Five years ago, the local stratégie du jour in economic development was for cities to compete against one another for new-company locations and expansions. The groups that came together under the Partnership umbrella recognized the inherent flaws in that outdated model, and ushered in a new era of regionalism in the ec-dev industry. This level of regional cooperation has enabled us to create a more competitive environment in which we’ve actually been able to successfully compete with the coasts in business locations and expansions.

Our efforts to work with state and local government agencies to address location and expansion opportunities, our aggressive “Change Your View” marketing campaign and the many resulting success stories have proven that it doesn’t matter whether a project goes to the core city or one of its suburbs – growth that’s spread across the region is good for everyone.

Since 1999, the Partnership and our local allies have assisted in bringing 48 new companies to Greater Des Moines, 11 of those in 2004. We’ve helped 101 companies expand here, 23 in 2004. These projects created 8,420 jobs (2,772 in 2004) and filled over 6.9 million square feet of office and industrial space over the entire metro region (1.3 million in 2004). All told, that represents over $988 million in new capital investment to Greater Des Moines – over $223 million in 2004 alone.

Our efforts to build and sustain a vibrant downtown are paying off too. In the development area, we have invested in projects to spur downtown housing and now we’re looking at over 1,500 new housing units in various phases of conception and development.

In the events area, we established the Downtown Events Group (DEG) to develop and grow at least six premier annual downtown events that will focus on family, arts, culture, sports, diversity and the four seasons. In addition, the Downtown Farmer’s Market grew to include 200 vendors from 36 counties.

With the launch of www.knowdowntown.com, the rollout of the Know Downtown banner program and the airing of two television spots, we experienced a huge jump in awareness of downtown. We also saw 25 percent growth in the membership of the Downtown Council, an organization comprised of downtown businesses, organizations and other stakeholders who maintain the vibrancy and vitality of this crucial regional core.

Our public planning efforts have been focused on keeping the Des Moines Convention Center complex open to complement the new Iowa Events Center, on the reinvention of Nollen Plaza as a public gathering place and on updating the master plan for the Court Avenue Historic District.

The Transportation Management Association, which has campaigned since 2001 to reduce commuter traffic on I-235 by encouraging the use of public and other modes of transportation during peak commute times, achieved a six percent reduction in single-occupancy vehicles.

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