Using a $1.5 million loan from Polk County, the owners of Merle Hay Mall have bought the abandoned Younkers department store from a liquidation company.

The purchase price was $1.5 million, according to Polk County property records. Polk County supervisors have approved a total of $3.5 million in low-interest loans to help mall ownership recover from the closings of Younkers and Sears last year after their parent companies declared bankruptcy. The loan for the Younkers property runs until March 1, 2034.

The Younkers transaction was signed on Valentine’s Day and recorded on Feb. 21.

Liz Holland, whose grandfather, Joseph Abbell, developed the mall along with Bernard Greenbaum and whose family remains majority owner, had hoped to buy the 165,000-square-foot Younkers store for about $500,000, but the price was driven up by a competing bidder.

Supervisors initially approved a $2.5 million loan to help mall owners buy the Younkers and Sears stores, and later approved an increase to $3.5 million.

Meanwhile, the 230,673-square-foot Sears store is being listed for sale at $5.6 million, with current ownership expected to fall under the control of former CEO Eddie Lampert, whose proposed buyout of Sears assets recently was approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

The city of Des Moines is working on a development agreement that would provide up to $400,000 in annual tax increment finance revenues to mall ownership over 12 years to assist with renovation plans for the mall. After the third year of that plan, additional payments require the Sears property to be under the control of mall owners. Read more