The once vibrant Valley West Mall is under contract with a new buyer, although who that is hasn’t been disclosed.

The 865,000-square-foot mall went on the market in February, three years after it went into foreclosure and was placed in receivership after the mall’s owner, Minneapolis-based Watson Centers Inc., failed to make loan and other payments totaling nearly $3.5 million to U.S. Bank.

Since then, questions have lingered about who will buy the 60-acre parcel and what any redevelopment of the mall could look like. With the mall now under contract, those questions may soon be answered.

In June 2024, the West Des Moines City Council rezoned the mall property for mixed-use, which will allow it to be converted to residential, office, retail and entertainment, opening the door for redevelopment of the site.

Todd Millang, a senior vice president with CBRE and one of the brokers marketing the property, said a nondisclosure agreement prohibited him from naming the buyer.

Unless they step forward before then, the buyer will become public once documents are filed with the city of West Des Moines as work to redevelop the mall site begins.

Ryan Moffatt, community and economic development director for the city of West Des Moines, said that as of Wednesday no documents, such as applications for economic development incentives, land use plan amendments or zoning requests, had been filed with the city.

Moffatt said he also is under a gag order that restricts him from identifying the buyer before the sale closes.

In a Feb. 25 Business Record article, he said redeveloping the mall is a priority for the community.

“We want to be aggressive with this,” he said. “We don’t want to see a giant doughnut hole in the middle of our community that doesn’t have activity to it, so revitalization of the area is certainly something we’ll be working a lot on in the coming years,” he said.

No closing date has been given.

Millang said the buyer will go through a process of due diligence before a sale could be finalized.

The two-story mall at 1551 Valley West Drive opened in 1975 and flourished with three anchor stores until Jordan Creek Town Center opened in 2004 and retailers began to follow shoppers to the new retail hub.

In 2007, Valley West’s store directory listed 117 tenants. The mall’s online directory now lists just 36 tenants, with JC Penney remaining as the mall’s lone anchor.