Chances are, if you’re thinking about relocating to a different community near Greater Des Moines, Indianola is among the last to come up on your list — if it comes up at all.

Nevertheless, Warren County’s largest city has more than 250 residential lots ready for development, a sign that developers are betting that the city’s relatively low land prices will attract more new home construction.

To bridge this supply-demand gap, a group of developers, contractors and building trades companies have formed the Indianola Homebuilders Association. Its No. 1 task, say organizers, is raising people’s awareness about Indianola as a place to live.

“Our goal is to get the message out to to families that aren’t even thinking about Indianola as an option to raise their family,” said Kevin Klisares, a mortgage loan officer with Peoples Mortgage Co., who’s directing the marketing efforts for the association.

More than 30 dues-paying members from the Indianola area have joined the association, which has already garnered a lot of attention among Warren County’s economic development community.

“We’re really excited that a group has taken this project on, said Indianola City Clerk Todd Kielkopf. Though the city is not contributing any money to the privately funded effort, the homebuilders association will provide an important addition to the marketing function being performed by the Indianola Alliance, he said. The alliance, which is Indianola’s economic development organization, focuses on marketing the city’s commercial and industrial properties.

One of the association’s first projects has been to produce a 30-second television ad promoting some of the city’s high points, from its well-known National Balloon Classic to amenities known only among locals, such as two golf courses, a quality school system and easy access to Greater Des Moines. The ads, which will run for the next two to three months, will begin airing on KDSM Fox 17 and WOI-TV next week.

Over the past three years, the number of single family building permits issued in Indianola has averaged approximately 75 per year, which builders say has come largely from home buyers moving up within Indianola rather than moving in from Greater Des Moines.

Despite little new demand from the north, Indianola’s relatively low land prices compared with those of Des Moines’ booming suburbs have attracted the attention of developers, who are working within nine new subdivisions along the city’s fringes.

“I think we’re seeing in smaller doses what Waukee and West Des Moines have seen,” said Dan Wood, residential sales project manager for Downing Construction Co., an Indianola-based developer and general contractor. Whereas much of the city’s residential development in the past was dominated by three Indianola companies, out-of-town developers such as Accurate Development and Walters Development, both based in Clive, are now building large subdivisions there, he said.

To fill the available lots more quickly, the association needs to draw buyers from outside the city, said Wood, who has been nominated to serve as the association’s president in its upcoming election.

“We have only so many buyers in Indianola,” he said. “So one of our goals is to get the word out that this is one place to come.”

INDIANOLA TO MOVE FORWARD WITH SPECIAL CENSUS

Indianola city officials plan to have a special census completed by late spring that they believe will show the city gained at least 700 residents since the 2000 census.

The city council approved the special census last month, and the budget is now being finalized so that census workers can be hired, said City Clerk Todd Kielkopf.

Indianola, which according to the 2000 Census has a population of 13,044, would receive an additional $86 per year in state gasoline tax proceeds for each additional person counted in a special census. Over the next five years until the next national census in 2010, that could mean a total benefit of about $300,000 , Kielkopf said. With a cost estimated at $66,000 to conduct the special census, the count would need to reveal at least 767 additional residents for the effort to pay for itself in the first year, he said.

“We believe that we have at least 700 new residents since 2000, based on our building permit activity, plus what we believe to be the number of residents in each new housing unit, based on previous census estimates,” he said.

Indianola is among a number of Central Iowa communities that have either conducted or are considering special census counts. Waukee completed a special census last year, and Ankeny is preparing for one. Officials in Johnston, Polk City and Urbandale have said their cities are considering new headcounts as well.