Aviva Picks WDM as New Home

[Better Life dude]

From the Des Moines Register:

Aviva picks WDM as new home
Aviva USA plans to build its new headquarters in West Des Moines, leaving downtown Des Moines but creating 400 new jobs as it continues to grow under new ownership.
The insurance company has selected a 71-acre parcel of land at the southwest corner of Jordan Creek Parkway and Mills Civic Parkway for its $135 million to $150 million facility. That is directly south from several parcels of land that health insurer Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has acquired options on as it also searches for a new headquarters.
Christopher Littlefield, executive vice president of Aviva USA, said Wednesday that the company bypassed downtown sites because of the greater flexibility available with large tracts of undeveloped land in West Des Moines.
“There just wasn’t a good site offered to us in downtown Des Moines that accommodated our growth,” he said.
Littlefield said the project still needs to clear zoning approval from West Des Moines, and the company is awaiting to hear what incentives it would receive from the city and the state. The company has not yet made application for any aid, but Littlefield said it expects similar treatment that other financial service companies when expanding in the metro area.
Under standard incentives, West Des Moines would return part of Aviva’s property taxes back to it over five years. The amount rebated starts at 75 percent and drops 15 percent annually. A recent example of state incentives: Allied Insurance received $7.7 million forgivable loan when it expanded in downtown Des Moines.
Aviva hopes to start construction in 2008. Its headquarters are in leased space downtown in the Hub Tower, and it has employees spread across two other downtown buildings. Updated 2:44 pm

[NOG's Wife]

From the Des Moines Register:

Aviva picks WDM as new home
Aviva USA plans to build its new headquarters in West Des Moines, leaving downtown Des Moines but creating 400 new jobs as it continues to grow under new ownership.
The insurance company has selected a 71-acre parcel of land at the southwest corner of Jordan Creek Parkway and Mills Civic Parkway for its $135 million to $150 million facility. That is directly south from several parcels of land that health insurer Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has acquired options on as it also searches for a new headquarters.
Christopher Littlefield, executive vice president of Aviva USA, said Wednesday that the company bypassed downtown sites because of the greater flexibility available with large tracts of undeveloped land in West Des Moines.
“There just wasn’t a good site offered to us in downtown Des Moines that accommodated our growth,” he said.
Littlefield said the project still needs to clear zoning approval from West Des Moines, and the company is awaiting to hear what incentives it would receive from the city and the state. The company has not yet made application for any aid, but Littlefield said it expects similar treatment that other financial service companies when expanding in the metro area.
Under standard incentives, West Des Moines would return part of Aviva’s property taxes back to it over five years. The amount rebated starts at 75 percent and drops 15 percent annually. A recent example of state incentives: Allied Insurance received $7.7 million forgivable loan when it expanded in downtown Des Moines.
Aviva hopes to start construction in 2008. Its headquarters are in leased space downtown in the Hub Tower, and it has employees spread across two other downtown buildings. Updated 2:44 pm

Bummer. I'm not the one holding the purse strings, so I have no room to talk, but the comment that downtown doesn't provide growth opportunities kind of irks me. If they really wanted to stay downtown, they could have purchased a parcel of land and built a skyscraper.

[Better Life dude]

That's true. If you want to build downtown, you can find a way.

[Mastermind]

I wonder if this is the start to a WDM vs. DSM battle

[dogbo]

Shortsighted decision, but probably more expected than Wellmark. Hopefully they'll make the wise choice.

[BriGuy]

I pity Aviva. Des Moines cannot offer all the land for the great growth Aviva expects in the future. Apparently, Aviva does not want to build up to the sky, but would rather buy up countryside and turn productive corn fields into low-rise, sprawling complexes. Not only a blow to downtown DSM, but also to Iowa's greatest natural resource, its land. What progressive thinking, Aviva!

I'm sure Wellmark is thinking the same thing. Why go downtown when West DSM can offer more land. Yes, it will be interesting to see if Wellmark follows Aviva to the burbs and how it will justify any possible move out there. Let's hope Wellmark makes the right decision by not abandoning downtown.

[butters]

Dissapointing to say the least. My first choice for any sort of employer of this magnitude would be for them to move downtown. But, why is West Des Moines the ONLY other option for these types of employers? Why can't Ankeny, Altoona, or Pleasant Hill lure something like this?

[Mastermind]

If it is not in DSM WDM makes the most sense, especially with WFHM and the enormous amount of retail, food, and hotels.

[Better Life dude]

I was digging on the comments section from the Register on this story (there are a ton of great comments on the move). This comment from TruthTellerIowa just lept out at me. All I could think is that where's there's smoke there's fire. We know Gov. Culver is in bed with Bill Knapp - just how bad could it be? Hopefully we'll find out if the behind the scenes stuff has legs.

