Greater Des Moines Partnership Chairman Dan Houston took time to debrief me on his year at the helm of one of the area’s biggest and most powerful economic development groups. 

In the course of the conversation, he noted that the Partnership sets some very specific goals each year. And in four key categories, those goals were exceeded in 2017. 

• Goal: See 20 businesses expand. Result: 23 did.
• Goal: Lure 10 new companies to the area. Result: 11.
• Goal: $225 million capital investment. Result: $1.1 billion was invested.
• Goal: Create or retain 2,250 jobs. Result: 2,689.

In addition, the Partnership added 60 investors, for a total of 320.

Said Houston, the top boss at Principal Financial Group: “When I step back and ask what are we trying to accomplish, economic development is number one. If you look at the actual results, consistently we hit our goals right after another. I challenge anyone to go out and look at other sites and see if they are getting the same kind of traction. That, of course, is what the board is looking at when they evaluate (CEO) Jay (Byers) and (President) Gene (Meyer) and the crew here.

“There is a mix of things, planting seeds that aren’t going to be harvested for three to five or 10 years down the road,” Houston said. 

“I don’t want to say we are the epicenter of the first data center, but all of a sudden you are getting a reputation,” Houston said. “You are getting more than a hard look. You are getting hard decisions. People are signing on. You have the crossroads of the interstates. The crossroads of the fiber optic network. You have low-cost energy, low-cost land. You have water. We have a story to tell our shareholders with an environmentally friendly market with that industry.”

Partnership CEO Jay Byers said the organization has tracked economic development goals and achievements since it was formed in 1999.

Houston said the DSM USA identity deployed by the Partnership in 2017 tells prospective businesses that they won’t have cities in this area fighting, which helps add to that development record. “They won’t just get the workers in one county. We have a very collaborative set of chambers, cities and counties, trying to collectively come together to accomplish great things,” Houston said. 

Byers said the DSM USA tag also suggests the area is hip and globally oriented, according to research conducted during the rebranding.