Where Is Commercial Development Growing in the Des Moines Metro? (Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood Breakdown)
If you’ve driven through the Des Moines metro lately, you’ve probably noticed something: cranes, new construction signage, and freshly paved parking lots seem to pop up in a different suburb every few months. The activity isn’t random. The Des Moines metro is in the middle of a sustained growth run that very few Midwestern cities can match right now
The six-county Des Moines metro grew 6.3% from 2020 to 2024, landing it comfortably in the top 20% of all U.S. metros by growth rate. Employment across the region expanded 12% from 2012 to 2023, outpacing every other major Midwestern metro. Unemployment sat at 3.1% in late 2024, well below the national rate of 4.1%. Nearly 80 insurance companies call the metro home, and major tech firms have been planting data centers here for years.
For business owners, developers, and investors, the question isn’t whether Des Moines is growing. It clearly is. The real question is where the growth is concentrated, and what that means for your next commercial project.
This guide breaks it down city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood, using recent permit data, development announcements, and on-the-ground trends.
Downtown Des Moines: Reinvention Over New Ground
Downtown Des Moines has made a significant shift over the past decade. It used to be primarily an office and retail district that emptied out after 5 p.m. Today it is a neighborhood where people actually live, eat, and spend weekends. That shift is driving a different kind of commercial development than what you’d see in the suburbs.
The Market District
The biggest development story in downtown right now is the Market District, a 260-acre redevelopment project in a former industrial area roughly bordered by East Walnut Street, East 14th Street, Scott Avenue, and the Des Moines River. The $750 million project is being developed by a consortium that includes JSC Properties, MidAmerican Energy, Knapp Properties, and developer Tim Rypma.
The plan calls for multi-family housing, retail, dining, office space, and a 9-acre riverfront park along the Des Moines River. In early 2025, multiple lots were market-ready for vertical construction, with developers describing “huge interest” from out-of-town buyers looking to put capital to work in downtown Des Moines. Rypma has said publicly that he expects development to continue for at least another decade.
If you’re planning a retail, hospitality, or mixed-use commercial project, the Market District is one of the most watched corridors in the metro right now.
Historic East Village
The Historic East Village sits just north of the Market District and has been one of the most consistent commercial bright spots in the city for the past ten years. It blends boutique retail, independent restaurants, government offices, and residential units in a walkable, dense format that attracts both tenants and foot traffic.
Developers like Jake Christensen (Christensen Development) have pointed to the East Village and nearby corridors on Ingersoll Avenue and Sherman Hill as areas that still hold significant development value, particularly for mixed-use projects that can offer residents and visitors multiple reasons to visit.
The MLK Jr. Corridor and Surface Parking Lots
Further downtown, the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway corridor is being eyed for long-term commercial growth as the road is extended toward the Iowa Highway 5 bypass near Pleasant Hill. Local developers have noted that downtown Des Moines is “overparked,” meaning many surface lots that once held buildings are prime candidates for new mixed-use and commercial development over the next decade.
If you’re looking at downtown, now is a reasonable time to understand where zoning supports higher-density commercial use. The City of Des Moines planning resources, including the Imagine Des Moines 2044 comprehensive plan, are worth reviewing before committing to a site.
What this means for commercial contractors: Downtown projects often involve commercial remodeling of existing structures, adaptive reuse, and builds in tighter footprints. Experience with urban infill and historical renovation matters here.
What this means for commercial contractors: Downtown projects often involve commercial remodeling of existing structures, adaptive reuse, and builds in tighter footprints. Experience with urban infill and historical renovation matters here.
Ankeny: The Fastest-Moving Suburb in the Metro
If there’s one city in the Des Moines metro that comes up in almost every commercial development conversation right now, it’s Ankeny. Population growth, business investment, and infrastructure spending are all moving in the same direction at the same time.
Ankeny’s director of community development noted that the city was looking at more than $75 million in overall investment in 2024 alone, with development activity clustered in several distinct corridors.
Northeast Ankeny (36th Street / I-35 Corridor)
The area around 36th Street and Interstate 35 in northeast Ankeny has become one of the most active commercial corridors in the entire metro. The arrival of Costco, one of the largest locations in the Midwest, created a gravitational pull for retail, food, financial services, and professional offices looking to serve a growing residential population in northern Ankeny.
