Ankeny's Growth Has 'Gone Crazy'

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The corners at Ankeny Boulevard and NW 36th Street --- at this city's northern edge --- are for the most part flat with the exception of a Casey's General Store, but development is rumbling.

Mercy Health Clinic recently broke ground on its third Ankeny location kitty corner from the convenience store and Ankeny's new Centennial High School is within view. Iowa Methodist Medical Center owns the bare ground across Ankeny Boulevard and Story Construction is working on Ankeny's Elementary School 10 to the west on NW 36th Street.

“It's gone crazy,” said Debbie Jetmund, of the city's growth. Jetmund served as a volunteer for the recent June Affair, a senior expo that drew 100s.

Jetmund said it used to be that people wanted to move away from small towns like Ankeny, but now the growing Des Moines suburb town has turned into the place that people were looking for when they left home.

About 8,000 of Ankeny's 46,000 residents were 55 and older in 2010, according to US Census data.

Jetmund said Ankeny's older set are staying put as they age but younger people are calling the Des Moines suburb home too. The median age of the town is almost 32, according to the latest census.

Jetmund moved away from her Ankeny hometown in 1978 when the town's population was 11,000. Today it's closer to 48,000.

“Houses are selling like hotcakes,” Jetmund said.

Ankeny issued 639 single family building permits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. Almost 90 of those were issued this past June, according to a recent building permit report.

The third Mercy Clinic will open on the Ankeny Boulevard and NW 36th Street corner in January 2014 with three doctors with room to expand, allowing more of Ankeny's new residents to stay in town when making trips to see their doctor.

“Ankeny has been very prosperous these last few years and we've done quite a few groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings for new companies that have come in,” Ankeny Mayor Gary Lorenz said the clinic's ceremony. "We've been very healthy in that aspect.”