Ep40 Looking at Urbandale in a New Light with Aaron DeJong

[00:00:00] When you're talking with a business owner, if everything stays the same, there's really no wiggle room. Whereas on the land development side of things, things need to change and look at properties in a different light to see different values in those different values and what you want to build and also different values from dollars and cents. Still on point.

[00:00:15] From cornfields to high rises, office to industrial, houses to hotels, and every other asset class in real estate, we cover the people, the projects, and the profit. Welcome to the Investing in Iowa Show.

[00:00:28] This show is for go-doers, action takers, and business owners. It's for people like you who are sick of Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of your apple. If you're looking to get ahead of what's taking place in Iowa, learn who is doing what and how you can get in on the action. You're in the right place.

[00:00:46] Hosted by Neil Timmins, an Iowa native who has been involved in over $300 million in real estate right here in Iowa. Recording in studio from West Des Moines. Here's your host, Neil Timmins.

[00:01:00] I've got Aaron DeJong here on the show. Aaron, welcome.

[00:01:02] Hey, thank you for having me.

[00:01:04] Excited to be here. Say, for the audience's sake, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

[00:01:06] Oh, great. Thanks, Neil. I'm Aaron DeJong. I'm the Economic Development Director with the City of Urbandale, but my favorite job is being a husband and dad to my three kids.

[00:01:15] Yeah.

[00:01:16] Tell me, how did you get into that line of work there at Urbandale?

[00:01:20] Great. So, Economic Development, not everybody's going into it. It's not one of you you think of when you're coming out of high school.

[00:01:27] So, I grew up in Newton, just down the road. And I learned early on when I was in college that having a non-diversified community from an economic and job standpoint can be really devastating to where the trajectory of a community is going.

[00:01:44] So, that caught into my attention while in college and thought, you know, this is something that maybe I can do. Think on the business side, also on the community development side.

[00:01:54] So, got my graduate degree in city planning and then up to Dubuque to start cutting my teeth.

[00:02:01] Sure.

[00:02:01] So, seven years up there working on downtown redevelopment efforts there, industrial park developments because the city did a lot of the grading and infrastructure for new industrial parks out there.

[00:02:12] So, learned a lot and then got the itch to find new pastures.

[00:02:17] And so, we moved out to Colorado for seven years.

[00:02:19] Oh, okay.

[00:02:20] Yeah.

[00:02:21] And so, when were you in Dubuque? Roughly what year?

[00:02:25] Went there the summer of 2006.

[00:02:27] Okay.

[00:02:28] Through the spring of 2012.

[00:02:30] I mean, there's been dramatic changes in that downtown.

[00:02:32] Yes.

[00:02:33] The layout and the way it looks and feels as you go through there.

[00:02:37] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:02:37] So, you know, some of my favorite projects to work on were the Rorschach building where IBM invested there.

[00:02:44] So, I was working for the nonprofit that did that project as a city staff person.

[00:02:49] We were kind of the contracted staff.

[00:02:50] Yeah.

[00:02:50] And then the historic Millwork District, that master planning and redo of the Millwork buildings there right on the east side of downtown, right along the river.

[00:02:59] It was a lot of fun to learn that as a young pup.

[00:03:02] That's for sure.

[00:03:02] I think it's beautiful there.

[00:03:04] You come in there.

[00:03:04] You got long hills down the river.

[00:03:06] Yes.

[00:03:06] It is a pretty area.

[00:03:08] Yes.

[00:03:09] My bicycle loved that area as well.

[00:03:11] Yeah.

[00:03:11] All right.

[00:03:12] So, you take your bicycle, you train it in for hills, and you go out to mountains in Colorado.

[00:03:15] Yeah.

[00:03:16] Yeah.

[00:03:16] A little longer hills.

[00:03:16] Yeah.

[00:03:17] That's for sure.

[00:03:17] Yeah.

[00:03:18] Yeah.

[00:03:18] How long are we out there?

[00:03:19] Where were you?

[00:03:20] Yeah.

[00:03:20] Lewisville, Colorado.

[00:03:21] So, a community right outside of Boulder in the Denver metro area on the north side there.

[00:03:26] So, it was a community of 18,000 folks and had the opportunity to serve as their economic development director out there.

