The developer behind the redevelopment of the Crossroads Mall site in Waterloo has released an updated concept about what the site could look like, but will continue to gather input from the community and city leaders in the coming months that could influence the final plan.

Demolition on the 800,000-square-foot mall is underway and will likely continue through much of 2026, said Trent Smith, development manager for Ankeny-based ATI Group, which acquired the parcels last fall. The developer entered into an agreement with the city of Waterloo in November 2024 to redevelop the site into a mixed-use district with spaces for multifamily residential, retail and restaurants.

The last tenant, Geno’s Pizza, moved out at the end of 2025. The mall had otherwise been mostly vacant after anchor stores began pulling out years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2023, no anchor stores were left.

Recently, representatives from ATI Group gave a virtual presentation that laid out its latest vision for the 57½-acre site, which when redeveloped would be named The BLVD at Crossroads.

An image, which Smith said is the fifth iteration of the concept, shows seven parcels — all around 1½ acres — primarily around the far northern boundary of the property for commercial development. There would also be as many as 11 spaces of varying sizes for development of retail and restaurant, with multifamily residential starting along the eastern border and reaching west to the center of the property. A water feature and water retention area are also included in the latest plan with green space and landscaping acting as borders separating the different development spaces.

Smith said ATI will spend the next several months looking at what tenants are in the market that might fit a redevelopment project, and will continue to revise the plan as more information is gathered.

“There is already a ton of retail that exists in that corridor and we really want to make something that complements the area and doesn’t just shuffle tenants around to a new spot,” he said. “We’re creating different concepts that we’re going to use in those conversations to flush out who would be an exciting tenant that would fit well here and meet the needs of Waterloo, and then we’ll start putting the puzzle pieces together.”

Smith said that process can take awhile as tenants generally want to know who their neighbors will be before committing to a space.

“I think the door is open for any kind of tenant, whether it’s retail, residential or entertainment,” he said. “All things are an option here and I think the next few months will be targeting and identifying who are those users and whether it’s an operator or another developer or end user that would come in and then putting those pieces together.”

Part of the conversation with the city could include whether to relocate the Waterloo Bucks baseball stadium to the site, Smith said. The team plays in the Northwoods League.

An Applebee’s restaurant on the site will remain as will a Tires Plus store, and the movie theater on the south end of the property will remain unaffected by the redevelopment of the site, Smith said.

“We want to make sure that we redevelop the site with limited disruptions to our neighbors,” he said.

He said while demolition has begun, most of that work is happening internally with external demolition put on hold with the cold winter weather. Tearing down an external wall now would open up the interior to the winter elements, “so we’re just being cautious on how to chronologically work through demolition without losing the schedule,” Smith said.

Smith said they are about 60 days into the 240-day demolition schedule, adding that some site work can begin before demolition is complete.

“We can overlap some of the redevelopment with the later phases of demolition, so there will be some simultaneous cleaning of the site, getting to a green site, while working through the design and redevelopment in parallel with some of that schedule,” he said.

Vertical construction wouldn’t likely start until 2027, Smith said.

He said that depending on what users are found for the site, the concept could continue to evolve.

“If we were to get some sort of user that is exciting for Waterloo and Waterloo staff supports that use here and identifies it as a high priority, then we kind of throw this concept out the window and figure out a way to land that tenant,” Smith said. “That’s kind of where we’re at, so [the concept] is a tool for us at the moment to figure out what puzzle pieces are on the board and how do we fit them all together?”

Related story: Crossroads Mall site in Waterloo to be redeveloped into mixed-use destination