New retail strip centers are being built and leased quickly. Community State Bank has announced plans for a new headquarters in the area. Site plans for additional development were being prepared for planning and zoning review through 2025, with infrastructure work and lot availability following in sequence. As one developer put it, the regional draw of a destination retailer combined with new schools and residential density creates compounding momentum that makes the corridor increasingly attractive for businesses.
Edged AI-Ready Data Center
In early 2025, Edged broke ground on a $187 million data center on SE 90th Street near I-80 in Ankeny. The 105,000-square-foot facility features waterless cooling technology and is expected to create long-term tech employment. This joins a growing list of technology infrastructure investments that signal Ankeny’s ambitions beyond retail and light industrial.
Manufacturing and Industrial Expansion
Ankeny has a strong manufacturing backbone, and it continues to grow. JBS USA announced plans to invest $100 million to purchase and expand an Ankeny production facility. Mrs. Clark’s Foods is adding 90,000 to 100,000 square feet of production space at its SE Dalbey Drive facility. Baker Group broke ground on a 37,500-square-foot campus expansion. New Horizon Cuisine is building an entirely new manufacturing facility in the city.
For business owners in manufacturing, food production, or light industrial sectors, Ankeny’s combination of highway access (I-35 and I-80 interchange), available land, and city support for industrial development makes it one of the most practical places to build in central Iowa right now.
South Ankeny Boulevard Revitalization
At the opposite end of the city, South Ankeny Boulevard between First Street and Oralabor Road is the subject of a formal city-backed revitalization plan. Following public input from nearly 1,000 residents, the city is recommending mixed-use development with higher-density residential, commercial retail, streetscape improvements, and financial incentives to encourage redevelopment along the aging corridor.
This creates real opportunity for commercial developers who want to get ahead of infrastructure investment rather than chase it.
What this means for commercial contractors: Ankeny’s volume and variety of project types, from manufacturing facilities and office campuses to retail strip centers and mixed-use corridors, requires a contractor who understands both light industrial builds and client-facing commercial spaces. Happe Commercial is headquartered at 2575 N Ankeny Blvd and works directly with Ankeny businesses and developers. Exploring the Ankeny Economic Development resources is a strong first step for anyone planning a new project in the city.
West Des Moines: Corporate Headquarters and Data Center Country
West Des Moines operates at a different scale than most other Des Moines suburbs. The city has attracted Fortune 500 operations, national financial firms, and major technology infrastructure, and its building permit valuations reflect it.
Data Centers
In 2023, West Des Moines issued permits for three data centers on Microsoft’s Ginger East, Ginger West, and Osmium campuses with a combined permit value of over $1 billion, representing 57% of all new commercial building permit valuation in the metro that year. That number is extraordinary for a city of its size, and it reflects a longer trend of tech and cloud infrastructure investment along the US-169 and I-35 corridors.
For 2024 and beyond, commercial real estate advisors in the metro have consistently cited data center development as one of the most durable categories of construction activity in West Des Moines.
Data Centers
While data centers dominate the headline numbers, West Des Moines has also seen significant investment in retail and entertainment. The KeeTown Loop development at Grand Prairie Parkway and Ashworth Road includes a Live Nation entertainment venue, restaurant pads, retail space, and a hotel and conference center concept, representing over $100 million in total planned investment. As anchor venues open and attract foot traffic, surrounding commercial pads typically follow.
What this means for commercial contractors: West Des Moines favors contractors with experience in complex commercial builds, corporate campus projects, and hospitality construction. If you’re in the restaurant, retail, or entertainment space, the KeeTown corridor is worth watching closely.
Grimes: The Hope District and a Suburb Stepping Up
Grimes is one of the smaller cities in the Des Moines metro, but it’s been punching above its weight on commercial development for several years, largely due to one massive project.
The Hope District and Hy-Vee Multiplex
The Hope District has recorded over 3.6 million visits in a single year, which is a remarkable number for a suburban development of its kind. The Hy-Vee Multiplex anchoring the district has become a proven traffic driver, and city officials have noted that it is having a positive ripple effect on surrounding commercial development across Grimes.
