As the saying goes, journalists write the first draft of history. And if that is indeed true, the Business Record has chronicled much of the Greater Des Moines business community’s history over its nearly 40 years in operation. 

Over the past 19 years, I have had the privilege of having a front-row seat to that history with a pen and notebook in hand to document the news across a broad variety of business beats, with a pocketful of BR business cards and an increasingly influential publication behind me. 

Before I retire from journalism and depart from the Business Record in early October to pursue new adventures, I wanted to offer a look back at some of the stories I’ve written that helped fill the Business Record’s pages over each of those years. I am grateful to all of the wonderful business and community leaders I have had the pleasure to meet in my time with the Business Record, and I thank you for opening your organizations’ doors to us and inviting me into your C-suites, factory floors, small businesses and locations across Central Iowa. 

Below are 21 articles — one for each year, plus bonus stories for news-heavy 2006 and 2008 — that I hope provide a snapshot of some enduring issues that Greater Des Moines has had on its community plate. 

Read on! 

 

— Joe Gardyasz  

Major malls: good or bad for Iowa?

Dec. 1, 2003 

Before it set its sights on West Des Moines, General Growth Properties Inc. had considered Ames as the location for its next big regional mall, on the heels of its success with its huge Coral Ridge Mall development in Coralville.

But the developer passed on Ames, deciding instead that it would build Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines. Ames, the company decided, was too far north of the Greater Des Moines population center. 

Now, Wolford Development Options Inc., the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based developer that wants to build a regional mall northeast of Ames is facing opposition from 1000 Friends of Iowa. The anti-urban-sprawl group is distributing hundreds of “Grow Smart, Stop the Mall” signs in opposition to the proposed development for the Interstate 35/13th Street interchange, which with an adjoining big-box center would create about 1.7 million square feet of additional retail space.

Quality of life gets top billing at annual lobbying trip

June 20, 2004 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One by one, they gave their PowerPoint presentations to the small group of congressional staff members seated below a crystal chandelier in the ornate hearing room in the Russell Office Building on Capitol Hill.

As the last of seven summaries of local projects needing funding concluded, a member of Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office turned to the Greater Des Moines contingent and said, “We just love you guys, but it’s going to be a tough year,” referring to the tight federal budget. Federal budget constraints was a theme that resonated through each of the meetings held during the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s lobbying trip earlier this month, said Martha Willits, the partnership’s president and CEO.

“But we have such an incredible relationship with these offices,” she said. “They are always looking for creative ways to help us.”

Study links quality child care, employee productivity

May 22, 2005 

At the same time that many parents are struggling to find quality, affordable child care, Iowa’s child-care centers are searching for ways to maintain qualified staffs yet still keep their rates within reach of families’ budgets.

For child-care providers such as Carol Zumwalt, it’s a delicate balancing act.

“I would love to be able to provide my workers better wages, but they’re a large part of our expenses,” said Zumwalt, whose business, Carol’s Child Care, serves 30 children in Norwalk. “I try to keep rates as low as I can, but if I have to pay more (in wages), I’m going to have to raise rates for parents.”

Last week, Gov. Tom Vilsack signed into law a bill that will provide higher reimbursement rates to child-care centers serving low-income children, create a new child-care tax credit for state taxpayers and establish a rating system for child-care centers that will be accessible online. The attention lawmakers are giving early childhood education is mirrored by the emphasis that it’s receiving from Iowa’s business leaders.

Iowa’s ethanol plants taking off 

May 21, 2006 

Today, as technicians begin production at Lincolnway Energy LLC’s newly built ethanol plant west of Nevada, the company is already planning for an addition that would double the plant’s capacity to 100 million gallons per year.

The expansion plans are an indication of just how quickly the nascent ethanol industry is moving forward, said Rick Brehm, president and CEO of Lincolnway Energy.

“When this plant was conceived, there was only one 100-million-gallon dry-mill plant in operation, in Aurora, S.D.,” he said. “As we sit here today, there’s one going to open this month in Fairbank and another that has already opened at Fort Dodge. Another is now proposed for Grinnell. They have proved they are viable plants; the efficiencies are there. It looks like in the future, if there is adequate supply of feedstock, we may see many more plants of that size.”

Mercy, Iowa Health move forward with West Des Moines hospital plans

Dec. 3, 2006

Mercy Medical Center will present plans for a 239,000-square-foot, 80-bed hospital to the West Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission at its Dec. 13 meeting, according to a city planning official.

The planned five-story structure, to be located on a 12-acre site on 59th Place between Westown Parkway and University Avenue, could become the first full-service hospital to receive approval to be built in West Des Moines. The plans indicate the building could be expanded by two floors in the future to become a 146-bed hospital.

“It’s the next step in the process that we’ve been talking about for a long time,” said Joe LeValley, Mercy’s senior vice president for planning and system development. “You can’t finalize architectural drawings until you know the footprint of the building. It’s a long process to plan a project like this.”

