffs, which really hasnt had much spill over growth

CB will definitely grow more in the future because of its closer location to Downtown Omaha compared with the sprawling suburban areas in far western Omaha.

[Luke9686]

Plus Des Moines didn't have the super inflated blowup in real estate prices that other places did, so the real estate crunch isn't as big a factor. It's still an issue, but not as big as Colorado or California.

[kite eating tree]

Originally Posted by Plains10

CB will definitely grow more in the future because of its closer location to Downtown Omaha compared with the sprawling suburban areas in far western Omaha.

Definitely; you can see this beginning now. Construction of apartments and condos along the river front in Council Bluffs is very much on the increase.

Not too long ago there were several news stories in Omaha about how it was getting a bit too expensive for the average person to afford living downtown. These stories mostly focused on the people that worked in the area and wanted to avoid commuting between downtown and the western areas of the city. Well, developers seemed to have been paying attention and so we are seeing development in Council Bluffs where it is, at least for now, less expensive to live and I, for one, am glad to see it.

The pedestrian bridge and the proposed streetcar system are certainly moving this development along nicely. These kinds of infill projects are happening in several places in the city and it's great that it's working it's way across the river now, too. The growth of Council Bluffs, especially in the form of taller structures instead of sprawling suburban neighborhoods, near the metro core is a great step in the development of the area.

[DSMGuy]

Originally Posted by DMRyan

There have been some announcements about layoffs lately with the nationwide mortgage crisis, but the sheer amount of job growth here over the past 5-7 years has sheltered the metro from doom and gloom (for now). Despite the big job announcement from companies like Wells Fargo, Nationwide Insurance and Aviva, there have been plenty of smaller announcements from companies like Meredith Publishing, Pioneer, Kemin Industries, John Deere Credit, Hy-Vee, etc. I really don't think things could've been more positive in terms of white collar job growth lately, in light of economic problems.

Downtown is doing fine and is probably the most vibrant that it's been since the 1950's, but still no real skyscraper proposals. Downtown has/is adding millions of sq. ft. of office space, but almost all of the office development has been more horizontal, campus type developments. Nine stories is all that downtown could muster out of all the sq. ft. added.

Of course the suburbs are still expanding at a rapid pace. With the exception of the south metro area, all sides of town are growing/sprawling incredibly, especially Ankeny and the NW metro area of Grimes/Urbandale/Johnston.

I think you can also throw Principal Financial Group in that mix of companies with big announcements w/in the last year. They announced a 1500+ employee expansion and re-orienting workspaces so they wouldn't have to add office space.