The Urbandale City Council has signed off on a revised revitalization plan for Merle Hay Mall, with the amended application for funds from the state’s Iowa Reinvestment Act program now going to the Iowa Economic Development Board on Friday.

The Urbandale council’s approval at its meeting Tuesday follows the Des Moines City Council’s approval of the revised application earlier this month.

Officials with IEDA said the amended plan and application will be on Friday’s board agenda as an update item only and no action will be taken.

The mall straddles the border between Des Moines and Urbandale, and the cities along with Polk County are collaborating to administer Iowa Reinvestment Act Funds.

The mall revitalization was awarded $26.5 million from the Iowa Reinvestment Act program in 2021. It had been negotiating with the Des Moines Buccaneers for the hockey team to make the mall its new home. But those talks ended last summer, and mall officials were forced to shift direction — and their vision — and redesign their plan for the mall.

Instead of four sheets of ice, the revised plan includes only a single sheet of ice in the 3,500-seat arena, and the arena could be converted to other uses, including indoor soccer, Holland said.

There will also be 13 pickleball courts and eight permanent volleyball courts in the league practice and training facility. The user of the volleyball space has not been announced yet, Holland said.

The ice arena will be home to the Drake University hockey team and the Iowa Demon Hawks, a soccer club based in Des Moines that has both men’s and women’s teams.

Elizabeth Holland, the CEO of the group that owns the mall, said the amended plan has “massively expanded the universe of potential users for the facility.”

“The crux of the Iowa Reinvestment Act program is the ability to attract enough people over a period of years to generate sales tax that would diffuse the municipal investment in the building, so by expanding the universe of potential users to a much greater number of people in the region and the state, we feel like we’ve de-risked the project from an economic standpoint,” she said earlier this month following the Des Moines City Council’s vote.