Malls In Des Moines Area – Merle Hay Mall is a closed regional supermall in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Opened in 1959, it is the second-oldest mall in the Iowa area, and was Iowa’s largest mall by gross rent before operating in West Des Moines near Jordan Creek Township in 2004. It was also the site of the deadliest fire in Des Moines history, killing ten people in 1978.
The mall’s anchor stores include Kohl’s, Target and Ross Dress. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once Yonkers — one up for redevelopment as an ice cream shop — and a Sears slated for demolition in 2021. Applebee’s, IHOP and Starbucks operate in the outer parts of the mall. Other notable stores in the mall include Old Navy. Most of the mall is in northwest Des Moines, but the wing, which includes the former Yonkers, Kohl’s and grocery stores, is within city limits in the downtown Urbandale neighborhood.
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Merle Hay Mall is owned by Merle Hay Mall Limited Partnership, and the family of one of its original developers continues to manage the mall. A Chicago-based company, Urban Retail Properties, is managing the mall’s lease.
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The Merle Hay Mall site originally housed St Gabriel’s Monastery from 1921 until it was demolished in 1958. In 1956, the zealous monks living there sold the monastery site to Chicago developers Joseph Abel and Bernard Gribaum. Abel, in a 1994 interview, noted that developers chose Des Moines for their malls because of the city’s reputation as “the model city of Middle America.”
The mall was known as the Northland Shopping Center in its early planning stages, until Yukoners officials suggested naming it after Merrill Hay, a World War I soldier who died on the street in front of the mall.
Merle Hay Plaza was originally planned as a mall, shortly before construction began in early 1958, with two department stores and four buildings redeveloped as a shopping plaza around a common area.
Merle Hay Plaza opened on August 17, 1959. At the time of its opening, it had 31 stores, including its first anchor (Yonkers), as well as a bowling alley that is still in operation today. Another anchor store opened later in 1959, when Sears moved from downtown Des Moines to Merrill Hay Plaza. Other early movers included a Safeway supermarket (its location later became part of Sears), Kresge, Bishop’s Buffet (closed in 1995), and Walgres (replaced by Old Navy in 1999).
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Merle Hay Plaza closed in 1972 and became the Merle Hay Mall. Two years later, while Valley West Mall and Southridge Mall were under construction, Merrill Hay completed a major westward expansion that doubled the size of the mall. Two additional anchors, Montgomery Ward (which also moved downtown) and Ukner’s Store for Homes, were added to the mall as part of this expansion. By 2000, Merle Hay Mall was attracting an average of 35,000 shoppers a day.
In a 1994 interview with the Des Moines Register, Iowa State University economist Keith Stone noted that Merrill Hay Mall successfully adapted to the changing lifestyles of the 1960s and 1970s, while downtown Des Moines retailers Start limiting the hours. . .
Author and Des Moines resident Bill Bryson commented on how Merrill Hay mall’s appearance changed Des Moines in his memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006): “My father never shopped after that.” Neither did most people. By the early 1960s, people were bragging about how long it had been since they had lived in the city, finding a new kind of joy in malls.
In 1989’s The Lost Continent, Bryson wrote when he commented, “Jack Kerouac, of all people, thinks Iowa piss is the best in the country, but I don’t think Merle Hay came to the mall on a Saturday.” . Iowa urine obesity.
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On the morning of November 5, 1978, the original Ukners store in Merrill Hay Mall was destroyed by fire. The fire caused a loss of 20 million dollars.
In early 1979, Des Moines fire officials reported that the fire was caused by hydro accumulation, caused by alkaline water leaking from the storage heating and cooling system. Court documents filed by prosecution attorneys in 1981 indicated that an electrical operation caused wires coated with polyvinyl chloride to overheat, releasing hydrochloric acid.
Attorneys who sued the Ukners and the family of one of the victims sued more than 20 companies that manufactured or were affiliated with polyvinyl chloride, including Monsanto Co. and Underwriters Laboratories. Most of these cases were settled out of court in 1984, the last being B.F. Goodrich was removed from office by Polk County District Judge in April 1986.
Merle Hay Mall lost its first anchor in 1991 when Yonkers Store for Homes closed, when Yonkers decided to stop selling furniture and accessories to focus on its more profitable fashion business.
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In 1998, in the chain’s first round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Montgomery Ward’s faced eviction from the mall after an analysis by Kenneth Stone showed that Ward’s operated a discount store instead of its “premium, full-line department stores.” was Rent is required. .
Montgomery Ward responded by closing in early 1999, and Famous-Barre opened a new store in the space in August 2000, and the rest of the mall underwent a $20 million renovation that year.
Yonkers moved into the former Famous-Bar space on July 18, 2004, a month after Famous-Bar exited the Des Moines market, and the old Yonkers was soon demolished to make way for a new Target store that opened on July 19, 2005. opened on As a result of Target’s operations, sales at the mall declined, with Jordan Creek Townsetter’s sales falling 8 to 10 percent in its first year of operation.
The mall is anchored by Kohl’s (73,799 square feet) and Target (126,483 square feet), with the two vacant anchors occupied by Younkers (165,000 square feet) and Sears (223,000 square feet). Including a dining area with over 60 in-line drops, along with the vacant portion of the building, was a single-screen movie theater with the largest movie screen in Des Moines.
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During the Christmas holiday season there are many businesses that temporarily occupy the mall. It is managed by Able Credit Corporation, the same company that has owned the majority of the property since 1959.
Over time it has undergone many ups and downs to remain a viable shopping destination. According to Elizabeth Holland, CEO of Abel Credit Corp., the Des Moines area is only allowed two malls, and the Merrill Hay mall’s redevelopment aims to make it “one of two remaining malls.”
On March 10, 2008, the Des Moines City Council agreed to include the area surrounding the Merrill Hay Mall in a tax credit financing district to help the mall’s owners pay for future nuisances. The move comes as property values have fallen by more than $13 million since 2005.
The owners of Merle Hay Mall built a new main trans for the mall and some retailers were moved to other areas of the mall to “rejuvenate” the outer trans to create new anchor stores.
Jordan Creek Town Center
The former Sam Goody Superstore (replaced by Staples), the former Waldbooks, and GameStop (now near Healdsburg Diamond) contain the basics. Old Navy moved west across from Old Navy, and Show Carnival and Alta occupied Old Navy’s space.
In 2013, Dunham’s Sports was pulled from the mall, and replaced by MC Sports. However, in 2017, MC Sports filed for bankruptcy and went under shortly after. It is later replaced by a jumping jack.
The upper level was converted into the Flix Brewhouse movie theater in mid-2014. Flix has proven to be a very popular destination, not only in the mall, but in Des Moines as well.
In 2015, Deb closed. Staples announced in late 2016 that it would close its Merle Hay Mall store with the actual last day of business on February 4, 2017. In October 2017, the Staples location became minimal Ross clothing. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Yoker’s would be closing as the division, Bon Ton Stores, was exiting. The store closed on August 29, 2018.
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On July 13, 2018, Sears announced that it would also be closing the Merle Hay Mall. It was one of the original anchor stores for nearly 60 years, but it closed for business in October 2018, leaving Kohl’s and Target as anchors.
In December 2019, a GameDay arcade and restaurant opened in the mall. Trade can be accessed both externally and internally.
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