.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Being jilted by Aviva USA raises the question: What will it take in the future to sell big companies on a downtown location?

Des Moines has made tremendous progress in creating a better-looking downtown, and the addition of more residents is having an effect, too. It’s a more interesting place in which to spend time than it was a few years ago.

Some important corporations are going along for the ride. Nationwide Insurance is building as fast as it can, and Wells Fargo & Co. has added two big buildings.

But Aviva’s reasons for choosing West Des Moines – lots of room, cheap parking, a shorter commute for its executives – make you think.

You can’t argue with comparative construction costs, and an urban area can’t beat open tracts of land in that respect. So adjustments must be made, but how much money will the city have to keep throwing at companies to get them or keep them here?

Subsidies make sense as long as the eventual property taxes balance them out. If we push that concept too far and start making bad business deals just to keep the place looking nice, it won’t be sustainable for long.

As for locating large companies near the executives’ homes – get serious. We’re doing all we can to make downtown a more viable residential area for the thousands of workers who keep those execs comfortable.

Then there’s another way to look at the situation. Downtown means big buildings, and we’ve always assumed that we need big companies to fill them. But it may be that the future of downtown Des Moines is to serve as home to lots of smaller companies.

Small companies can’t carve their own campus out of an expensive cornfield. They can’t expect to be lavishly courted by suburbs with subsidies and new infrastructure. They interact with lots of vendors and customers who are located downtown or in the habit of doing business here.

In the years ahead, we might need to think big by thinking smaller.