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This fall, Delta Dental of Iowa will move from leased space in Ankeny to a newly constructed headquarters building in Urbandale. The one-story, 25,000-square-foot structure at 9000 Northpark Drive will be easily accessible from Interstate 35/80, which was an important consideration, said Donn Hutchins, president and CEO.

“Originally we were going to stay in Ankeny, but we didn’t find any sites that had the freeway access and visibility that we were looking for,” he said. The location near 86th Street and the interstate also provides better visibility for its brand, he said.

Delta Dental of Iowa is the largest dental benefits provider in the state, serving 749,000 subscriber members, 3,100 employer groups and 5,000 individuals. Its provider network includes 90 percent of all practicing dentists in Iowa. The not-for-profit organization is a member of the Delta Dental Plans Association, which provides coverage to 54 million people in more than 93,000 employer groups. The Iowa organization has 68 employees.

In July 2009, Delta Dental became the dental administrator for the Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (hawk-i) program, which provides low-cost coverage to uninsured children of working families. Delta Dental administers dental benefits for more than 27,800 hawk-i enrollees. It also added a vision plan to its product line, which Hutchins said will provide further growth opportunities. Delta Dental’s board of directors voted in December 2008 to move forward with the project, which has an estimated $5.3 million price tag. “We looked at a lot of options, and we came to the conclusion that owning a building was the best decision,” Hutchins said.

Designed by OPN Architects Inc. in Des Moines, the new building will be 7,000 square feet larger than Delta Dental’s present space. The energy-efficient structure, which will incorporate a lot of natural light and use a geothermal heating and cooling system, is being built to meet the requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The building will be Wi-Fi enabled and have video conferencing capabilities.

Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies U.S. Inc. is the contractor for the project, and Delta Dental is working with Terrus Real Estate Group as the project coordinator.

The open design of the building should enable Delta Dental to increase its productivity, Hutchins said. “We hope to translate that into being more cost-efficient for our customers.”

“It’s also positioned to be able to grow,” he said. “It will be fairly easy to put an addition on it.”