Prairie Crossing is ready to spread across 230 acres of land in Altoona in a mixed-use development that would rival the largest in Greater Des Moines.

Developer Mike Whalen anticipates a minimum of $200 million will be invested in single- and multifamily housing, retail shops, a possible water feature and other amenities.

“What we are trying here is a livable, walkable, integrated community of 230 acres that works as a comprehensive home,” Whalen said.

A Whalen family entity called Moline Plow started compiling parcels of land in 2000 near Interstate 80 and the U.S. Highway 65 bypass and triggered $10 million in capital improvements by the city of Altoona when plans were announced a few years later for what initially was planned as a retail development called Shoppes at Prairie Crossing.

Whalen rounded out the Prairie Crossing holdings last month with the $3 million purchase of 54 acres from the Everett Anderson Residuary Trust.

Bass Pro Shops is the visible occupant of the development. However, New England Development has begun on an upscale outlet center on nearly 40 acres of land it bought earlier this year from the Whalen family’s Heart of America Group, and Whalen also opened his Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse last year.

Whalen is the first to admit that the collapse of financial markets slowed development of the area and changed his initial vision.

“You don’t tell the market how it’s going to develop,” he said. The market tells you.”

By creating a “comprehensive home,” he imagines an area where you can walk or a ride a bicycle to shopping, dining and entertainment venues.

He is playing with some unique concepts, including the possibility of running multifamily housing through the middle of the project in an effort to create corridors that are easily negotiable. Typically, residential units are pushed to the back of the development to make way for other commercial property types, such as offices, hotels and restaurants.

Infrastructure work remains to be done at Prairie Crossing, including changing the original configuration of some streets and the city will have to approve changes to initial plans for the area.

As a result, Whalen hopes that work on the development will begin to take shape in the next five years and be completed in 15, with construction on some aspects beginning yet this year.

“It’s a better plan, much better in my opinion,” Whalen said.