Elizabeth Holland didn’t mince words recently when she spoke to a Des Moines board about her vision for Merle Hay Mall, a shopping center developed in 1959 by her grandfather and another man.

Des Moines, she told members of the city’s Urban Design Review Board during a recent meeting, is not immune to the changing demands of retail consumers, who increasingly have turned to e-commerce to purchase items they need for their daily living. 

The demands of consumers have changed since the advent of the shopping center, Holland said. And that means Des Moines “at best is now a two-mall town.” 

“At one time, Des Moines had four malls and then it went to three and now it is going to go to two malls, and our goal … is to be one of those two [last] standing properties,” said Holland (pictured). Merle Hay Mall owners and managers have worked hard to “maintain our position as a convenient, value-oriented retail location in the greater [Des Moines] area.”

Holland’s comments came during a discussion about the vision Merle Hay Mall owners have for the shopping center at Merle Hay Road and Douglas Avenue. Holland announced in November that a multipurpose arena with an attached hotel is planned for the west side of the mall. She also recently revealed plans to build a strip shopping center where Sears department store had been located. The proposed changes at the mall prompted a review of the mall’s revised master plan.

The opening of Jordan Creek Town Center in August 2004 adversely affected all of area’s malls, Holland said. On top of that, the rapid expansion of e-commerce has caused droves or retailers to shutter their stores. 

The shopping centers that survive will be the ones who have diversified their offerings, Holland said. For example, Merle Hay Mall owners recently sold a parcel to developers who are building an apartment building on the site.

“We’re not becoming mixed-use, but we are becoming a mix of uses,” she said. And that mix of uses, such as the proposed arena, will help boost traffic to the mall, which in turn will attract retailers and other businesses, Holland said. 

Merle Hay Mall owners have worked hard over the years to make the center relevant to consumers, Holland said. When the mall opened in 1959, it was designed as an open-air plaza, anchored by Sears on the north end and Younkers department store on the south. A strip of retail stores was located between the two major department stores.

“Times change and people’s options changed, and so the mall changed with them,” Holland told the board. In 1972, the mall was enclosed and expanded to the west. Also constructed on the mall’s west side was a Montgomery Ward department store and Younkers Store for Homes. 

Montgomery Ward went bankrupt in 1999; the mall ownership bought the vacant store site out of bankruptcy, Holland said. The property was later sold to Famous-Barr department store (pictured), which tore down the Montgomery Ward building and constructed a new two-store department store on the southwest corner of the mall. Kohl’s moved into the Younkers Store for Homes site in 1993. When Famous-Barr left Des Moines, Younkers relocated its store to the southwest corner of the mall, which is where the arena is proposed.

“I think what you need to remember about these super-regional types of assets is that it isn’t Amazon we fight so much, it’s obsolescence,” Holland said. “And unless you continue to develop, and redevelop and then redevelop again, you will lose sight of what your customers are interested in.”

Target’s move to the mall in 2005 helped transform the center from a monthly shopping destination to a “weekly needs destination,” Holland said. In 2008, the center made it easier for consumers to access shops on the east side of the mall by adding glass store fronts with doors to the shops. Consumers are able to go from the parking lot to the store and back out again without going through the mall’s main entrance, she said.

Flix Brewhouse opened in 2014, and now another change is on the horizon with the proposed addition of the arena, a development that will help boost the mall into a regional destination for consumers, Holland said. 

“We tried to stay ahead of the [retail] evolution by not becoming obsolete,” she said.

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