[00:03:34] It's different, certainly, from the job creation expansion opportunities there, downtown redevelopment parts.

[00:03:40] We had a great downtown, which didn't need a whole lot of redevelopment, but certainly you always kind of want to kind of grow the pie.

[00:03:45] Sure.

[00:03:46] Opportunities.

[00:03:47] Retail.

[00:03:47] I started to learn how the retail side of things worked.

[00:03:51] Because it was an important revenue stream for the communities out there, which is different than here in Iowa.

[00:03:57] I would imagine you have to be able to put your business hat on and give thought to what are the cards that have been dealt, right?

[00:04:06] And play those cards.

[00:04:08] So, some communities, as you said, retail is a stronger avenue.

[00:04:12] And other communities, there's another driver.

[00:04:14] Right.

[00:04:15] Right.

[00:04:15] Yeah.

[00:04:15] In Iowa, certainly, the importance is to have those primary employers, those wealth generators in the community to employ the citizens there and then kind of really start to cycle those dollars that are coming in from outside in.

[00:04:28] It's just really important to make sure that that doesn't get really damaged in a significant way because it can really start to stop the pump from going.

[00:04:38] Yeah.

[00:04:38] Yeah.

[00:04:39] Diversity in the jobs and having those people there, it's a multitude of benefits as it comes in.

[00:04:46] Absolutely.

[00:04:46] Can't disagree.

[00:04:48] So, sooner or later, you get called home to Iowa.

[00:04:50] Yeah.

[00:04:51] I mean, we went out to Colorado with one child.

[00:04:53] We came back with three.

[00:04:54] Yeah.

[00:04:54] It was time, I like to say it shortly, that I wanted my kids to say that they were Iowans.

[00:05:00] Yeah.

[00:05:00] And you can't do that when they spend their entire life in Colorado.

[00:05:03] Yeah.

[00:05:04] That's fair.

[00:05:04] We just wanted that Iowa ethic to be in them.

[00:05:07] And there's just no better place to do that than coming back home and doing that.

[00:05:13] So, you came here, took the role, had everything.

[00:05:16] Yeah.

[00:05:16] So, I was hired as the assistant director to start off with.

[00:05:20] And then, everybody got comfortable with me and so moved into the director role a couple

[00:05:24] of years ago.

[00:05:25] How would you define the role of economic development?

[00:05:27] Well, that's a great question.

[00:05:29] Kind of the elevator speech.

[00:05:30] I try to come to my position and what I do for businesses and investors and developers

[00:05:35] and property owners in town is to be their concierge in City Hall for the business community.

[00:05:42] I like to say businesses know how to run their businesses, but they don't necessarily

[00:05:46] know how to navigate City Hall.

[00:05:47] Sure.

[00:05:47] So, I'm that guy to help guide them through that.

[00:05:50] Know just a little bit.

[00:05:51] I know a little bit about a lot of things.

[00:05:53] And to be able to ask the right questions, to play translator when it comes to challenges

[00:05:59] and figure out solutions that don't necessarily fit the typical mold so that there's a win-win

[00:06:04] at the end of the day.

[00:06:05] What's new in Urbandale?

[00:06:07] What's new in Urbandale?

[00:06:08] Well, a new comprehensive plan that the city council approved at the end of last year.

[00:06:12] It's called our Forward Urbandale Plan.

[00:06:14] It's really a pretty transformational document that kind of gives us new opportunities to

[00:06:20] grow our community.

[00:06:21] And looking at land use types that we normally didn't.

[00:06:26] So, really thinking about putting multifamily in more places.

[00:06:30] It wasn't the past in Urbandale.

[00:06:32] Looking at mixed use opportunities, trying to find that diversity from the commercial

[00:06:37] types as well, rather than the way it was in the 80s and 90s of doing office park development.

[00:06:44] It's like it's employees and business owners, they want things outside their front door.

[00:06:49] And we've got to evolve our areas by building new or by rehabbing existing or by starting

[00:06:56] all over to try to achieve that placemaking that it's easy to say, but hard to get.

[00:07:01] No doubt.

[00:07:02] So, figuring that kind of Urbandale style.