State’s innovation division courts high-tech start-ups

Nov. 3, 2007 

If Tom Neel’s hunch is right, he may have discovered a new manufacturing niche that will use one of Iowa’s most common agricultural byproducts.

With a $125,000 grant from the state, his start-up company will be able to test a prototype to pitch to investors. The potential product: a medium-density construction fiberboard made from soybean stalk fibers.

“This funding from the state will help us tremendously to get to the next level, from the lab to actually making a solid enough project to attract investors to build a plant,” said Neel, a fourth-generation lumberyard owner in Panora.

The project is among the first in line to receive funding from a new statewide demonstration fund authorized by the Legislature earlier this year. 

Foreclosures continue for three developers 

May 3, 2008 

Banks throughout Greater Des Moines have continued to foreclose on properties connected with three local developers: John C. Kline, Randy Walters and Dave Walters.

There is no evidence, however, of a larger pattern of foreclosure actions against developers, as some had predicted six months ago when banks began foreclosing on properties owned by these three developers.

Since August 2007 in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties, Kline has been named a defendant in 24 foreclosure actions. Randy Walters was also named in 12 of those same suits and in seven others, and Dave Walters has been named in 16 foreclosure cases.

What’s next? 

July 26, 2008 

Retired banker H. Lynn Horak says tough economic times like these remind him of the winning strategy employed by legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

“One of the things I always admired about (Wooden) and his philosophy was that he always practiced the fundamentals,” said Horak, former chief executive officer of Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, who retired last year after a 35-year career. “Even in a national championship year, the next fall at practice he went back to the fundamentals.”

Similarly, the banking industry is swinging back toward more fundamental lending practices, Horak said. “I think most people are now looking back and saying, ‘Gee, I wish some of the things we had done, we hadn’t done.’ ”

A year of change spurs top-level shakeups

Sept. 19, 2009 

It’s a telling sign of the economic times: Tom Stanberry, who resigned earlier this year as chairman, president and CEO of West Bancorporation Inc., will nonetheless open the general session of the Iowa Bankers Association’s (IBA) annual meeting today in his role as current chairman of the association. This year’s convention theme, fittingly enough, is “Discovering a new vision: Banking in a time of change.”

Stanberry, who resigned from West Bancorporation on July 15, was one of three Greater Des Moines bank executives to abruptly leave their positions during the past few months.

Dwolla creates new system for online payments

May 22, 2010 

When Ben Milne was selling speaker components online, it really bugged him that credit card processors’ “swipe” fees were bleeding his small company’s bottom line. Each time a customer paid online with a credit or debit card, his business would incur a fee that was more than 3 percent of the purchase amount.

“I got a little obsessed about how to reduce that line item,” he said.

That obsession led to Dwolla Corp., an online peer-to-peer payment business he launched in February.

Branstad announces ‘Healthiest State’ initiative

Aug. 10, 2011

Gov. Terry Branstad this morning joined business leaders in announcing an ambitious public-private program to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation within the next five years.

As part of the initiative, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield pledged to provide up to $25 million over the next five years to lead an information campaign based on the Blue Zones Project. Ten Iowa communities will be chosen through a competitive process to become Blue Zone communities. The communities selected will be provided resources and funding to help residents make lifestyle changes. Blue Zones are geographically defined places around the world where people live measurably longer lives.

The initiative will focus on helping Iowans to make comprehensive lifestyle changes at a grassroots level, Branstad said during a press conference at the Science Center of Iowa.

How will the health-care overhaul change Iowa’s insurance landscape?

Sept. 7, 2012 

When people think about health insurance in Iowa, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield quickly comes to mind, and for good reason. The Des Moines-based insurer dominates the Iowa market, covering nearly 1.8 million customers through group, individual, Medicaid and Medicare policies. Two other companies, UnitedHealthcare and Coventry Health Care of Iowa, are the next-largest group insurers in the state, though neither has more than a 10 percent market share in the state.

Nationally, the health insurance market has been dominated by large companies such as UnitedHealth Group Inc., Aetna Inc. and Wellpoint Inc., and the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010 has accelerated that trend. Since then, several major insurers have announced mergers or acquisitions, the most recent being Aetna’s announcement last month that it will purchase Coventry for $5.6 billion.

The race to the digital wallet

Jan. 25, 2013 

Will pulling out your smartphone to make a purchase or to pay for a meal become as automatic as reaching for a debit or credit card is today?

It seems a pretty safe bet that it will.

More than 87 percent of the U.S. population now owns a mobile phone, and more than half of those devices are smartphones, according to a study from the Federal Reserve. Nearly one-third of mobile phone users reported using their devices to make a purchase in 2012.

Solar’s time to shine in Iowa? 

April 18, 2014 

As Iowa strives to become greener, focus is shifting to the potential for solar energy. 

A recent report by the Iowa Environmental Council suggests that Iowa could do far more to capitalize on the state’s solar energy potential.  

