BEST PLACE TO PICK UP COFFEE ON COMMUTE

Grounds for Celebration

A drive-though is a must for any new store location, said Jan Davis, who owns and managers five Grounds for Celebration stores with her husband George, “Probably 75 percent of our business before 10 a.m. is drive-through.”

On July 1, the local chain’s Ingersoll Avenue store moved to its new location on Grand Avenue, which allowed for a drive-though in addition to more parking, and Davis said when she and her husband consider possible new store locations in West Des Moines and Des Moines, they look for land on the busiest side of the street in the mornings.

But the combination of convenience and quality is what Davis said makes the Grounds for Celebration the best place to pick up coffee on commute. In addition to roasting their own beans in store, Davis said by the end of November they should have their first private-label coffee beans from their farm in Panama.

Grounds for Celebration has also become a hot spot for a quick lunch. People can order ahead of time from a select menu that changes every couple of months. The chain’s five stores also have a strong base of business people who use them as meeting spaces during the workday.

Runners-up: Starbucks Corp.; Caribou Coffee Co.

BEST HOSPITAL

Iowa Methodist Medical Center

Iowa Methodist Medical Center has been voted Des Moines’ best hospital by Business Record readers. The 396-bed teaching hospital, which averages nearly 20,000 inpatient admissions and more than 150,000 outpatient visits annually, is located on a 42-acre campus near downtown Des Moines.

The medical center is an affiliate of Iowa Health-Des Moines, a $570 million health-care organization that also includes Blank Children’s Hospital, Iowa Lutheran Hospital and more than 40 primary-care physicians’ clinics throughout Central Iowa.

Since 1999, Iowa Methodist has been the only Central Iowa hospital designated as Level I trauma and emergency medicine center by the American College of Surgeons. Life Flight, the air ambulance program for Iowa Methodist, began in 1979 and continues to fly hundreds of vital missions each year.

The hospital’s Younker Rehabilitation Center is the largest, most comprehensive physical rehabilitation program in Central Iowa, providing a wide range of inpatient and outpatient care.

Iowa Methodist is also home to the John Stoddard Cancer Center, which became the first Central Iowa Cancer Clinic to house all radiation, oncology and ancillary services in one location. In 1996, it became the nation’s first community-based clinical facility to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration to produce genetically engineered drugs

Runners-up: Mercy Medical Center, Blank Children’s Hospital

BEST CULTURAL ATTRACTION TO SUPPORT

Science Center of Iowa

The new Science Center of Iowa and its Blank IMAX Dome Theater are a smash with Business Record readers, who voted the venue completed in 2005 the best cultural attraction Greater Des Moines has to offer.

With a 12,000-watt digital audio system that produces chest-thumping sound and a six-story dome screen that seems to plunk each viewer in the middle of larger-than-life images, the theater offers informative, thrilling vicarious experiences as diverse as being in the driver’s seat of a NASCAR racecar or in the middle of a tribal drum circle in Africa.

The Science Center has two other distinctive theaters, the Star Theater and the John Deere Adventure Theater.

Beyond that, the museum is full of interactive displays that reveal the science found in everyday life and challenge young people to discover their inner Einstein as they answer questions about what happens to objects when they’re placed in extremely hot or cold temperatures, or what it’s like to touch a plasma globe.

Runners-up: Winefest Des Moines; Des Moines Arts Festival

BEST RECYCLING/WASTE

Artistic Waste Services Inc.

Artistic Waste Services Inc. prides itself on being the only locally owned waste collection company in Greater Des Moines. CEO Tony Colosimo said local ownership makes his business more responsive to the needs of its customers.

“Any decisions are made by local investors that live here, not at far away headquarters,” Colosimo said. “This allows us to do things that the large national companies wouldn’t do.”

Artistic services more than 75,000 residential customers each week in the 17 communities in Greater Des Moines. It is the recycling service provider in all but one of these cities. This month, Artistic became the new residential waste collection company for the city of Johnston.

Artistic also has a large base of commercial customers that use its trash and recycling collection, confidential shredding and medical waste collection services. In all, three out of five people in Polk County receive a service from Artistic at their home or workplace, Colosimo said.

Through a partnership with Metro Waste Authority, Artistic also operates the Metro Recycling Center in Des Moines, the only staffed recycling drop-off center in the area.

Runners-up: Waste Management Inc., Waste Connections Inc.

BEST PLACE FOR AUTO REPAIRS

Betts Auto Campus

Charles Betts started the company as a Cadillac dealer in 1947, and plenty has changed in 59 years. Betts Auto Campus now salls and services Cadillac, Lexus, Hummer, Volvo and Jaguar vehicles at a sprawling, multi-building campus at the intersection of 100th Street and Hickman Road in Clive.

The volume of repair business also has increased, and dealer principal Rich Willis credits Betts’ employees for the company’s success at handling the greater workload. “The level of service and the level of loyalty and teamwork are great, because our people are just born that way,” Willis said. “Those are the things we’re looking for as we’re attracting people. They need to work well together as a team and treat the customer like a member of the family.”

