The Greater Des Moines Partnership unveiled its 2025 annual report and 2026 strategic priorities at its annual dinner held Thursday evening in downtown Des Moines.

Alongside partners, the Partnership in 2025 completed 28 new and expanding business location and expansion projects across the region, including eight downtown projects, and built 140 active project leads, its strongest economic development pipeline in years.

The Partnership said those efforts are reflected regionally, contributing to the more than $5.7 billion in capital investment and economic development activity currently underway in Greater Des Moines and an additional $2 billion in active projects in the pipeline.

Other accomplishments from 2025 include the progress on legislation to designate Highways 5/65 as federal interstates and record engagement with the DSM Intern Connection and Legacy Project: Career Ready Collective programs.

During the program, the Partnership’s 2026 board chair Chris Costa, president and CEO of Knapp Properties, unveiled the regional chamber’s strategic priorities for this year.

The 2026 strategic priorities are:

• Economic development
• Talent development
• Quality of life
• AI and innovation
• Position Greater Des Moines for the future
• Storytelling

“The region continues to outperform expectations because leaders across the region are willing to collaborate, invest and think long term,” Costa said. “These strategic priorities reflect where Greater Des Moines is today and where we’re going — boldly pursuing economic development success, building the workforce, advancing innovation and strengthening the region for the future.”

Under talent development, the Partnership said it plans to expand programming spanning K-12, postsecondary, early career, leadership and civic engagement. To support the AI and innovation priority, it plans to create a regional AI Skills and Fluency tool with the goal of supporting workforce capacity and advancing business growth by working with higher education and industry partners.

“Greater Des Moines is at its best when leadership and innovation go hand in hand,” Tiffany Tauscheck, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, said in a prepared statement. “With the large amount of capital investment underway and more in the pipeline, our 2026 Strategic Priorities reflect a shared commitment to move the region forward by aligning leadership, ideas and action to drive long-term success for our region.”

The Partnership also announced its 2026 board of directors and executive board. In addition to Costa’s role as chair and Miriam Erickson Brown’s role as past chair, Dan Keough with Holmes Murphy and Deanna Strable with Principal Financial Group will serve as vice chairs, April Schmaltz with Delta Dental of Iowa will serve as secretary, and Sean Vicente with KPMG LLP will serve as treasurer. View a full list of board members here. 

To view the annual report and strategic priorities, visit the Partnership website.