Demolition on the former Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall could begin late this summer as work begins to transform the area into a multiuse arena for hockey, indoor soccer and concerts.

It’s part of a broader redevelopment of the mall that also includes a volleyball facility, construction of more than 140,000-square-feet of space for new retail and restaurant tenants and a 150-room hotel.

The work will happen in phases with all work completed and all new spaces, including the arena, opening by the fall of 2028.

Before all that, though, the mall’s owners have until March 31 to show the Iowa Economic Development Authority that funding is in place for the project. That deadline is part of the mall’s revised Iowa Reinvestment Act application, which was approved by the IEDA on Nov. 21.

Liz Holland, CEO of Abbell Associates LLC, the group that owns the mall, gave an update on the status of the project during the Iowa Commercial Real Estate Association’s monthly breakfast meeting, held March 5 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.

Holland described the Merle Hay redevelopment as a “catalytic development.”

“And everyone in this room understands what catalytic development does for momentum, what catalytic development does for investor confidence and what it does for community pride,” she said. “It’s moments like this when people in the commercial real estate community don’t just need to listen, they need to lead because you understand what these projects can do when destinations thrive.”

Holland said the redevelopment of Merle Hay Mall into a multiuse destination that includes sports and entertainment comes as competition among communities for residents, businesses and investors increases.

“The ones who have really leaned into creating destinations are the ones who are really succeeding beyond anybody’s wildest dreams,” she said.

Holland said projects like the Merle Hay redevelopment are only successful when the private sector gets involved.

“The government is really important and they can move it as far down the field as they need to, but it’s really only the private sector who understands what this project is going to do to the Douglas Avenue corridor and the Merle Hay Mall corridor,” she said. “The area is seeing more investment now than it has in a long time, but there’s tremendously underutilized property on both borders.”

During her presentation, Holland said that the mall’s estimated sales would increase an estimated $124.24 million by the third year. The mall would also provide a total economic impact of $136.2 million during that time.

Holland said the mall will attract 65,000 more unique visitors each year once the project is complete. The mall attracted more than 750,000 unique visitors between July 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025, with more than 3 million visits.

She said during her presentation that the decision was made to raze the Younkers building rather than renovate it because it is more efficient and less expensive to build new.

The building is being demolished to make room for the 4,000-seat arena, which will be built where the two-level part of the store stands. The 50,000-square-foot volleyball facility will go where the mall’s food court is and where the men’s department was in the upper level of the Younkers store.

There’s also space for additional pickleball courts where Dinks Pickleball is. Dinks drew nearly 60,000 people in its first year of operation, Holland said.

Demolition of the building is expected to begin late this summer, with site plans being approved and construction permits being issued around that same time.

Here are timelines for the project that were identified by Holland during her presentation.

Summer 2027

Volleyball facility opens

Construction on 58,000 square feet of tenant space begins

Winter 2028

58,000 square feet of space for new tenants opens

Construction of 89,000 square feet of new tenant space begins

Summer 2028

New 65,000-square-foot anchor store north of Kohl’s opens

Fall 2028

Arena opens

89,000 square feet of new tenant space opens

According to Holland’s presentation, the arena will be home to Drake University’s men’s and women’s hockey and the Iowa Demon Hawks men’s and women’s professional soccer teams.

Other partnerships could include the Central Iowa Figure Skating Club, Des Moines youth hockey programs, and volleyball and wrestling tournaments, she said in her presentation.

The volleyball facility will be open year round for practice, training and league play, and is expected to attract 2,000 visitors every weekend, Holland said.

Both the Wyndham and Choice hotel companies have expressed interest in the proposal to build a hotel at the mall, Holland said.

Choice, she said, has a category that fits in with sports and entertainment.

The tenant space improvements include existing spaces within the mall, which are being redeveloped for new tenants to occupy. It also includes the new anchor store that will be built on an empty parcel north of Kohl’s, Holland said.

“We have systematically vacated the space that we’re going to need to redevelop so that it doesn’t redevelop slowly,” she said after the ICREA meeting. “Because it’s vacant or we control it, we can give tenants a 60-day notice and they will be gone. [With] our ability to do that, we’ll be able to start those [projects] right away.”

Tenants are waiting to commit to new leases until after demolition starts, said Holland, who described the process as “lining up dominoes.”

“The first domino is taking down the Younkers store,” she said. “Then you move on. Once those retailers see that we’ve started we will [continue] conversations about what the deal would look like and where they would go, but they’re not ready to commit with a letter of intent until the demolition starts.”

Holland said she anticipates attracting some of those tenants that have left Valley West Mall. Although the city of West Des Moines has taken steps to facilitate the redevelopment of that site, no deal has been reached with a developer and no plan has been approved.

“I think those retailers recognize that if we’re able to redevelop the way we anticipate that there are going to be many more shoppers to Merle Hay that already exist,” Holland said.

She said the Merle Hay project fits in well with the city of Urbandale’s plans to redevelop its downtown district and will “anchor the east side of that gateway to Urbandale.”

The mall had to shift direction on its plans after the Des Moines Buccaneers pulled out of negotiations in 2024 to make a new home with an arena at the mall.

The mall had initially entered talks with the hockey team in late 2020, and in 2022, the IEDA had approved $26.5 million from the Iowa Reinvestment Act for the project. But, as those talks stalled, mall operators had to shift gears and submit a revised plan or risk losing the IRA funding.

With last fall’s IEDA approval of the revised plan, Holland said work is moving forward to continue the mission to make Merle Hay Mall a “weekly needs destination.”

“By doing youth sports and entertainment and bringing in a 24/7 operator, like a volleyball league and practice facility, it reinforces that weekly needs traffic,” she said. 

She spoke about seeing cars lining up on Douglas Avenue as parents picked their children up at St. Pius Catholic School and taking them to whatever sports practices or after-school activities they are involved in.

“How cool would it be to see a line of kids walking down the street and crossing the road and going to practices on their own?” Holland said. “That’s the life I remember when I was in grade school. You got on your bike and rode to the park district and you did whatever sport was going on at that time of year. I just want to create that again for that area of Des Moines.”

Related stories:

• Merle Hay Mall redevelopment eyes 2027 completion
• Merle Hay Mall keeps eye on arena project despite Bucs’ withdrawal from talks