Two weeks before opening day, the people at Build-a-Bear Workshop had nothing to do but dust their store’s façade and wait for customers, but a few feet away, a worker was still troweling joint compound onto drywall. While dozens of other workers sawed, drilled and painted, frequent visitor Gene Meyer, mayor of West Des Moines, gave the nickel tour to real estate magnate Bill Knapp.

Somehow, the plywood is expected to disappear, the food court seating for 1,000 will be assembled and the long-awaited Jordan Creek Town Center shopping mall will be ready for its grand opening Aug. 4, when 15,000 can’t-wait shoppers are expected to pour through the doors in the first five minutes.

That estimate comes from past mall openings experienced by Jordan Creek’s developer, General Growth Properties Inc. And if General Growth has one thing, it’s mall experience. The 1954 development of the Town and Country Center in Cedar Rapids by Matthew and Martin Bucksbaum has grown 50 years later into a real estate investment trust that owns or manages 177 malls in 41 states.

Jordan Creek will outshine most of them, with 1.2 million square feet in the mall proper and a total of 2 million square feet once the restaurants and “village” shops around the shopping complex’s 3.5-acre lake are factored in.

“This is the future of all retail,” said Julie Jacoby, director of corporate communications. The scope of the total development makes this West Des Moines project one of the largest mall venues in the United States, and developers hope shoppers also will be impressed by the indoor ambience.

“It’s a hybrid of indoor and outdoor design,” Jacoby said. Ceilings as high as 60 feet, a waterfall tumbling over stone walls, a fireplace in the food court, a generous helping of skylights and lots of real and artificial greenery are intended to make patrons comfortable and happy enough to keep shopping.

Along with the fast-food outlets, Jordan Creek also has table-service restaurants such as the Cheesecake Factory. For entertainment, there’s the Century Theatres multiplex with 20 screens.

A play area for children and several rest areas with upholstered seating should help keep the shopping family contented, too.

Then there are the stores. According to Jacoby, at least 30 of the names are new to the state of Iowa – including Apple Computer, Draper’s & Damon’s and Misako — and another 30 are new to Des Moines.

However, several storefronts will be barricaded when the mall opens, for a couple of reasons. “About 100 stores will be open, which is 75 percent of the total,” Jacoby said. “After that, we expect to see about one opening per week through the holidays. In my seven years with General Growth, I can think of only one mall that opened with all of the stores ready.” The delays are due to various problems experienced by individual retailers.

But the mall management also decided to hold back about 5 percent of the space intentionally. “The last three malls we opened were 100 percent leased, and we’ve learned that some very prime retailers only become interested after the mall opens,” Jacoby said.

First-day shoppers will wander past stores such as Checker Flag Lightning, featuring NASCAR driving simulators; White House/Black Market, stocked with women’s fashions; Godiva Chocolatier; Icing, which offers trendy jewelry and accessories for young women; Jared’s Galleria of Jewelry; the Mia & Maxx Hair Studio; and Blue Willi’s, which sells handcrafted clothing made of natural fibers.

Opening day will start with breakfast outdoors at 8 a.m., followed by a model-boat regatta on the lake, a 9:45 ribbon-cutting ceremony and the actual opening at 10. Judging from previous openings she has helped coordinate, Jacoby said she expects to find people camped out when she arrives the morning of Aug. 4.

The day will conclude with a free concert by the Des Moines Symphony in the outdoor amphitheater at 8:30 p.m., followed by fireworks at 9:30.