Dilapidated buildings, above ground tanks and debris were cleared over two years from a site southwest of downtown Des Moines where Pro Iowa Stadium and Global Plaza have been proposed to be built.

Little else has occurred since then on the 43-acre parcel at 200 S.W. 16th St. that previously was home to Dico Inc., a manufacturing company that contaminated the site.

This past summer, Krause Group CEO Kyle Krause began lobbying city and county officials for more public funding for the proposed project. Krause, who proposed development of the 6,300-seat stadium prior to the start of the pandemic, has said he wants to reduce a funding gap in the project, estimated to cost $95 million.

“Collaborative conversations with our public officials continue, and I remain optimistic that the Pro Iowa Stadium and Global Plaza will progress in 2024,” Krause told the Business Record in an email. “We are enthusiastic about the economic impact and cultural/community opportunities the project will bring to downtown and Central Iowa.”

If the stadium project doesn’t move forward, options are limited to what can be built on the site, which was designated as a Superfund site by the federal government in 1983.

“I certainly hope the [stadium project] goes forward,” Connie Boesen, Des Moines’ mayor-elect, recently told the Business Record. “You are limited to what you can have on the site. I think there’s other outdoor opportunities that we can create there.”

The proposed stadium and plaza projects would be located north of an ICON Water Trails project planned on the Raccoon River near Fleur Drive. The mitigation of a dam near Fleur will allow several water activities, including surfing and kayaking.

“We’re going to need to have gateway to the water trails features, and that alone will spur some economic development,” Boesen said.

Matt Anderson, Des Moines’ deputy city manager, said that if the stadium is not built, “we’d still like to move forward with the Global Plaza. We’d continue a partnership with Polk County, who is currently at the table negotiating with us, and the business community. There is a desire to do the Global Plaza and have festival space and park space.”

Still, Anderson, in an email, wrote that negotiations with Krause Group are ongoing.

“The complex nature of this $500 million mixed-use development has required a very nuanced analysis, and we are making progress daily,” Anderson wrote. “Our hope is to present terms for city council consideration in first quarter 2024.”

Krause has said up to $500 million in other real estate development projects would occur in the area around the stadium and to the north, in the Western Gateway district. A hotel, retail shops, entertainment venue and residential are among the developments proposed in the area adjacent to the stadium.

If the stadium is not built, Boesen said she is hopeful that some of the other things proposed for the area could still be developed. “But the stadium would propel [those developments] even more.”

The Business Record recently interviewed Connie Boesen, Des Moines’ mayor-elect, on a wide range of economic development and business growth-related issues. Look for more in the Business Record’s print edition. Previous coverage includes:

Boesen: ‘We want businesses to locate in downtown Des Moines’
Making it easier to open a small business in Des Moines