For its inventory of used vehicles, Betts offers a Certified Pre-Owned program that provides additional warranty coverage and other services for certified cars. “Baby Boomer expectations are higher than the prior generation, and Gen-X expectations are even higher than that,” Willis said.

Runners-up: Jordan Motors; Iowa Auto Repair

BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO BUSINESS LAST YEAR

Wells Fargo’s West Des Moines campus

The best thing to happen to business last year – the $250 million West Des Moines campus for Wells Fargo & Co.’s Home & Consumer Finance Group — promises to keep paying dividends for Greater Des Moines long into the future.

Construction of the four buildings that make up the 960,000-square-foot complex is “substantially complete” as of this month, said spokeswoman Debora Blume, and approximately 1,740 team members now call the facility home. Additional employees are expected to continue moving in through November 2007. By 2010, Wells Fargo anticipates that the campus, which has a capacity of 4,300, will house 3,300 team members.

The facility allows Wells Fargo to consolidate personnel who were working from 10 separate leased facilities throughout Greater Des Moines, in addition to accommodating an additional 1,000 new hires and providing space for additional growth.

Those 1,000 new jobs, combined with added revenue from property taxes, are expected to infuse more than $37 million into the Greater Des Moines economy annually. In total, the city of West Des Moines and the state pledged $55.4 million in incentives to persuade Wells Fargo to build the project in Iowa, with many of those incentives tied to the fulfillment of the company’s pledged employment increases.

Runners-up: Des Moines Public Library, Interstate 235 renovation

BEST GROCERY STORE

Hy-Vee Inc.

Hy-Vee Inc. prides itself on a slogan, “a helpful smile in every aisle,” that must resonate well with readers of the Business Record, who rewarded the company with their votes as the best grocery store in the metro area. The chain started modestly in 1930 when Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg opened a small general store in Beaconsville, Iowa, and is now guided by more than 49,000 employee-owners.

Today’s Hy-Vee stores are full-service supermarkets complete with bakeries, delicatessens, banks, florists and pharmacies, and many of the stores in Greater Des Moines have added gas stations that offer customers a discount of several cents a gallon when they show grocery receipts.

Runners-up: Dahl’s Foods; Fareway Stores Inc.

BEST CHARITY TO SUPPORT

United Way of Central Iowa

“In a lot of ways people are touched by United Way beyond the donations we receive,” said Shannon Cofield, the president of United Way of Central Iowa.

Through programs such as its Women’s Leadership Connection, United Way emphasizes the importance of getting people involved in the community. “We work hard to connect people with issues in a meaningful way,” Cofield said.

About 90 cents of each dollar donated to United Way is reinvested in the community through the more than 100 health and human services organizations the charity supports.

In 2005, more than 52,000 people in Central Iowa used United Way’s 2-1-1 bilingual information and referral line to secure information about community resources. About eight months ago, United Way launched a community volunteer database called Volunteer Solutions on its Web site, www.unitedwaydm.org. Cofield said this is the most-used area on the site.

“As a community organization, we are interested in strengthening the fabric of our community in any way we can,” Cofield said.

Runners-up: Variety – The Children’s Charity of Iowa; the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO BUSINESS THIS YEAR

The Principal Riverwalk

Many projects are under way intended to strengthen the heart of the Des Moines, its downtown, in order to enhance the vitality of our entire community. One project strives to unify all of the development under way and that’s been done to date: the Principal Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk will connect the east and west sides of downtown Des Moines through a series of lighted and landscaped walking paths and bridges. Anchored on the north by a signature pedestrian bridge at the Center Street Dam and on the south by a recently renovated railroad bridge south of Court Avenue, the Riverwalk will tie together numerous amenities that line the Des Moines River’s banks, creating one cohesive riverfront experience.

Early on, the Riverwalk project team participated in site tours of comparable riverfront developments. During the tours, the team met with leaders of those projects to gain insight on issues and opportunities.

The major finding of the tours was the overall importance of designing a riverwalk that will attract and engage people. Simplicity of design and tying the natural surroundings of the riverwalk with nearby urban settings were other key findings.

The riverwalk is estimated to cost $55 million to complete, including the connecting trail to Gray’s Lake, and is expected to be completed sometime in 2007.

Runners-up: housing in capital city, Iowa Speedway

BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN THE METRO AREA

Beaverdale

Every September, the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association throws a huge party that is one of the most anticipated autumn events in the city. It’s got a parade, a carnival, music and other entertainment, a fireworks display and other events to showcase neighborhood pride – something that is never in short supply in Beaverdale.

The Beaverdale Village Revitalization Project currently under way promises to make the commercial district as unique and special as the “Beaverdale bricks,” the charming homes that make the neighborhood popular among young professionals and growing families.

“A few years ago, it seemed that maybe the business core was lagging a bit,” said Bill Miller, president of the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association. “It was a situation where the neighbors noticed it, stepped up and said, ‘Let’s take a look at this and what we can do to bring this area back to greatness.'”

Runners-up: Urbandale; Quail Park (West Des Moines)