Valley West Mall has been placed on the market, months after the West Des Moines City Council rezoned the site for mixed-used development in hopes of spurring redevelopment of the once bustling shopping destination.

CBRE has been appointed the exclusive sales agent for the 856,000-square-foot mall, the brokerage firm announced today.

“CBRE is looking forward to finding the right developer who is excited about the rare opportunity for an infill development of this magnitude in the heart of the Greater Des Moines metro,” Todd Millang, a senior vice president with CBRE and one of the brokers marketing the property, said in a prepared statement. “We have a strong list of retailers interested in the site, but we believe it will become a multiuse development once all the pieces of the puzzle are put together. It will be great to see how this project will reshape this already strong corridor in our market.”

Millang said the mall is being marketed without a list price.

“We expect a wide range of investors [and] developers with a wide range of ideas and plans,” Millang told the Business Record, adding that he expects the mall to receive national interest.

The two-story mall at 1551 Valley West Drive sits on nearly 58 acres and remains anchored by JC Penney.

U.S. Bank foreclosed on the mall in 2022, alleging the mall’s owner, Watson Centers Inc., had not made loan and other requirement payments since May 2021. According to the foreclosure petition, the Minneapolis-based Watson Centers owed $3.49 million in missed payments.

In June, the City Council voted to rezone the mall property for mixed-use, which will allow it to be redeveloped for residential, office, retail and entertainment.

The mall 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 assessed valuation of the nearly 60-acre parcel was $70.2 million. The mall’s online store directory now lists 42 tenants. The assessed valuation has declined to $19.5 million, according to the Polk County assessor’s website.

According to a release from CBRE, the mall’s location makes it ripe for redevelopment.

It’s just north of Interstate 235 and within the University Avenue retail corridor. Daily traffic in the corridor exceeds 100,000 vehicles, the release stated. It also is only a mile from the Interstate 35/80 interchange, which increases regional access.

Ryan Moffatt, community and economic development director for West Des Moines, said putting the mall on the market is a first important step in the redevelopment process.

“It’s welcome news to see this property on the market,” he said. “It is really the first step in a much larger process before we can see reuse and redevelopment of the property.”

Moffatt said he would envision the city partnering with a developer with an incentive package to “activate the property.”

“We want to be aggressive with this,” he said. “It’s certainly a property project for us. 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 doesn’t see the mall reopening as a shopping mall, but rather a mixed-use district that can be a central hub to the community.

“When I bring developers through and we have conversations about the property, everyone still tells me it’s a good piece of real estate,” Moffatt said. “A benefit is it’s nearly 60 acres that’s all intact and allowed in common with one property owner. You just don’t find that opportunity too often, so we hope we can leverage that for a successful redevelopment.”