Editor’s note: This article is a part of a series of articles that appeared in the CRE Guide updating readers on four areas of greater Des Moines that are poised for development. Click here to see the full guide. Read all: Alice’s Road, Southwest Connector, Southeast Connector/Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway & Go North

A big gateway to development is waiting to be opened between Waukee and West Des Moines. It’s called the Alice’s Road interchange, and it is an opportunity waiting to gallop to freedom for landowners and brokers, city leaders, maybe even commuters who get stalled in rush-hour traffic.

When completed, maybe in 2014, it will join a range of interchanges that have been keys to development.

Without the reconstruction of the East Mixmaster, chances are that The Toro Co. might have looked elsewhere when deciding to relocate a state-of-the-art distribution center in Ankeny. The meshing and splitting of Interstates 35, 80 and 235 at least contributed to Toro’s decision, said Curtis Brown, Ankeny’s economic development director.

And where would all the shoppers and residents and commuters destined for Jordan Creek Town Center be without that lovely bridge and interchange at Interstate 35 and Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines?

Some interchanges, and roads it would seem, are destined for greatness.

The Business Record went looking for those great development gateways and picked out four areas poised for growth.

Go north

Driving east to west in Ankeny can be a tough call, due primarily to the city’s rapid growth. Construction of an interchange at Interstate 35 and Northeast 36th Street is expected to ease congestion to the south and provide another gateway to development.

“The city does see it as an opportunity for new major commercial development, one that will complement the existing interchanges,” Brown said.

Interchanges at First Street and Oralabor Road can get clogged during rush hour. The First Street interchange is due for a redesign that could include a diverging diamond, such as the one proposed for Alice’s Road.

The Northeast 36th interchange will provide a conduit from residential development east of the interstate to the burgeoning projects in the west and southwest sections of the city.

“The city has grown 68 percent in the last 10 years, with a lot more commuters coming in and out of the city from the west and southwest side,” Brown said.

Development of Prairie Trail and expansions at Des Moines Area Community College and Deere & Co. triggered much of that increase in population and traffic flow.

Construction of the interchange is a welcome sight to Chris Murray, president and CEO of Denny Elwell Co., which also has been responsible for big swaths of development.

“The 36th Street interchange is going to stimulate traffic flow and economic growth to the north and west boundaries,” he said, noting that it can be “cumbersome” to travel to the west side of the city from the I-35.

Brown also said that other street improvements are being made to help ease congestion, with work under way on Oralabor Road and Irvinedale Drive, a street that provides a connection to development opportunities a few miles away in Polk City.