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:41 pm Post subject: I've had enough....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't believe the state would provide incentives. I work in state government and a buddy in the governor's offices said Gov. Big Lug just got rolled by his largest campaign donor. Bill Knapp is the development partner with Aviva and owns most of the land south of Jordan Creek. My buddy tells me the Register has sat on this story for days because a few important people needed to get their fingerprints off of it. Evidently, Knapp and Aviva have enough pull at the Register to decide what is news and when it is news. My buddy said look for some staff people to quit over this - it was the final straw that Culver is about politics and not principle and they do not want to work for him any longer.

Here is the kicker - tension has been high around Chet, because he couldn't find a way to say know to Knapp. Evidently, Knapp asked for over $20 million in state "aid" and Culver gave him every penny of it. He never even asked the State Economic Board of Advisors - all of which Mr. Culver recently appointed. This is the where the Aviva spokesperson didn't tell the whole truth. He said they had to wait to see what kind of package the state can put together. He knows exactly what the package is, and I bet we'll find out later it has already been in print. Government should not do business with these kind of people. The governor should at least say to Aviva that if they lie about the money the state is giving them, the ought to give it back. I'll bet we hear the state is in for over $20 million of our money.

I agree with everyone, if the state uses my tax money to move 880 jobs out of downtown des moines (or any city for that matter) into another neighboring city it will be last evidence I need that the democratic party and its leadership are bought and paid for. I thought my party was the party of the little guy - I guess it might just be the party of the little guy's money. And speaking simply of politics, why is the governor taking care of Dallas County, where he got beat, and ignoring Polk County where he won huge?

I can't imagine we haven't heard the last of this inside deal. For me, I am happy the city didn't get into this bidding war because it amounts to basic bribery.

Here's a link to the comments section of this story:
http://forums.dmregister.com/viewtopic.php?t=44184&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15&sid=49afbb388be21596fabf743210782225

[kissjrj]

"I thought my party (Democrat) was the party of the little guy."

Now, this gave me a good laugh.

[DMRyan]

I'm not buying into conspiracy theories just yet, as it seems to be representative of sour grapes more than anything.

I'm surprised by this announcement. Being able to not find a site downtown is a pretty hokey excuse. There's tons of available land to place a 360,000 sq. ft. headquarters, it just requires building in an urban fashion instead of a sprawling campus, and including a parking garage rather than a mass of surface lots. Instead of being a company that has a unique icon for their US headquarters in the form of a potential highrise, they'll have just another building that blends into the highway landscape. Might as well have R & R Realty's architect design the building too. West Des Moines landed one very big fish, and it comes at downtown's expense. That's the sad story behind all of this. It's not like this company didn't already have roots planted in downtown DSM. This truly could have been the feather in the cap of the downtown renaissance, even if the City of Des Moines would've given away the store to land the HQ.

The only positives I'm drawing out of this is that the employment base of this company should grow dramatically. Add another employer that will probably be adding 1,000+ employees to the metro to the collection. As Ingersoll1978 put it, better to have Aviva's headquarters in the Des Moines metro than the Boston surburbs.

Bad news for downtown proponents. I'm hoping a Wellmark decision confirming their stay downtown can help take some of the sting off of this.

[Mastermind]

register postings should be banned from this site. They are the best example of what is wrong with public message boards.

[DMRyan]

Some of the crazies that post at the Register site would probably say the same of most of us on this board.

[Better Life dude]

I would agree that Register posters are 99% crazy. In spite of knowing that, the one I copied to this site lept out at me as being pretty well reasoned. It was only his second post and he mentions he got his information from someone he knows in the Governors' office.

Sorry about being a conspiracy theorist. I guess I just want to belive that money handouts ruled the day and that's the reason and not "because we couldn't find a suitable space downtown"

[Ingersoll1978]

As Ingersoll1978 put it, better to have Aviva's headquarters in the Des Moines metro than the Boston surburbs.

Downtown Des Moines will be fine without Aviva. With Principal's 1,000 employee expansion and Allied's new jobs...there will be plenty of new employees working in Downtown Des Moines. 600 jobs is really a drop in the bucket of an employment center of over 75,000. Although I wish they were staying Downtown, we should be thankful that Aviva chose Central Iowa as their "home".

When I heard the news...I couldn't believe it. With all the positive changes occuring Downtown, it just wouldn't make sense to leave while it was getting even better. Wellmark better not dissapoint us with their announcement.

[Keepgrowingdsm]

135-150 million for only a 365,000 square foot building? Heck, I'll build it for a mere 100 million if they'd like!!! Seriously, I would expect them to eventually transfer a lot of people into DSM from the East Coast and make this new campus very large someday. I'm in agreement that downtown could have provided a nice spot for some beautiful mid rise buildings in a campus like setting. Do any of you remember a few months ago when word first got out about Aviva and Wellmark looking at WDM? The DSM city manager said "It's only a matter of time before the next big project comes along." Maybe there is something even bigger lurking on the horizon they are going after? At least Aviva is here and not Boston!

