Newmark, a real estate consulting and site selection firm with offices worldwide, has been selected by the West Des Moines City Council to develop a new community-wide Economic Development Strategic Action Plan for the city. Newmark, headquartered in New York City, was one of 14 firms that responded to the city’s request for proposal released earlier this year. A committee that included city staff, private developers and community leaders unanimously selected Newmark to create the strategic plan. The company will be paid $220,000. West Des Moines completed economic development plans in 2003, 2009 and 2017. The new plan is expected to provide West Des Moines direction that reflects post-COVID real estate market conditions. The plan is expected to include strategies that focus on addressing backfilling or repurposing vacant office spaces; redeveloping struggling commercial corridors; fostering small business and entrepreneurship efforts; specifying which cluster industries that the city should be pursuing to grow the workforce and economy; and giving direction on an updated financial incentive policy for development projects seeking gap financing assistance.