The West Des Moines Planning and Zoning Commission took steps this week toward the realization of the Grand Experience, a planned $500 million entertainment and commercial development.

The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted Monday to recommend approval of an amendment to the city’s planned unit development concept plan and its comprehensive land use plan to allow the development to move forward. Both actions are expected to go before the West Des Moines City Council for approval next month.

Ryan Moffatt, community and economic development director for West Des Moines, said the Planning and Zoning Commission’s actions were among the first steps needed to accommodate the $500 million development that is expected to include a 100,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, a 60,000-square-foot conference center, two hotels, at least 150 affordable housing units and speculative commercial and retail space.

According to Moffatt, a development agreement is anticipated to be reached this fall. The submission of site plans is the next step, with approval taking six to eight months, he said.

“Plans are still conceptual at this point, but the best indication for construction of the first phase of this project would be planned for late 2025,” Moffatt said in an email to the Business Record.

Moffatt said the Grand Avenue corridor is envisioned to be the next area of West Des Moines where significant commercial growth will happen.

He said the Grand Experience will be a significant attraction for families and visitors with the ability to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

“Much like the Des Moines metro has recently seen with indoor concert venues of various sizes providing concerts that weren’t coming previously, having a flexible conference center and events space of this stature in the western part of the metro would enhance the offerings of the area and hopefully bring in additional conference and convention business to the metro,” Moffatt said.

The project would also generate new property tax, sales tax and hotel/motel tax revenue. It also would complement the activity at the nearby MidAmerican Energy Co. RecPlex, he said.

“The two facilities could really play off one another well in the future,” Moffatt said.

Moffatt said he could not comment on specifics of a development agreement with the developer behind the project, Jim Bergman, but that “we anticipate an agreement will help address the developer’s gap financing needs” on the proposed conference center and workforce housing.

The city would also need to make infrastructure improvements to accommodate the development, including widening Grand Avenue to six lanes from Interstate 35 to Jordan Creek Parkway, Moffatt said.