About 200 invited business and government leaders joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield officials in a groundbreaking ceremony this morning for the company’s new corporate headquarters near Western Gateway Park.

The five-story, 550,000-square-foot building, scheduled for completion in late 2010, will be the first corporate-owned headquarters for Wellmark, which has leased space downtown throughout its 70-year history. The $194 million project is located on a 6.5-acre tract bordered by Grand Avenue and High Street, stretching from 11th to 14th streets, and will be the first in Des Moines to be built to Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. Wellmark had considered building the headquarters on property it purchased in West Des Moines, but chose to remain downtown, largely due to efforts by city officials, Wellmark Chairman and CEO John Forsyth said.

“This is a significant step in our mission to provide quality products in all we do,” Forsyth told the attendees, who included Gov. Chet Culver, Congressman Leonard Boswell, several state legislators and a number of other elected officials. “With a new building, you can build around your processes.” Forsyth said the building’s cost won’t be built into its rates, and that the company expects to be able to reduce its administrative costs as a result of greater efficiencies with the new building. He said Wellmark’s board has challenged the company to reduce its average annual rate increases to the level of increases in the Consumer Price Index within the next five years.

Culver said the project represents an example of a public-private, bipartisan effort to work together to improve Greater Des Moines. “Without this approach, without this teamwork, that wouldn’t be possible,” he said. In November the state’s economic development board awarded $1 million in incentives for the project.

Groundbreaking attendees were the first to view an animated, three-dimensional rendering of the building’s exterior, which “flies” viewers around the building.