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[00:07:46] Give me a couple of locations through Urbandale and maybe some spots that are most significantly

[00:07:50] impacted by some of these changes.

[00:07:52] Well, I think first and foremost would be the Urban Loop area.

[00:07:55] That's been a really growth part for our community.

[00:07:58] That's the 8035 corridor that bends right there on the northwest side of the metro.

[00:08:04] It's, as you know, you can get anywhere really quickly right there.

[00:08:08] And so, whether you're a business, whether you're a trucker, whether you're a resident,

[00:08:12] it's just everything kind of works smoothly in that area and makes decision-making easy

[00:08:17] on where you want to locate.

[00:08:18] And so, that area was typically, was originally thought of, let's have that be office development.

[00:08:24] That was the way everyone was operating and that has changed a little bit.

[00:08:29] Right.

[00:08:29] You don't want to go into the details of that because everybody knows it.

[00:08:31] Right.

[00:08:32] And so, we wanted to, through this comprehensive plan, say what would be the pivot in that.

[00:08:40] And so, particularly along North Park Drive and along Plum Drive at the Hunter Street Interchange,

[00:08:45] which was opened in 2018, have that be, allow for more uses.

[00:08:49] You know, think about where could residential be a really good tool to build other use types.

[00:08:55] Sure.

[00:08:55] Put retail where it needs to be.

[00:08:57] It needs to be on the hard corner.

[00:08:58] Let's not force it into other spots.

[00:09:01] You know, offices, we're going to have some time to fill up what's existing that went vacant during the pandemic

[00:09:08] and, you know, is waiting for Class A office single-user buildings for the long haul.

[00:09:14] Sure.

[00:09:14] The right thing.

[00:09:14] So, this new comprehensive plan is saying, no, let's look at placemaking and looking at multiple use types

[00:09:21] within an area to create something different that isn't in our community today.

[00:09:26] We've got some older sections of Urbandale as well, right?

[00:09:29] That kind of that, the downtown.

[00:09:31] I use that slightly in quote-unquote.

[00:09:33] Right.

[00:09:34] Yes.

[00:09:34] Because it has a different feel than other, some of the soap market downtown.

[00:09:38] Yeah.

[00:09:38] Yeah.

[00:09:39] Our downtown Urbandale or where the community began was at 70th and Douglas or just south of there

[00:09:43] where the commuter train came up from downtown Des Moines and then looped right there at just south of 70th and Douglas.

[00:09:52] So, it was, you know, small businesses, you're kind of starting up.

[00:09:55] That's where the first school was at right down the street, City Hall.

[00:09:59] And so, it was kind of the center, but it was also a very small center for Urbandale in the early 1920s, 1930s.

[00:10:06] Then it really became that auto corridor, 1940s, 50s.

[00:10:10] We were trying to figure out how this car thing was going to work out almost.

[00:10:14] And so, it was a really important area for our community for many decades.

[00:10:19] And it just, with other areas popping in the rest of the metro and being easy to get around the interstate.

[00:10:27] Right.

[00:10:27] We always have to remember, like, you know, Des Moines used to not have an interstate.

[00:10:31] Correct.

[00:10:32] Absolutely right.

[00:10:32] And downtown Urbandale is one of those great examples of, you know, that was Maine and Maine.

[00:10:36] Like, that was Old Six.

[00:10:37] That's right.

[00:10:38] That went through town.

[00:10:39] It was a major corridor.

[00:10:41] And, you know, there's been a lack of investment over the last couple decades because of other areas that have grown and created more competition.

[00:10:49] The city council and this new comprehensive plan that they approved, a real focus of looking inward back to those neighborhoods so that they remain strong and create new positive momentum through rehabilitation, through revitalization, infrastructure investments,

[00:11:08] incentives, making it easy for folks to, or easier to look at properties in a different light to see new opportunities.

[00:11:17] I'm curious because Des Moines has so many suburbs, does that make what you do more difficult?

[00:11:24] Does it make it easier in some regards?

[00:11:26] I don't think it's harder or easier.

[00:11:28] There's just so many different flavors, which I think is a good thing.

[00:11:32] Sure.

[00:11:32] You know, mentioned earlier, having diversity is an important thing.

