ANKENY – For the past 56 years, a two-square-mile parcel of land west of the Des Moines Area Community College campus has gone undeveloped while the city of Ankeny grew up around it. Soon, however, that land – which could fetch up to $25,000 an acre – will go on the market.

An environmental report due out within the next few weeks will clear the way for Iowa State University to begin selling the Ankeny Dairy Farm, which extends from the DMACC campus on its southeast corner to the John Deere Des Moines Works on the northwest.

Since 1947, ISU has used the property for its dairy research farm and crop research plots. In 2002, the Legislature approved a bill authorizing the university to sell the property, which has increasingly become a rural island in a sea of suburban development.      

Numerous developers have their eyes on the land, which could support a wide range of residential and business uses. Also, both DMACC and the Ankeny Community School District are interested in buying portions of the land for expansion.

“We would like to sell this fairly quickly,” said Warren Madden, ISU’s vice president for business and finance. “We’ve indicated to the various developers that whatever the process, we will give everyone the chance to participate. Issues of whether it will be offered as one large piece or as smaller parcels is being discussed now.”

The market value of the property will largely depend on its environmental condition. Sixty years ago, a federal munitions plant on the site was turning out machine gun bullets for the war effort. Some bunkers that were used to store the ammunition are still located on the land.

ISU officials expect a report from the Environmental Protection Agency within the next few weeks that would clear the way for the sale process to begin. Officials hope the sale of the land will provide the university enough money to build a replacement for the Ankeny dairy research farm on the Ames campus.

“Since this legislation passed, we have probably been contacted by most of the major developers in Iowa, as well as a number of out-of-state developers,” Madden said. “There are not a lot of tracts of land this large, so there’s a lot of interest in it.”

ISU bought the property, which was the site of a large munitions factory, from the U.S. government following World War II. The university sold a portion of it in 1947 to Deere & Co., and in 1967 sold 240 acres of it to Des Moines Area Community College for its Ankeny campus.

The community college is considering buying some of the land to expand its Ankeny campus, DMACC President Rob Denson said, though no decisions have been made.

“It’s very likely that we’re going to run out of space long before we run out of students and employer demand,” he said. “And land adjacent to the campus doesn’t come available every day.”

The Ankeny school district wants to buy 100 acres of the land to be the site for a new elementary and middle school, said Superintendent Kent Mutchler.

“It would be ideal to have them connected in one campus, or adjacent somehow,” he said. “We would like to have them close to DMACC, because of all the partnering we have with DMACC.”

The timeframe for building another elementary school would primarily be driven by how many houses are built on that land, and how quickly they are built, he said. A new middle school, however, will likely be needed within the next 10 years, he said.

Mutchler said he hopes the area will be primarily developed with commercial or industrial buildings to provide a better tax base for the school district, which currently consists of about 66 percent residential properties.

“When you can draw more taxes out of commercial, that naturally makes your tax rate lower,” he said.

DEVELOPER ENVISIONS MORE ROOFTOPS

The Iowa State University property in Ankeny could accommodate enough new single-family and multifamily development for about 3,000 people, said Randy Walters, president of Oaks Development Co. in West Des Moines, which has developed numerous properties in Ankeny.

“It’s a great piece of ground, and it’s big enough that it will have many uses,” Walters said. “There will be a lot of single-family and some multifamily. And with that many rooftops, you’re going to need more services.”

Given Ankeny’s pattern of development, the commercial development will likely consist of service and retail businesses rather than office space or industrial property, he said.

Land prices in Ankeny range from $10,000 to $25,000 per acre, depending on the location, he said, and that’s probably the range the appraisal value of this property will fall within. He expects the acreage will be fully developed within five to eight years.

“We’ll buy as much of it as we can,” Walters said. “We’re very interested in Ankeny. We’ve been doing a lot of stuff up there. It’s a great town.”