Warren County is in the midst of significant business development activity. The county has experienced recent growth in the areas of retail, financial services and industrial-type enterprises, while adding several large projects at Simpson College.

In total, the top 20 projects in Warren County between 2011 through today equate to over $102 million in capital investment and over 600 new jobs.  These employers have almost 1,000 jobs, collectively.

Contributing to this list is Simpson College's $25 million investment in the Kent Campus Center, Blank Performing Arts Center, and Athletic Center.  The list also includes $16 million with the new Indianola YMCA.  Private sector businesses Capital City Fruit ($12 million) and Loffredo Fresh Produce ($7 million) investments are among the projects and will add over 200 employees in Norwalk once Loffredo's expansion in completed in 2014.

A study commissioned by the Warren County Supervisors was recently released showing the possibilities of the Southwest Connector project. The Federal Highway Administration awarded Warren County dollars to examine a future possible loop route through Warren County, Madison County, and Dallas County.

Supervisor Dean Yordi introduced Ross Harris of HR Green, the team that completed the study. Among the goals is to improve the regional roadway system linkages to enhance local and regional mobility. In other words, as the traffic around the Interstate 35/80 mix-master becomes more congested, there will be significant need to re-route traffic around the southern part of the Metro and back to the Highway 5/65 bypass, which will represent a future southern interstate loop back to Interstate 80 near Altoona.

The Southwest Connector is also expected to be an important link to the planned Southeast Connector, which Des Moines and West Des Moines have been working on collaboratively. West Des Moines has renamed their portion of the existing Southwest Connector as "Veterans Parkway".

The Southwest Connector study shows that the area east of Interstate 35 will be planned for six lanes, while west of Interstate 35 will be planned for four lanes (though expandable to six lanes). The study forecasts traffic patterns beyond 2035, with a range of 5,000 vehicles per day on the low side to 98,000 vehicles per day optimistically, with much left to be determined. Click here to view the Southwest Connector presentation. 

As a part of the GroWARRENow blueprint for growing Warren County's economy, WCEDC leaders have committed to the preparation of "shovel-ready" development sites. Simply stated, the chances of luring a business prospect is much greater if local economic development leaders take the time to plan, engage pertinent players, and invest in their real estate. Absent this commitment, the alternative strategy is to hope that prospects will overlook development barriers and simply fall in love in the idea of being in the area based on an effective sales pitch, assuming economic developers even get the chance to tell their story. The latter approach is a "reach" given all of the location options business prospects have from which to choose.

WCEDC has already collaborated in two instances through public-private partnerships under Iowa's site certification program. The roughly 60-acre Ancell-Knox property just south of Norwalk has made it to the third round of the program. Represented by Peoples Company, WCEDC and the City of Norwalk have effectively gathered the necessary information about the site and hosted a visit from McCallum-Sweeney, the consulting group for Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) responsible for reviewing shovel-ready proposals. This year the WCEDC/Norwalk team will further commit to the development of the Ancell-Knox site through annexation proceedings, geotechnical and engineering work. If successful, an announcement could be made in 2015 certifying this site as "shovel-ready". View map of the Ancell-Knox site  

The other site which has been submitted to the site certification program is the 'Ferrari Farms' near the Highway 5 bypass. This site is owned by Colby Interests. Once again, WCEDC has collaborated with the developer and the City of Des Moines to gather information about the 86-acre site and provide an initial proposal to IEDA. Our team now awaits word on whether the site will advance to the next round. View map of Ferrari Farms site 

These two Warren County sites are the only two known properties in the Des Moines MSA which have been submitted for site certification under the Large Industrial Site (50+ acres) category.