[00:11:35] Right.

[00:11:36] And we have those in our communities too.

[00:11:38] Like, it's kind of cool coming back with a little bit of fresh eyes to the Des Moines metro.

[00:11:43] And it's like, we have downtown Des Moines, which is, you know, that's the central business district.

[00:11:48] No one would dispute that.

[00:11:51] But then we've got all these nice little areas that have their own flavor.

[00:11:55] So East Village is one of those, you know, Beaverdale, Uptown Ankeny, Prairie Trail with a new development, Ingersoll and Grand.

[00:12:04] We want downtown Urbandale to be in that category of these cool little areas that you go and spend a great evening with.

[00:12:13] Or, you know, my guilty or the success point for me, which is easy to say but hard to achieve is if you and your wife are going out to dinner and you say, where should we go?

[00:12:25] I want them to say, let's go downtown Urbandale rather than let's go to that restaurant in this area.

[00:12:30] Right.

[00:12:31] Like, have it be a known destination and figure it out on the way.

[00:12:35] It is going to be wonderful to see this thing.

[00:12:38] As we spoke before you jumped on the microphone is, you know, my wife and I are our first home was just on 67th and Douglas.

[00:12:44] Oh, yeah.

[00:12:44] And so I remember, I love the area and I remember exactly what that was like.

[00:12:50] And to see, you know, that kind of section and corridor take shape and where you guys have laid out as a vision for this, it's going to be fantastic.

[00:12:58] Yeah.

[00:12:59] Yeah.

[00:12:59] Where we just kicked off a master plan effort to figure out that what do we want it to be when it grows up and how are we going to get there?

[00:13:08] How are we going to be strategic in our investments, strategic in our assistance, strategic in, you know, how we approve and get things through the process to create that change?

[00:13:20] What was the genesis of this new vision?

[00:13:23] Why now?

[00:13:23] Well, certainly previous comprehensive plan was approved in 2003, 2004.

[00:13:29] It was time for a refresh and looking through it.

[00:13:32] It's like, this is time for a rewrite.

[00:13:34] And so that was over a year process to go through that.

[00:13:38] And, you know, through all the public engagement that we did and hearing from residents, hearing from property owners.

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[00:14:17] Staff, you know, we're in the trenches.

[00:14:19] You know, we kind of get a feel for where things are going.

[00:14:23] We knew that we needed a new North Arrow to pivot towards where development is going.

[00:14:30] So, we're running alongside that.

[00:14:33] That's the now.

[00:14:34] That's why we needed to look at things again.

[00:14:39] And so, North Park and Plum in the Urban Loop, that was certainly a focus area.

[00:14:44] We talked about downtown.

[00:14:45] And the third would be Douglas Avenue or Parkway, whichever part of the Douglas you're on.

[00:14:50] Because that's the main arterial road that runs all the way through our community.

[00:14:54] And so, kind of the third focus area in our comp plan is making Douglas Urbandale's Main Street.

[00:15:00] And it's got, if you can go on your mind's eye and start driving all of Douglas, like it changes several times.

[00:15:07] And so, how can we create a theme?

[00:15:09] How can we create places along there so that folks know if they're on Douglas, they know they're in Urbandale.

[00:15:15] You know, Ray Gun's got the t-shirt where, you know, Urbandale, we don't know our boundaries.

[00:15:21] Because it's this amoeba-like shape that Urbandale has grown through annexations and other communities growing at the same time.

[00:15:28] So, you know, it's hard to know right when you left Urbandale or coming into it.

[00:15:34] But if you're on Douglas, the goal is you know you're in Urbandale.

[00:15:37] Yeah.

[00:15:38] Urbandale landlocked at this point?

[00:15:39] Absolutely not.

[00:15:40] No?

[00:15:41] No.

[00:15:41] We have, we will be marching west with our friends in Waukee and our friends in Grimes for a lot of years.

[00:15:48] We've got intergovernmental agreement to work with that together.

[00:15:52] So, we'll be marching west as we go.

[00:15:54] So, we go all the way out to 180th Street, which is Warrior Lane for folks in Waukee.

[00:16:00] So, we'll keep going there.

