The West Des Moines City Council has terminated previously approved Urban Renewal Plans for the Grand Experience development, and approved new Urban Renewal Plans because of minor changes in the scope of the $400 million mixed-use project.

The council took the actions at its meeting on Monday, terminating the prior plans and approving the new ones without discussion.

Before Monday’s meeting, Ryan Moffatt, the city’s community and economic development director, said the changes were necessary because a previous development agreement that was approved in 2024 set a deadline for when the developer would acquire all the land for the project.

That did not happen, causing the development agreement with Jim Bergman of WDM Entertainment to expire. Bergman was able to extend the purchase option with the property owner.

“The project is still proposed as previously envisioned. Some components of the project have moved around a little bit,” Moffatt said. “For the ultimate timing and phasing reasons we opted to redraw the boundaries of these urban renewal plans because certain components have moved locations within the project and that can change the purpose and intent of the urban renewal plans we create.”

Moffatt said Urban Renewal Plans are a master plan that are created to allow a Tax Increment Finance District to be authorized at a later date.

One of the changes was the location of the affordable housing component of the development, he said.

The city approved an amended planned unit development concept plan for the more than 100-acre development west of Interstate 35 earlier this year.

Moffatt said the developer acquired 23 acres east of the MidAmerican Energy Rec Plex last year and has been doing rough grading and lining up financing for affordable or workforce housing on the southern end of that site. Commercial development is planned along Grand Avenue, he said.

“There’s really pent-up demand for commercial space in this corridor,” Moffatt said. “A lot of folks have been waiting for this development to come about.”

He said the changes in Urban Renewal Plans address phasing issues from a developer standpoint and when commercial activity would happen. It now appears some of that could happen sooner than anticipated, Moffatt said.

That allowed the city to reduce the number of Urban Renewal Plans for the development from five to four.

Nothing with the main components of the development, such as the water park, conference center and hotel has changed, and Moffatt said design work is expected to take place in 2026 with construction beginning in 2027.

“It’s a bit of a moving target but [that’s] the best timing we have right now for when construction could start on the water park in the conference center,” he said.

Another step the city must take is approving a new development agreement, which Moffatt expects to happen in mid-September.

“Those terms really haven’t substantially changed,” he said. “Our assistance package is the same. The scope of the criticals of the project are still the same in terms of the number of housing units, the size of the water park, and the size of the hotel. Nothing has really changed with that.”

The city has offered an incentive package that would include a 20-year, 100% tax increment financing rebate valued at $85.5 million to help cover a funding gap identified by the developer. Under the agreement, the developer would also receive two-sevenths of the hotel/motel tax collected from the water park for 20 years, generating about $5.7 million during that time.

The agreement also comes with street improvements in the area that have an estimated cost of $25.5 million.

Moffatt said the city is also working on the first phase of widening Grand Avenue, which will eventually be expanded to six lanes from 35th Street to 60th Street. Once that is complete, Grand Avenue will be widened to Jordan Creek Parkway, he said.