Des Moines Register, IA
05-24-07
Retail shifts show need to think as a region
Growth benefits all metro communities.
REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
At the same time fixtures were being sold off from the abandoned Younkers
department store in downtown Des Moines last week, Iowa State University
economists released a study documenting a dramatic shift in retail sales from the
city to the suburbs, driven largely by Jordan Creek Town Center.
The juxtaposition was fitting. The two events illustrate the historic shift that has
taken place as the economic center of gravity has moved from downtown Des
Moines to the western suburbs. The events also illustrate why metro Des Moines
should worry more about regional economic development than winners and
losers within the region.
The shift from downtown to outlying areas and the suburbs has been happening
since the end of World War II, but the ISU study by Liesl Eathington and
David Swenson documented a dramatic burst with the 2004 opening of Jordan
Creek in the part of West Des Moines that lies in Dallas County. While retail
sales in Des Moines dropped 5.2 percent between 2004 and 2006, that part of
West Des Moines gained a whopping 503 percent.
Despite the shifting spending patterns, Des Moines remains a powerful retail
center. The city's 2006 retail sales of $3.5 billion represented nearly 10 percent of
total sales statewide and more than half of all those in Polk County.
The trends are not encouraging, however. Des Moines has experienced a steady
decline in both retail businesses and shopping in the past decade. At the same
time, the numbers of both retail businesses and sales were steadily growing for
suburbs in Polk County. Des Moines must compete on all sides: The ISU study
points out that both Ankeny to the north and Altoona to the east ranked No. 2 and
No. 3, respectively, in retail growth in the metropolitan area.
Looking at the economic health of Des Moines in isolation, the trends show that,
despite the encouraging growth downtown, Des Moines has work to do to shore
up its retail base. That includes making all parts of the city attractive to residents,
because population loss is part of the retail equation. It means nurturing
neighborhood businesses and specialty retailers that give shoppers reasons to
spend money in Des Moines.
Apart from the parochial interests of various winners and losers, the ISU study is
good news for the greater Des Moines metropolitan area. Retail sales in the five-
county Metropolitan Statistical Area grew by a healthy 5.5 percent in the two-year
study period, thanks in part to an estimated 3.6 percent increase in population
and a 4.5 percent increase in real per-capita income. The metro area also
attracted shoppers from outside the five-county area, whose spending accounted
for 46 percent of the total increase.
All of that shows why it makes sense to think about economic development from
a regional perspective — as in the Project Destiny proposal to share a third of the
sales-tax revenue among most of the governments in three counties. While the
goal should be keeping all communities healthy, all residents and businesses
benefit when the region as a whole grows.