[00:16:02] Yeah.

[00:16:03] That's great.

[00:16:04] As you look forward to 2025 next year, what are you most excited about?

[00:16:08] Well, I'm excited to see the changes in our regulations that we'll be going through these master planning efforts and implementing the comprehensive plan.

[00:16:18] You know, change creates opportunities.

[00:16:20] Sure.

[00:16:20] I kind of, kind of a change agent.

[00:16:23] I like to see those because, you know, when you're talking with the business owner, if everything stays the same, there's really no wiggle room.

[00:16:29] Right.

[00:16:29] Whereas on the land development side of things, things need to change and look at properties in a different light to see different values in those.

[00:16:38] Different values in what you want to build and also different values from dollars and cents.

[00:16:42] So, point for work.

[00:16:42] And so, that's what this new Forward Room Dale plan, the comprehensive plan is pointing towards.

[00:16:49] Aaron, you ready for the final three questions?

[00:16:51] Sure.

[00:16:51] Let's do it.

[00:16:52] If you had one piece of advice for your 20-year-old self, what would it be?

[00:16:56] Oh, my gosh.

[00:16:57] You should have gave me these beforehand.

[00:16:58] Ha ha.

[00:16:59] Oh, they only get harder.

[00:17:02] Oh, my 20-year-old self.

[00:17:04] I should have treated college as an eight to five.

[00:17:06] I should have really driven that in.

[00:17:09] I got through it.

[00:17:10] We had a lot of fun.

[00:17:11] Yeah.

[00:17:12] You could have done a little better.

[00:17:14] She was like, she was stuck to the library a little more, Aaron.

[00:17:17] Like, that's a theme for most of them.

[00:17:18] Yeah.

[00:17:19] Two books that changed your life.

[00:17:21] Oh, boy.

[00:17:22] Well, you know, I've been reading the Bible a little bit.

[00:17:25] That's certainly one.

[00:17:26] I know it's kind of an easy answer, but there's a lot of great, all the lessons are in there.

[00:17:34] No doubt.

[00:17:34] No doubt.

[00:17:36] It's amazing how you can read something and you can just put the 21st century spin on it and it still applies.

[00:17:42] Yeah.

[00:17:43] As for the other one, it's actually, this is dumb.

[00:17:46] It was my urban economics textbook.

[00:17:49] Like, when I was going, I went to UNI in undergrad and I thought I was going to be a business teacher.

[00:17:53] And I had my first field experience.

[00:17:56] I was in the classroom.

[00:17:57] Yeah.

[00:17:58] And it was ninth grade keyboarding at Waterloo West.

[00:18:02] Okay.

[00:18:02] I'm so glad I did that.

[00:18:04] And it told me I should not be a teacher.

[00:18:07] Yeah.

[00:18:07] And so, you know, I started, I jumped into the economics classes just because it was exciting.

[00:18:12] And then the urban economics book kind of, you know, why do cities build the way they do?

[00:18:17] And it just started like, oh my gosh, this is why the coders at SimCity did it the way they did it.

[00:18:23] You know, it was, lots of light bulbs went off.

[00:18:26] It's like, okay.

[00:18:27] All the pieces in the puzzle came together.

[00:18:28] That was like the career choice book.

[00:18:31] Even when we moved twice since then, my bride, she's always like, why do we have this book still?

[00:18:37] I was like, I'm probably never going to open it again.

[00:18:40] But every time I see it, it's like, ah, that was the one.

[00:18:44] That was the one.

[00:18:44] Yeah.

[00:18:45] Yeah.

[00:18:45] If you were cast away on an island for a year, you could only get three pieces of data every month about your business.

[00:18:52] You can define your business however you like.

[00:18:54] What three things must you know every month?

[00:18:57] Oh.

[00:19:00] The property transactions in the community.

[00:19:03] Yeah.

[00:19:03] That's one.

[00:19:04] You said three?

[00:19:05] Yeah.

[00:19:06] Oh boy.

[00:19:06] The interest rate, like getting that, understanding the curve, where it's going, where people are thinking it's going.

[00:19:13] Yeah.

[00:19:13] Because it just plays so much in values and everything like that and understanding where-

[00:19:17] What's coming down the pipeline.

