Last year marked an important year in commercial development for Greater Des Moines, and 2008 looks to reap the benefits of that progress.

West Des Moines had a banner year for commercial and industrial construction, with commercial development pushing past the 1 million square-feet mark. That’s the third-largest year since 1978. The construction of Jordan Creek Town Center in 2003 and the Wells Fargo campus in 2004 produced multimillion-square-foot years.

“It was a very good year in 2007,” said Clyde Evans, director of community development for West Des Moines. “We certainly had a lot of retail development as a result of Jordan Creek. I think that a lot of the office uses that we’ve been dealing with are looking at areas around Jordan Creek.”

Evans noted Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s interest in a location directly across from Jordan Creek before it chose to stay in Des Moines and Aviva USA’s announcement it will build its headquarters just a few blocks away.

“The Aviva announcement was huge for us,” he said. “They are going to grow that company to be a very dominant player in North America. It was a very significant project for us, on par with the Wells Fargo project.”

Another area of significant commercial development for West Des Moines centers on the expansion of several health-care projects. Iowa Health-Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center and the Iowa Clinic all have large-scale projects in the works for West Des Moines.

Evans said the city is working on three surveys in conjunction with the University of Northern Iowa to find out what the future has in store for the medical sector in West Des Moines.

“We have a very heavy concentration of medical in West Des Moines,” he said. “We think there can a very good future there.”

Even with the strong year in 2007, Evans still has his sights set high for next year.

“2008 is going to be a bigger year than last year,” he said. “There are a couple of projects that we’re working on, and if we get these projects, we will very easily have a good shot of beating our second-best year ever.”

For Des Moines city officials, 2007 wasn’t just a good year; it was a key year for development downtown. Wellmark’s decision to stay downtown, the continued construction of the Davis Brown Tower, Principal Financial Group Inc.’s new day-care center and parking ramp, AlliedNationwide Insurance’s expansion project and continued growth of the East Village and the Court Avenue district were all highlights for the year.

“You think of downtown as an evolution, going from the fact that it’s been a strong employment center and it’s getting stronger with the different projects, but now there’s this qualitative element with the retail and housing developments,” said Rick Clark, Des Moines’ city manager. “All of that takes the whole downtown to a completely different level than it has ever been before. That’s pretty dramatic stuff.”

Matt Anderson, an economic development coordinator for the city of Des Moines, echoed Clark’s thoughts on the growing retail sector downtown.

“One of the bigger changes in downtown is some of the retail and restaurant venues that have opened,” Anderson said. “You have some nice pockets of retail popping up that are filling in the gaps, and those are the things that are bringing people to downtown after 5 o’clock.”

Anderson said with the growth of retail downtown, recruiting bigger corporations to the area will be less of a challenge than before.

“It’s those things that will make our jobs easier next time we have to go out and compete for that next large corporate expansion,” he said.

Enticing more companies to locate to downtown Des Moines will be on the minds of city officials as a large quantity of office space will be vacated by 2010. Some estimate that upwards of 750,000 square feet could become available.

“Vacant office space can be both a challenge and an opportunity,” Anderson said. “Sometimes we’re faced with short turnaround to attract a company, and if you don’t have the available space you’re going to lose the company. We’re cautiously optimistic that space will be filled.”

Besides facing the hurdle of finding new tenants to fill the soon-to-be-vacant office space, Clark said downtown is making progress that hasn’t been seen before.

“It’s almost like we’ve turned a corner here in downtown Des Moines. At long last this image of a downtown which has all of the major components to make it lively and attractive seems to be coming together,” he said. “All of that is powerful because what it does is it makes people have confidence and a sense of excitement and expectation and that’s what gives a city buzz.”

City officials are also looking outside downtown for further commercial development in 2008. Retail development in neighborhood areas will be a priority.

“You have a strong downtown and spreading the energy around the rest of the city is a real emerging goal,” Clark said.

The Riverpoint West project, a mixed-used development with an estimated 700,000 square feet of commercial space, will be one of the “largest projects in the city’s history” Clark said.

“That will have a significant impact on the city and on our ability to provide a product in a market that we can’t provide in downtown right now,” he said.

In addition to West Des Moines, other suburbs also saw sound commercial development in 2007.

Steve Franklin, community development manager and chief planner for Urbandale, said 2007 was a “steady” year for commercial and industrial construction.

“2007 remained steady for the number of permits issued,” he said. “One hundred fifteen permits are anticipated for 2007 with an estimated value of $79.1 million.”

Franklin singled out the new Marsh and McLennan Cos. Inc. project and a Home Depot store as key deals for the city.

“The city is happy to get anybody here, but Marsh and Home Depot were great for Urbandale,” he said.

Franklin has mixed feelings about 2008. The election and the current housing market are going to play important roles in how things will turn out, he said.

“When you get to an election year, sometimes people get nervous and sit tight, especially with the economy taking a little bit of a dip,” Franklin said. “My gut feeling says people are going to sit tight and see what’s going to happen with the election. What (the politicians) say really influences people.”