Top: The former Sears store at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines closed nearly a year ago. Windows are boarded up and brown paper covers the doors. Photo by Kathy A. Bolten
Bottom: The Sears store at Merle Hay Mall in 2010. Photo by Polk County Assessor.

The owner of Merle Hay Mall is continuing negotiations to buy the building that for nearly 60 years was home to Sears department store, an original anchor tenant in the northwest Des Moines shopping center.

“We’re the only logical owner,” Elizabeth Holland, the mall’s owner, said. “We’ve been pursuing buying the building since 2006. Since the store closed, the asking price is more reasonable.”

The Merle Hay Sears closed last October. The following day its parent company, Sears Holdings Inc., which also owned Kmart stores, announced its bankruptcy and another round of store closings.

The closing of Sears at Merle Hay came about six months after the parent company of Younkers closed all of the chain’s department stores.

Sears opened in Merle Hay Mall in late 1959, several months after the open-air shopping center began operating. The mall was developed by Holland’s grandfather Joseph Abbell and his business partner, Bernard Greenbaum.

The mall site had been home to the former St. Gabriel’s Monastery.

For decades, Sears anchored the north end of the mall, and Younkers the south end.

The double closings were a blow to the mall, Holland has said.

In February, mall owners bought the former Younkers building from a liquidation company. The $1.5 million purchase was made possible by a loan from Polk County. That building, located on the west side of the mall, is vacant.

The owner of the Sears building, located on the north and east side of the mall, is allowing environmental testing to occur inside the building, Holland said. She said she’s hopeful that after the results are back, an agreement can be reached on a sale price.

A year ago, the 230,673-square-foot store was listed for sale at $5.6 million. A sale price is currently not included with the property listing, according to officials with Hurd Real Estate, a local development and investment firm.

If Holland is able to acquire the nearly 60-year-old building, it will be razed, she said.

“The configuration of the Sears store prevents us from reusing the building,” she said during this week’s annual Iowa Commercial Real Estate Association Expo. 

Holland, who was a keynote speaker at the event, was asked about plans for the Sears site. 

“All the retailers want to be on Merle Hay Road,” she told the audience of about 450 people. “Without telling you who those retailers are going to be, I can tell you that when Kohl’s bought their store from me in 2008, they wanted to be on Merle Hay Road, so we’re hopeful they will achieve their wish.”

Kohl’s department store is located on the west side of the mall. Entrances to the store are located on the mall’s north and south sides.

Holland said if Kohl’s moved, it would provide opportunities to make changes to the west side of the mall, located on Merle Hay Road and Douglas Avenue.

“That opens up the opportunity to … take the Younkers store and all of the real estate in the rear of the property that doesn’t have the same visibility that retailers want and demand along the Merle Hay Road corridor and really start over,” she said. “We’re going to be pushing retail to the east and creating something very new to the west because that’s where you don’t need the retail frontage. 

Holland said that Gameday, which will occupy about 13,900 square feet on the south side of the mall, is scheduled to open sometime after Thanksgiving. The sports bar and family entertainment center is occupying space where Jay’s CD and Hobby had been located.

“They are going to really anchor the redevelopment of the Douglas Avenue side of the center,” Holland said.