The West Des Moines City Council voted Monday to approve an Urban Renewal Plan for the  Valley West Mall site, setting the stage for staff to begin advancing a development agreement with the group that has expressed interest in purchasing the property.

Monday’s approval was unanimous and comes a week after the city’s planning and zoning commission voted to recommend approval of what Ryan Moffatt, the city’s community and economic development director, called an “enabling step.”

There was no public comment on the plan during Monday’s meeting, but Mayor Russ Trimble said the city is excited to see the project move forward.

“This will be an incredible project once we’re able to work this all out. I think the public is excited to see the plans, and this will be a great redevelopment in part of our city that really needs to be redeveloped,” he said.

In June 2024, the West Des Moines City Council rezoned the 60-acre mall property for mixed-use, allowing the site to be redeveloped for residential, office, retail and entertainment. In February, the 865,000-square-foot mall officially went on the market with brokerage firm CBRE appointed as the exclusive sales agent.

In August, it was announced that the mall was under contract and that a prospective buyer was beginning a period of due diligence, but neither Todd Millang, a senior vice president with CBRE, nor Moffatt would identify who that is, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

In an email late Monday, Moffatt said the next steps are to bring a development agreement to the council for a vote. He said that while that process is behind the original timeline to bring an agreement forward, a vote should happen before the end of the year.

When that happens, it will begin the next chapter for the beleaguered mall property, which went into foreclosure in 2022 when U.S. Bank alleged the mall’s owner, Watson Centers Inc., had not made loan and other required payments since May 2021. According to the foreclosure petition, the Minneapolis-based Watson Centers owed $3.49 million in missed payments.

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.

The mall’s assessed value has declined to $19.5 million, online records show, and of the 138 tenant spaces, only about 22 are occupied.

The Urban Renewal designation approved by the council Monday would extend beyond the immediate mall property and include 74 acres west of Valley West Drive along Westown Parkway where there are vacant office buildings, vacant sites and a deteriorated housing project.