For years, the East Side has trailed other areas of Greater Des Moines in retail services as growth focused on West Des Moines and the western suburbs.

Now, as neighboring Altoona and Pleasant Hill begin to see momentum in attracting big-box stores like SuperTarget and Lowe’s and strip malls such as Water’s Edge and Copper Creek, it’s possible that the East Side could again get the short end of the retail stick.

Though city and county officials say they are taking steps to improve the climate for residential and retail growth in the area, residents are getting tired of waiting for redevelopment to happen. Last week’s news that a Wal-Mart Supercenter may replace the crumbling Eastgate plaza was welcome news for East   Side advocates, but much more needs to be done, they say.

One neighborhood activist says city officials need to do a better job in enticing businesses to look at her part of town for development.

“Why aren’t we helping entrepreneurs on East University get started?” said Fran Koontz, a lifelong East Side resident who founded ACCENT, the city’s first neighborhood association.

“There are thousands of people that drive in and out each day (along East University Avenue),” she said. “I think it’s silly for (small businesses) to think they have a better chance in Altoona than here. And I’m not crazy about big box stores, but I wouldn’t mind having a few here.”

One possible area for retail development extends from East 30th to East 32nd streets on East University Avenue, she said.

“Let’s assemble that land on the north side of University and relocate the people that are renting houses, buy up the property and offer it to some sort of retailer,” Koontz said. Other areas ripe for development include Hubbell Avenue out to the city limit as well as East Euclid Avenue, she said.

“We’ve begged the city to work with us to identify the businesses that might want to come in here,” she said. “They haven’t. So one half of the partnership has been missing.”

City Councilman Bob Mahaffey, who represents the East Side, said there is a “continuous effort” to bring more business and residential development into the area.

Attracting a national chain to build a hotel near the Iowa State Fairgrounds is one route the city is pursuing with a coalition of neighborhood associations, Mahaffey said. Within the past year, the city extended a tax increment financing district from the south side of University Avenue down East 30th to Dean Avenue.

“We’re hoping to use some of those TIF dollars to get something going (such as a hotel),” he said. “We’ve done some of our own studies that show it would be used. And further south, as Agrimergent Park (a technology park planned for the Southeast Bottoms area) emerges, there will be a need for more rooms. We’re trying to take a proactive approach to that so there will be more rooms when they’re needed.”

The East 30th and University area would also be a good location for a badly needed additional grocery store, Koontz said. Currently, East Side residents must travel several miles to get to stores on East Euclid, in Pleasant Hill or on the South Side.

“I think Fareway is really missing a good chance to have a very good customer base,” she said. “I think it’s the kind of store that would be a good fit here.

The newer retail development is going to tend to “chase the rooftops” of two-income homes that are being built in areas like Pleasant Hill, said Kevin Crowley, manager of commercial real estate for Iowa Realty Commercial.

“There’s got to be some things to drive new families into that area so that the retailers will follow,” he said. “Otherwise they’re going into that ring of development (on the outskirts of the city).”

One impediment to attracting East Side development, Crowley said, is that most houses in that area are selling in the low to mid $100,000s. “The East Side I think is going to have an uphill climb because of that, and I wish it wasn’t that way,” he said. “The national companies coming in won’t necessarily listen to the politicians; they know where they want to go in.”

With the renovation of the Interstate 235 interchange at Easton Boulevard and plans to extend Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to East 14th Street, there’s great potential for property values to increase, said Bill Patterson, an East Side business owner and president of the East Des Moines Chamber of Commerce.

The East Side needs to try to capitalize on its ethnic diversity, which is also one of its biggest challenges, he said.

“One of my primary targets is seeing how we can keep the communication going with areas such as the area at 18th and Grand,” he said. “We have a lot of businesses coming up through the Hispanic community, and it’s a tough job. They don’t know us well, and we don’t know them well.

“Making a unique experience of (ethnic diversity) is one the positive things we can work with.”

From the county’s perspective, the Polk County Board of Supervisors has been working to remove development barriers, said Tom Hockensmith, whose district encompasses the eastern portion of the county.

Last year the county established a water-and-sewer revolving development fund that developers can tap into to obtain funds for new projects. The bonds, which can be issued by the county on a project-by-project basis, are backed by $3 million in funds the county received from a sale of excess sewer capacity to the city of Altoona.

“Before that, we didn’t have anything available,” Hockensmith said.

The county also plans to begin work soon on a new comprehensive growth plan, to be followed by a new zoning ordinance, he said.

“These are all things that really needed to be done for a long time,” he said. “We want to make sure that growth happens in a positive way.”

Working with the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Greater East Polk County Development Corp., the county now has a portfolio of properties in the east part of the county that can be presented to developers, Hockensmith said.

“As far as East Des Moines is concerned regarding Altoona and Pleasant Hill, they all agree that for them to prosper, they have to have a prosperous East Des Moines,” he said. “Working together, they’ve found they really share the same ideas and goals.”