Following CZB’s review of the city’s existing neighborhood revitalization efforts and a set of recommended changes, the City asked CZB to prepare four new neighborhood plans that would put the revised citywide neighborhood strategy into action and serve as models for a new way of doing neighborhood planning.
Effective revitalization meant targeting resources deliberately, not spreading them evenly. Des Moines chose a “middle neighborhoods” approach: focusing investment on areas that were vulnerable to decline but still genuinely recoverable, an approach gaining renewed attention nationally as cities look to stabilize housing markets and tax bases with limited resources. Each targeted area would become what the city calls a Special Investment District, or SID, built around resident leadership development, neighborhood brand strengthening, and strategic housing and capital improvements.
CZB developed plans for the four original Special Investment Districts, working in parallel with the design and establishment of a new nonprofit, Invest DSM, to lead the revitalization work those plans called for. Invest DSM opened its doors in 2019, backed by a $50 million funding commitment from the City of Des Moines and Polk County. In the summer of 2024, Invest DSM invited CZB back to craft plans for two additional Special Investment Districts, Union Park and North of Grand/Woodland Heights, which were completed and adopted in early 2025, bringing the total to six neighborhoods under the model.
In its first year alone, Invest DSM organized Block Challenge projects in each of the four original neighborhoods, where 240 neighbors worked together in small groups to jointly improve their properties, investing a total of $1.1 million. Invest DSM also provided loan funds for 19 large home renovation projects and began real estate development activity to strengthen the local market, acquiring 18 properties for rehab or demolition. With two more Special Investment District plans now adopted, that same model is carrying forward into two additional neighborhoods.
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