A public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11 for the proposed rezoning of 280 acres in Grimes that city officials say could lead to the construction of homes and commercial property that will have an assessed value of up to $250 million.

The Grimes Planning and Zoning Commission earlier this month approved a request to rezone the property from agriculture to R-4, the zoning needed for the city’s planned unit development, allowing for the mix of residential and commercial construction on the land.

The property was owned by Economy Brick Homes for about 50 years, but since the company is no longer doing business in Iowa it was put up for sale last year, said Alex Pfaltzgraff, development services director of the city of Grimes.

Hubbell Realty Co. purchased 160 acres, and Temple Real Estate Services purchased 115 acres. The names of their developments are Founders Glen and Harvest Pointe, respectively.

Pfaltzgraff said the tentative plan is to develop about 1,600 residential units, which includes a mix of single-family and multi-family units at varying price points. There are also plans for commercial development on about 25 acres, he said.

The majority of that commercial development will be on the land owned by Temple, with housing being built by both developers, Pfaltzgraff said.

“You’ll see some pretty significant commercial [development] happen at the James and 19th Street intersection,” he said.

The rezoning classification will also provide for additional park space beyond what is required, Pfaltzgraff said.

He said the addition of new residential will meet a growing demand in the community, which has a population of nearly 17,000, more than double what it was in 2010, when about 8,000 people called it home.

“Our lot inventory on the single-family side has been dwindling over the past couple of years,” Pfaltzgraff said. “We’ve obviously seen new single-family residential developments come on line and that’s continued to support our growth, but they have been in relatively small increments.”

“There’s been other planning rezones that have occurred, but nothing of this kind of scale, which is exciting for us,” he said.

Pfaltzgraff said the number of residential units that are proposed will be “super critical to our continued success.”

The large size of the property will allow Hubbell and Temple to build as they turn over inventory, he said.

Katie Lord, Grimes’ director of economic development, said the construction of homes drives commercial growth.

“And this long-term pipeline will help continue to show the strength of our market, especially as it pertains to new commercial business attraction,” she said.

Lord said Grimes currently has about 7,000 housing units, and the proposed growth represents “a significant portion of the next five to seven years of growth for our community.”

The proposed addition of residential units also represents about 25% of the city’s current number of households, she said.

Pfaltzgraff said it would take several years to build out the site, but when it’s complete, assessed value could top $200 million just for residential. Adding commercial could push that number ever higher, he said.

Pfaltzgraff said the site could support commercial opportunities, including retail, convenience stores, small office, day care and medical office development.

The land was annexed into Grimes a number of years ago, and the city invested in sanitary sewer to the area in 2022, as well as improvements to adjacent streets dating back to 2019 to support future growth, he said.

“The city’s been actively investing in the area for the past five years with the intent that it would encourage development activity,” Pfaltzgraff said.

The Grimes City Council will hold a public hearing on the rezoning on Feb. 11, before considering the first reading of an ordinance rezoning the site. The change requires three votes for approval before it’s adopted.

Pfaltzgraff said the second would likely come in late February, with the third reading in March.

Once that happens, the property owners can move forward with site planning and construction drawings.

“[We] could potentially be seeing development activity by late 2025 or early 2026,” Pfaltzgraff said.