The $58 million project to revitalize Merle Hay Mall is happening at the “right time and the right place for exactly the right users,” said Liz Holland, the CEO of the group that owns the mall.

The mall’s revised Iowa Reinvestment Act application was approved by the Iowa Economic Development Authority on Nov. 21. Now, the mall is working to finalize funding with demolition of the space that once housed Younkers targeted for March, Holland said.

The mall shifted gears after the Des Moines Buccaneers pulled out of negotiations in summer 2024 to make a new home with an arena at the former Kohl’s department store space.

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 the IEDA approval in hand, Holland said the project will move forward quickly with a targeted completion date of fall 2027.

The plan approved by IEDA includes a 3,500-seat arena that will be home to the Drake University hockey team and the Iowa Demon Hawks, a soccer club based out of Des Moines. The arena’s capacity can be expanded to 4,000 for concerts.

The plan also includes a 50,000-square-foot volleyball league and practice facility, for children up through adults, and 13 pickleball courts as part of the Dink’s Pickleball facility.

“We’re just excited to get going and get this project underway,” Holland said.

There are also plans to build a hotel on the site to complement other hospitality offerings in the area, she said.

Holland said the arena is the “crown jewel” of the project, and will be built on the southern most part of the site, where the former Younkers store currently stands. Next to that going north where the Younkers men’s department used to be and where the mall food court is, is where the 50,000-square-foot volleyball facility will be built.

Holland said demolishing the former Younkers building and constructing a new facility will be less costly than trying to retrofit existing space for new uses.

“The initial proposal was to reuse those buildings, but we were excited to learn that it is less expensive to design these kinds of facilities from the inside out rather than from the outside in,” she said. “It improves the spectator experience. It improves the user experience. It makes them more efficient from every standpoint.

The new plan also “expands the universe of potential users,” Holland said, and will help draw more people, local residents and visitors from outside the metro to the area.

She said the arena will attract concerts and other events that are too small for the 16,000-seat Casey’s Center downtown, but too big for other venues in the area.

The mall will work with VenuWorks, an entertainment venue management firm in Ames, to schedule and manage events at the arena.

“[The arena] can accommodate a lot of different things, and we’re excited about seeing how we can really push the envelope of the kinds of events that can be held there,” Holland said.

She said she is working with the cities of Des Moines and Urbandale as well as Polk County on financing for the improvements, and hopes to have that finalized by February, followed by the demolition of the former Younkers store and an 18-month construction schedule.

The project is the latest in the mall’s evolution, which began when Montgomery Wards closed in 1997, and it coincides with the city of Urbandale’s downtown redevelopment plan.

“We’re kind of the gateway to those improvements,” Holland said. 

The mall also is planning a streetscape project along Douglas Avenue, she said.

Holland said the changes made at the mall over the years have been designed
to “create reasons for people to come to the mall on a weekly basis.”

She said malls generally have become a monthly or quarterly destination for people.

“What we learned when we brought in Target in 2005 was that the mall, because of Target’s assortment and grocery, became a weekly-needs destination,” Holland said. “We’ve continued to reinforce that weekly-needs shopper while also bringing in regional draws. When we opened Flix Brewhouse, it was the first eat-at-your-seat theater in the state, so we’ve continued to move down that path of making the mall a weekly-needs destination.”

The new redevelopment plan will continue that mission, Holland said.

“And now we’ll be able to do that with sports and entertainment,” she said.