Prairie Business Park
Industrial development in Grimes has also been strong. Prairie Business Park has added multiple warehouse buildings, including a 4th warehouse completed in late 2022 that was pre-leased before construction was finished. Demand for industrial space in the northwest metro suburbs of Des Moines has been described as running “pretty hot” by commercial real estate advisors tracking the market.
Downtown Grimes (Governors District)
In 2025, the City of Grimes completed a downtown assessment of its Governors District, the historic commercial core, in partnership with the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Recommendations focused on revitalization, mixed-use density, and building on the energy created by the Hope District to bring that economic momentum closer to the city’s center.
For developers interested in mixed-use projects in smaller suburban downtowns, the Governors District represents early-stage opportunity while land and build costs are still reasonable.
Urbandale: Medical, Industrial, and Education Construction
Urbandale has historically been a strong market for office and industrial development. In the current cycle, it’s adding a healthcare and education layer.
Medical Campus Development
A local radiologist announced plans for a regional medical campus in Urbandale that will provide preventive and diagnostic services alongside treatment. UnityPoint Health and the Iowa Clinic have also been expanding their footprints with new clinics and surgery centers across the western suburbs, including locations near the Urbandale corridor. Healthcare construction has become one of the most consistent commercial building categories in the broader metro.
Industrial Warehouses
Urbandale continues to attract warehouse and industrial development. R&R Realty Group’s Prairie Tower development added significant square footage in recent years, and industrial vacancy rates in their portfolio have stayed consistently low, which is the main driver behind continued speculative builds in the market.
Education Investment
In May 2024, Des Moines Christian School purchased land near Northwest 42nd Avenue and 136th Street in Urbandale to build a new high school campus. A building permit for the project was issued in late 2025. Private school campus construction of this scale often signals confidence in a suburb’s long-term residential growth trajectory.
What the Permit Data Is Telling Us
Looking across all communities in Polk County and 13 surrounding Des Moines-area cities, Business Record data shows that since January 1, 2025, permits have been issued for 152 new commercial projects valued at over $857 million in total. That’s a substantial recovery from the slowdown caused by high interest rates in 2023.
Healthcare, data infrastructure, industrial warehousing, and suburban retail are leading the recovery. Mixed-use and multi-family construction downtown continues, but at a more measured pace than the peak years of 2017 to 2020.
For anyone planning a commercial build in the next 12 to 24 months, the core message from the data is simple: the pipeline is full, competition for subcontractors and skilled labor exists, and moving early in the planning process is the best way to protect your schedule and your budget.
How to Read This Map If You're Planning a Build
Here’s a practical summary by project type:
Office and corporate space: Downtown Des Moines, West Des Moines, and the East Village are your best options for visibility and workforce access.
Industrial, manufacturing, and warehousing: Ankeny (I-35 corridor), Urbandale (Prairie Tower area), and Grimes (Prairie Business Park) have the infrastructure and available land to support large-footprint industrial builds.
Retail and hospitality: Northeast Ankeny, West Des Moines (KeeTown Loop), Grimes (Hope District), and downtown Des Moines (Market District) are the corridors seeing the most new consumer traffic and tenant demand.
Mixed-use and multi-family: Downtown Des Moines (Market District, East Village), South Ankeny Boulevard, and the Governors District in Grimes are the best early-stage opportunities for developers who want to build in growing corridors before prices normalize upward.
Planning Your Commercial Build in the Des Moines Metro
Understanding where growth is happening is the first step. The second is finding a construction partner who knows how to build in the specific context of each of these markets, whether that’s an urban infill site downtown, a new retail center in northeast Ankeny, or a pre-engineered metal building for a manufacturing expansion in Grimes.
At Happe Commercial, we’ve built offices, multi-family housing, retail spaces, and industrial facilities across the Des Moines metro. We work with property owners, investors, and business owners from early planning through ribbon cutting.
If you’re evaluating a site or trying to figure out whether your timeline and budget make sense for the current market, we’re happy to talk through it. Contact our team for a no-pressure conversation about your project.
If you’re evaluating a site or trying to figure out whether your timeline and budget make sense for the current market, we’re happy to talk through it. Contact our team for a no-pressure conversation about your project.
You can also browse our completed project portfolio to see the range of commercial work we’ve done across central Iowa, or learn more about our services to understand which construction approach fits your specific project needs.
