Des Moines, Iowa

The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.

The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.

At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.

Des Moines's largest landholders are public: the City (parks, right of way, the airport land), the State (the Capitol complex and highway right of way), Polk County (the Events Center blocks and conservation land), the Water Works and the school district. All are exempt and carried at $0, so the public estate cannot be priced from the roll. 'Des Moines' here means the 87,690 parcels in the County's 'DES MOINES CITY' tax districts. Acres are only those keyed on the roll (many parcels have none) and are indicative. Parcel counts group every spelling. Polk County Auditor CSV, Year 2025, downloaded 14 Oct 2026.

New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.

Census permit files for the city show single-family units of 248 (2021), 256 (2022), 248 (2023), 218 (2024) and 221 (2025), against five-plus-unit apartments of 380, 284, 321, 400 and then 1,377 units in 16 buildings in 2025 (s16). West Des Moines alone permitted 252 single-family units in 2025, more than the city. No Des Moines builder league table exists. The figures below are residential parcels in the City of Des Moines titled to each builder on the County roll (s1); a parcel with no building value is counted as a lot.

The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.

Downtown Des Moines's office stock belongs mostly to the insurers that occupy it: Principal, Wellmark, EMC and Nationwide hold four of the five largest private estates by value, all titled in the companies' own names. Towers that changed hands since 2015 sit in single-purpose LLCs (Eighth & Grand Owner LLC at 801 Grand; R1 Round 2 LLC at the Ruan Center; DMCRE1 LLC, mailed to Grand Island, Nebraska, at 801 Walnut St), and the roll does not say who stands behind them. Listed REITs are minor here: STAG's two warehouses are the largest REIT holding found. Holdings are grouped by deed name, never by mailing address, since property managers receive the mail for many unrelated owners. Values are the Auditor's 2025 full value, Des Moines parcels only.

Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.

1. Parcel Tables_CSV: zip of Owners_Mail.csv (deed holder and mail-to name and address), Parcel.csv (legal description, acres, last deed date, book and page), Situs_Address.csv and Value.csv (class, tax district, TIF district, full, assessed and taxable values). Downloaded 14 Oct 2026; files dated 11 Oct 2026; 220,002 parcels, Year 2025 — Polk County Auditor, Iowa (item 23c47503442f4ca8b75c4736fe663cfb on the County ArcGIS portal) · openA
2. Real Estate Transfer - Declaration of Value Instructions (forms 57-011a 06/11/2026, 57-011b 05/22/2026): Iowa Code 428A.1 requires a Declaration of Value 'reflecting the full consideration paid' with every non-exempt conveyance; the recorder must refuse to record without it; Part II is completed by the assessor; exemption list under 428A.2 — Iowa Department of Revenue · openA
3. Tax Calculator: 'Iowa Real Estate Transfer Tax ... This calculation is based on $1.60 per thousand and the first $500 is exempt' (7/1/1991 to present); past rates — Polk County Recorder · openA
4. Search Records: real-estate index records 1992 to present searchable, viewable and printable online; 'Polk County records are free of charge on the website'; the County says it will move to a login-only version — Polk County Recorder · openA
5. Recording Fees: '$12.00 fee for Deeds, Change of Name, Condemnations and Contracts' includes a $5.00 transfer fee per parcel; $7.00 per additional transaction — Polk County Recorder · openA
6. Polk County Assessor home page: menus for Sales search (Residential, Des Moines Residential, Condo, Commercial, Agricultural) and Downloads (Commercial, Residential, Agricultural). The search and download pages sit under /cgi-bin/, which robots.txt disallows, so they were not opened — Polk County Assessor · blockedB
7. Polk_County_Parcels feature service, layer 1 'Cadastral Parcels': parcel polygons with parcel number and house number, queried by point on 14 Oct 2026 to tie a building location to its parcel — Polk County Auditor, Iowa · openA
8. Composite_Locator geocoding service: '730 3rd St', '1007 E Grand Ave' and other addresses matched to coordinates (score 100), 14 Oct 2026 — Polk County, Iowa · openA
9. DSM History (About Us): 'In 2011, the City of Des Moines transferred control from the City to the Des Moines Airport Authority. The city retains ownership of the land but transferred the title to all property and equipment to the public authority. In turn, the Authority agreed to a 99-year lease on the land.' Campus 2,600 acres, two runways, 46 buildings — Des Moines Airport Authority · openA
10. Iowa Events Center home page: address 730 3rd Street, Des Moines; 'Wells Fargo Arena, was renamed Casey's Center'; 'Hy-Vee Hall, was renamed EMC Expo Center'; Polk County and Oak View Group logos (no ownership text). Rendered with JavaScript; read via WebFetch — Iowa Events Center · openB
11. About the 801 Grand Building: built 1991, 44 storeys, 630 ft, 920,000 gross sq ft; '801 Grand Building Ownership: The 801 Grand Building is owned by The Principal Financial Group'; managed by JLL (undated page; robots.txt Crawl-delay 10 honoured) — 801 Grand (building website) · openA
12. Principal Financial Group, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025, cover page ('711 High Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50392') and Item 2 Properties: 'As of December 31, 2025, we owned properties at our world headquarters complex in Des Moines, Iowa, and leased space for various offices' — Principal Financial Group, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · openA
13. The DICO Superfund Site (24 Sep 2026): South DICO, site of the planned stadium, ground-leased from the City of Des Moines to the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation in June; 'Once constructed, ISDF will own the stadium'; appraised land value South DICO about $11.4M, North DICO about $9M — Krause Group · openA
14. Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company (combined filing with MidAmerican Energy Company and others), Form 10-K for 2025: 'All shares of outstanding common stock of MidAmerican Energy Company are held by its parent company, MHC Inc., which is a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of MidAmerican Funding, LLC', whose equity BHE holds; 'BHE is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'; MidAmerican's principal executive offices at 1615 Locust Street, Des Moines — Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company (SEC EDGAR) · openA
15. STAG Industrial, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025: property table 'Iowa ... Des Moines 2 301,381' (buildings, square feet) and Schedule III rows '3915 Delaware Avenue ... 12,602 ... 2021' and '1900 E. 17th Street ... 4,843 ... 2018' (total gross carrying amount, $000s; year acquired) — STAG Industrial, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · openA
16. Building Permits Survey, annual place files for the Midwest region (mw2021a.txt to mw2025a.txt): Des Moines, Iowa (FIPS place 21000), units authorised by building type — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
17. D.R. Horton, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, Exhibit 21.1 Subsidiaries: 'D.R. Horton - Iowa, LLC, Delaware, Classic Builders' — D.R. Horton, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · openA