On Tuesday, the Commercial section of the New York Times’ website featured an article on real estate development in downtown Des Moines. The article noted the investment that Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Nationwide Mutual Insurance and other large companies are putting into developing the Western Gateway neighborhood as well as the efforts by the City of Des Moines’ staff working in concert to facilitate these projects in a speedy timeframe.
In Des Moines, Downtown Is a Team Effort
February 16, 2009
By Keith Schneider
DES MOINES — It took Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield only about a year in 2007 to locate, assemble and buy a 6.6-acre parcel of land from nine owners for its new headquarters in this city’s downtown.
Next December, after 30 months of construction at a cost of $250 million, Wellmark is scheduled to complete the 600,000-square-foot five-story building, which will occupy three blocks of Grand Avenue and anchor a growing downtown office and entertainment district known as the Western Gateway. If that schedule is met, the project will have taken roughly four years from start to finish.