[00:19:18] Yeah.

[00:19:19] It's crazy how things start to move there and how the phone rings.

[00:19:23] Yeah.

[00:19:24] Because others are looking at that one too.

[00:19:26] Sure.

[00:19:26] Sure.

[00:19:27] Oh, third one.

[00:19:29] You qualified it on business.

[00:19:31] But if I could see the golf scores, like what was going on, that would be one.

[00:19:37] That sounds good to me.

[00:19:38] Yeah.

[00:19:38] Yeah.

[00:19:38] Thanks for getting me off the hook.

[00:19:39] Third one.

[00:19:40] That would be hard.

[00:19:41] I'll get back to you on that one.

[00:19:43] Those are fantastic answers.

[00:19:44] I'd love the interest you want to know that picks up that measurably in your world.

[00:19:48] I've asked you lots of questions.

[00:19:50] What's one question I did not ask that I should have asked?

[00:19:53] What is one question?

[00:19:55] Well, I think one of the questions is kind of like, how do you see the Des Moines Metro performing over the next 10, 15 years?

[00:20:04] Let's do it.

[00:20:04] Yeah.

[00:20:05] Because, yes, I work for one of the communities in town, but we're all in this big fight together.

[00:20:11] Right.

[00:20:11] Like, we do a really good job as economic development practitioners to work together.

[00:20:17] Like, we know that we're not going to go to Cupertino or anywhere and say, hey, come to Urbandale, Iowa.

[00:20:24] It's just not going to sell well.

[00:20:26] We need to hook all of our arms together and sell the area.

[00:20:32] Yes.

[00:20:33] Once we get that, then it's, hey, let's have our friendly competition.

[00:20:36] But we know that we've got to do that.

[00:20:38] And so, when businesses come to our area and they're kicking the tires, we get the feedback frequently.

[00:20:47] Like, this was refreshing.

[00:20:49] So, we're on the community and the government side.

[00:20:52] We're doing our part.

[00:20:53] We know that we're just one piece of it.

[00:20:55] Cities don't build themselves.

[00:20:58] Right.

[00:20:58] We need our friends and the development community to do that with our opinions and our guidance.

[00:21:05] And so, looking at the Des Moines metro, I see a really – I mean, there's going to be bumps along the way.

[00:21:12] But just the diversification that we have here with the manufacturing, with the banking, with the finance.

[00:21:17] I'm going to miss a whole bunch of other strategic and targeted industries.

[00:21:21] But where one might see a low, we're going to see others in high.

[00:21:26] Rather than being all tied into a couple key industries, if they both fall at the one time, we could be in real trouble.

[00:21:33] So, seeing that, just that very steady Eddie for the Des Moines metro.

[00:21:38] But we're outpacing all of our compatriots in the Midwest, which is exciting.

[00:21:42] And I don't see that changing.

[00:21:43] There's a lot to like here.

[00:21:45] Yep.

[00:21:46] No mountains, no oceans.

[00:21:47] But we've got some quality of life things that we can really be proud of.

[00:21:53] Yeah, for sure.

[00:21:54] Yep.

[00:21:54] Well, you're just an airplane right away from anything you want to see.

[00:21:59] Yeah.

[00:21:59] And with the new airport, with the new gates and stuff, we're going to have even more.

[00:22:03] Yes.

[00:22:03] Which will be great.

[00:22:04] Yeah, it's going to be good.

[00:22:05] Aaron, I really appreciate you taking the time to come in here.

[00:22:08] I've certainly learned some things.

[00:22:09] For people, they want to find you.

[00:22:11] They want to follow you.

[00:22:11] They want to connect with you.

[00:22:12] Where can they go?

[00:22:13] What should they do?

[00:22:13] Oh, well, certainly all my information is out on the city's website to be able to reach

[00:22:17] me.

[00:22:18] And everybody's got a LinkedIn.

[00:22:19] It's right there.

[00:22:20] So just come and ping me.

[00:22:23] We'll drop some likes below in the show notes for everybody.

[00:22:25] Aaron, I appreciate you being here.

[00:22:26] Yeah, thanks so much.

[00:22:27] Thanks for listening.

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