Dave Bridgewater is a certified public accountant who has seen the real estate industry from deep in the inside – the financial transactions that lead to the development of commercial properties. He has been chief financial officer at Hubbell Realty Co. and Ladco Development Inc. In October 2011, he took the same position at NAI Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial Co. in West Des Moines. He also worked for McGladrey & Pullen LLP in Minneapolis. During his career, he has put together more than $200 million in construction financing.

When you look at the rental rates you can get from properties and the cost of construction, there is a gap, and the only way that gap is going to be filled is through incentives from government. The TIF piece of it is a good way to do it. The way the city looks at it is from a long-term perspective. They say, “We get this building built, it gives us tax base, yes we’re going to abate or rebate taxes for some period of time, but over time we’re going to recover that and more.” I believe in it, especially at a time when rental rates are low compared to the costs of construction. I think it’s a good system. It’s necessary to attract businesses who want to build and expand in our community.

What are the problems with TIF?

The thing is that some municipalities went crazy with the TIFs; you got anything and everything. In Des Moines, it had to make sense for the city on a long-term basis.

Is cutting TIF a reasonable trade-off for recouping revenue from proposed cuts in commercial property taxes?

Communities believe that they have to bring a commercial base to their community because that is what will bring people to my community because ultimately it is going to pay taxes. It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg type of thing. You need some reason for people to come and live in your community. So you need to have a strong commercial-retail base because that will drive housing. From my experience, they will try to provide incentives for commercial development because that will drive housing. People will say, “Wow, there’s something going on here and I want to live here.”

Greater Des Moines has attracted a lot of interest from investors and developers from the Minneapolis area. Why?

The attraction is a good education base; it’s a stable economy that doesn’t go through huge peaks and valleys. Our unemployment is low compared to the rest of the world. And a lot of the stuff these guys are doing are apartments, either with tax credits or market rate, and the Iowa Finance Authority has been very active in getting tax credits, either historical or affordable housing type stuff, done. These people see that this is a market that is going to be stable and we have economic incentives. (Des Moines City Manager) Rick Clark was fantastic in terms of trying to get downtown redeveloped. The city, when they could, got very aggressive.

Who has been your biggest inspiration?

My parents taught me the value of hard work and family. But I worked for (longtime restaurateur) Babe Bisignano when I was in high school and college. He was an amazing guy who taught me the value of hard work and the value of making contacts. My dad and he were pretty good friends, so when I was in ninth grade, Babe told my dad, “Send him down to me. I’ll put him to work, and I’ll teach him how to work hard.” From ninth grade until I graduated from college, I worked there as host, busboy, pizza maker, bartender. I watched a lot of famous people come through that place. Babe always treated me like a son, and I’ve always appreciated that. He made an offer to me when I graduated from high school. He said, “You go to restaurant school or you go to school to be a hospitality guy and I’ll pay 100 percent of your college.” I didn’t want to go into hospitality, so I said – and it was hard to say no to Babe – but I had to say, “Sorry; I don’t want to do that.”