Jodi’s Journal: Des Moines delivers takeaways for Sioux Falls leaders

June 22, 2025

Work in government — at any level — and you sometimes can’t help but get caught up in the drama of it all.

I suppose that’s true in any workplace to some degree, but I certainly felt it working in local government almost 15 years ago, and I suspect it hasn’t changed much. There’s always a blend of competing priorities and organizational challenges combined with political motivations that are less than helpful.

When that would happen, I’d always remind myself that if I were to drive a few hours in any direction, whatever I was dealing with would be entirely off the collective radar. It helped me not to get stuck in the proverbial bubble and to put whatever I was dealing with in a broader perspective.

But while the players and priorities of municipalities may vary, the dynamics they experience often are relatable. Cities deal with many of the same issues, albeit on different scales, and often are willing to share best practices and challenges with one another.

So when I heard that a group of Sioux Falls community leaders, organized by the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and including Mayor Paul TenHaken, spent some time in Des Moines recently to learn from its community leaders, I wanted to know what the takeaways were.

“Sioux Falls, in my opinion, is Des Moines 30 years ago,” TenHaken told me.

The Des Moines metro area is approaching 800,000 people. The Sioux Falls metro area could reach 500,000 by 2050, for comparison. But beyond the numbers, TenHaken really was talking about regionalization.

The Des Moines region encompasses 12 counties, for instance. Our Sioux Falls metro area started with four — Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties — but has stretched to five with the addition of Rock County, Minnesota.

Much of the Sioux Falls visit centered around the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which is an economic and community development organization that strives to drive economic growth, talent development and quality of life “with one voice, one mission and as one region,” according to its mission statement.

In addition to 12 counties, it includes more than 400 investors and an affiliate Chamber of Commerce network with more than 6,700 regional business members.

“That’s really what we’ve got to start doing is start thinking of greater Sioux Falls metro,” TenHaken said. “The (Greater Des Moines) Partnership is like the parent organization that leads the metro initiatives, the big initiatives, so they become the big player. And that’s what we’re kind of missing is the entity that brings all these groups together.”

When the community sought to expand its convention center — sound familiar? — the Greater Des Moines Partnership was the lead entity driving it, he said.

When homelessness emerged as a more acute challenge in recent years, “the business community saw it, and the business and philanthropic community formed a group and put together a coalition and started to address it,” TenHaken said. “The city was involved, but it wasn’t led by the city. In so many things, it appears they don’t wait for the city to lead on anything, and that’s different here.”

There’s power in working collectively, whether in business and workforce attraction or marketing the metro area, he added.

“Des Moines has discovered that, and it gave them a leg up,” he said. “They’ve discovered the power of regionalism and collaboration, and that’s how they’re dealing with growth problems.”

That said, Sioux Falls also should reflect on areas where we appear to be outperforming our neighbor to the east.

The Sioux Falls group walked throughout downtown Des Moines and saw firsthand the commercial vacancy the community is experiencing. Office vacancy in the central business district jumped from 14 percent to 22 percent in 2024 as Wells Fargo vacated its downtown offices for a campus in West Des Moines. There’s an undisclosed buyer for the downtown property, but for now, “you compare our downtown commercial and retail vacancies to theirs, and it’s night and day,” TenHaken said.

“I walked past a whole block where the entire first-floor retail — the entire block — was all vacant.”

It was a good reminder to continue investing in everything it takes to create an appealing downtown — from road infrastructure to public safety to parking to public art.

At the same time, I agree the biggest lesson is about what happens as growth gets farther and farther away from the core of the city.

It’s too easy for silos to be built, limited power to be clutched and self-interests to dominate as metro areas grow. I hope those in a position to prevent it here show the leadership necessary to harness our collective strength for the greater good.

The post Jodi’s Journal: Des Moines delivers takeaways for Sioux Falls leaders appeared first on SiouxFalls.Business.