[DMRyan]

360,000 sq. ft. is the same size as the latest downtown Wells Fargo Building. Eight stories sitting on half of a block. Add another block for a parking garage, and there are several sites to choose from downtown. Northern Gateway, south of downtown, south of MLK, north downtown, possibly the convention center site if there are no other plans for it.

While the number of jobs Aviva has in downtown may be small in comparison to the grand total, the fact that this is a rapidly growing company that is building a headquarters here causes this to hit home more than anything else. Even more worse is the black eye this gives downtown, despite all of the other positives happening there.

[Better Life dude]

I was watching Channel 8 news tonight and in their Aviva coverage they mentioned the move to West Des Moines needs state and local approval. I wonder what the state approval would consist of? I don't think Aviva will have a problem with the West Des Moines city council - such as it is.

[wmjindsm]

Just an observation, not a known fact but I was on a flight with one of the top guys from Aviva (he was one of the original Aviva's from England) back in March and it seemed like he would rather been in a city that had direct flight status to many cities. He had to fly a lot (to England, Florida, Boston) and always had to get a connecting flight.

[lunksmoo]

After my first reaction of disappointment at Aviva not selecting a downtown location for their headquarters, I have realized it is still great news that the world's 5th largest insurer still wants to make their U.S. headquarters home in metro Des Moines, Iowa.

On a more selfish wish, I would only hope that a new large project would have a high-rise office built in West Des Moines some time, and not have another atrocious office building low-rise campus like Wells Fargo Mortgage built south of Jordan Creek Mall. With them purchasing 71 acres though, it appears they too (Aviva) will build something that looks more like a junior college campus than a financial company's headquarters.

[NOG]

Any guesses on the color scheme for these new buildings. I am going to guess beige with darker accents of beige.

[DMRyan]

Some of the poster's on the Register's discussion forum are still talking about space not being able to be found downtown. Some people think that Aviva would need 71 acres if they built downtown, just like they do out west. This isn't difficult to grasp, this whole project could be built on a block and a half with a parking garage. God forbid, companies ever choose to build up here like in downtowns with high valued land costs. The notion that every corporate location needs a shovel ready parking lot site to build on must be an Iowan notion.

Building downtown isn't the easiest or cheapest route, but the fact is, it's the one that makes the largest impact on the whole metro, particularly in regards to it's image. There's a prestige of locating downtown that this large, isolated campus will never achieve and it's all based on location.

[Ankeny Husker Freak]

I have realized it is still great news that the world's 5th largest insurer still wants to make their U.S. headquarters home in metro Des Moines, Iowa.

and that's all what really matters.

[MR. Ruan]

Although I'm dissapointed with Aviva's decision I will only make one complaint. Why does the Register have to put a negative spin on everything? In some ways I feel as though they add to the negative image Des Moines has over its suburbs. Basicaly, rather than the headline read, "Aviva will make its headquarters in West Des Moines and add 400 jobs to the metro", the headline is" DSM loses 800 jobs to West Des Moines". They are more concerned with driving home that Des Moines loses again than anything else.

Sorry, just my two cents.

[kissjrj]

But, is not the same tilt of attitude (bias) present here in most posts?
Hmm, I wonder what it is that DM Register editors and some of our cohorts here have in common when it comes to the "burbs?" Hmm.

JS

[dogbo]

But, is not the same tilt of attitude (bias) present here in most posts?
Hmm, I wonder what it is that DM Register editors and some of our cohorts here have in common when it comes to the "burbs?" Hmm.

JS

What are you implying?

[Ankeny Husker Freak]

But, is not the same tilt of attitude (bias) present here in most posts?
Hmm, I wonder what it is that DM Register editors and some of our cohorts here have in common when it comes to the "burbs?" Hmm.

JS

What are you implying?

Let me guess, Des Moines=good; suburbs=bad

[Young DSM Social Club]

Well, my two cents is I think it is wrong the state would ever give tax subsidies that resulted in another city losing part of its tax base (I realize they apparently owned no buildings, but clearly DSM is suffering an economic loss). This isn't like luring a company from another state. The whole thing leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth (although my sense was they wouldn't stay downtown).

It's sad how many leaders just make this town lame - it's not like downtown DSM is some enormous place you can't get in and out of. We are still a small city - any growth downtown shouldn't be a problem for many years in any capacity. Losing something to the suburbs in a city our size just doesn't make any sense to me unless other factors that should not be a factor somehow became a factor.

[kissjrj]

"Losing something to the suburbs in a city our size just doesn't make any sense to me unless other factors that should not be a factor somehow became a factor."


Nope, no bias there whatsoever. Losing to the burbs has to mean someone cheated! Oh, the injustice!! Because, it just doesn't make sense. Anyone can see it, right? It is so obvious as to be an accepted premise. Downtown=sensible. Suburbs=insane. Doesn't everyone know that?

[speeder]

Meet Aviva's new call center workforce.