The report, “Real Potential, Ready Today: Solar Energy in Iowa,” found that Iowa could potentially generate nearly 20 percent of its electricity needs from rooftop solar panels. In fact, Iowa ranks 16th in solar potential, ahead of several states that have built significantly more solar energy production capacity, according to the report. 

A Closer Look: Dan Houston 

Dec. 18, 2015 

When Dan Houston was nearing graduation from Iowa State University in 1984, he had three corporate job offers to choose from — one in the forestry business, another in the tire industry and a third from a Des Moines-based insurance company: The Bankers Life Co. 

Bankers Life, which a year later would change its name to Principal Financial Group, was looking for talented, enthusiastic young graduates to sell an exciting new retirement savings product called the 401(k), Houston recalled.  

“Seems like you’ve got three options,” Houston’s future manager told him during his interview. “The tire business, the forestry business or you can be in a business that changes people’s lives forever.” 

Measuring the manufacturing skills gap in Iowa 

June 10, 2016 

Dee Zee Inc. can’t find enough production workers to fill its increasingly skilled positions, and the gap is growing. 

The Des Moines manufacturing company, which has more than tripled its workforce in the past seven years, currently has more than 100 open positions it’s seeking to fill in automation, robotics, and tool and die and computer numerical control (CNC) operators. 

“Over the last eight to 10 months the openings have been growing,” said Kelli Gallagher, Dee Zee’s president. “I think a lot of it is that we need more of these skilled positions. With us investing in the automation, there aren’t as many non-skilled positions; many of them are becoming skilled.”

The changing face of cancer clinical trials

March 24, 2017

Unless you have personally traveled the arduous road of cancer treatment or have a close friend or family member who has, you may not be aware of a network of patient clinical research trials that are available to Iowa residents through two Des Moines-based cancer treatment centers. 

At any one time, dozens of clinical trials are enrolling patients in Iowa through two community cancer centers that work with the National Cancer Institute. One of those centers is based at Mercy Cancer Center, while the other is affiliated with the John Stoddard Cancer Center. The two Des Moines centers, both designated as NCI Community Oncology Research Programs (NCORPs), are part of a network of about 40 such community-based research centers located throughout the United States. 

A prescription for change
July 13, 2018 

John Forbes was deluged with emails and phone calls early this year as pharmacists across the state contacted him to try to sort out why one of the biggest pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Caremark — was suddenly slashing their prescription reimbursements. In mid-January the company reduced prescription payments to pharmacies across the state, effectively creating a $20 to $30 loss for many prescriptions they were filling.  

“I think CVS Caremark was trying to test the market to see how low they could go,” said Forbes, owner of Medicap Pharmacy in Urbandale, who is also serving a third term in the Iowa House of Representatives. 

Investing in Iowa

May 24, 2019 

Building innovative companies requires ready venture capital that is willing to bet on companies that might come up with the next big thing or just as easily fizzle. 

Iowa, along with the Midwest, lays claim to just a sliver of the venture capital dollars that flow copiously from Silicon Valley, New York and Boston. Looked at from a basic economic perspective, the demand for venture deals in the Midwest outstrips the supply of Midwest-based venture capital by a ratio of 3-to-1, according to Adam Claypool, a principal with Bridgepoint Merchant Banking in Des Moines. 

The relative scarcity of venture capital makes it a more challenging market in which to find funding in Iowa, but seasoned entrepreneurs and investors alike agree: Solid deals are going to attract and find capital. 

Iowa insurers among institutions bulking up on structured debt

Jan. 24, 2020 

A type of investment that performed remarkably well during the Great Recession has become quite popular with institutional investors hunting for yield in a low-rate environment — so much so that it’s sparking increased scrutiny by state and federal banking and insurance regulators. 

The structured debt instruments, known as collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, are a method of packaging bank loans as an investment option. CLOs have become a go-to investment for a broad range of financial institutions, from major banks and insurance companies to pension funds and other types of nonbank institutional investors. 

Some Iowa-based insurance companies are building up their CLO portfolios and have become some of the largest holders of CLO debt among U.S. insurers. Collectively, insurance companies have added billions of dollars of this investment category to their balance sheets over the past decade.  

Will emerging nonprofit models help sustain local news?

June 17, 2022 

Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a two-part series looking at challenges to business models in the media industry and the possibility of more community-funded models.

Former journalist Kyle Munson traveled to many of Iowa’s 99 counties while working as the Iowa columnist for the Des Moines Register, a role that capped a 24-year career reporting with the daily newspaper.

In that time, he witnessed the challenges that both the Register and news organizations of all sizes in Iowa and across the country were experiencing as traditional sources of revenue — subscriptions and advertising — were shrinking as technology and culture gravitated toward new digital models while the “mass audience” fragmented. 

Though he now works in corporate communications in Des Moines, Munson helps lead a nonprofit news funding organization — the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation — as a new approach for sustainably raising funds to ensure the survival of news organizations in rural Iowa.