Merle Hay Mall

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Mall facts and statistics
Merle Hay Mall


Location	Des Moines, Iowa, United States
Opening date	August 17, 1959
Developer	Joseph Abbell & Bernard Greenbaum
Management	Merle Hay Mall Limited Partnership/ Urban Retail Properties (leasing)
Owner	Merle Hay Mall Limited Partnership
No. of stores and services	100+
No. of anchor tenants	4
Total retail floor area	1.2 million ft² (110,000 m²)
Parking	6,000 spaces
No. of floors	1 (2 in center court area)
Website	www.merlehaymall.com

Merle Hay Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall in Des Moines, Iowa, in the United States. It is located at the intersection of Merle Hay Road and Douglas Avenue, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Interstate 35 and Interstate 80. Both the road and the mall are named after Glidden native Merle Hay, who was the first Iowan killed in World War I.

Before the 2004 opening of Jordan Creek Town Center, Merle Hay Mall was the largest mall in Iowa. It has about 1.2 million square feet of retail space, four anchor stores, over 100 specialty stores, a food court, a movie theater, and a 24-lane bowling alley. Sears, Younkers, Kohl's, and Target are the mall's current anchors. Applebee's, IHOP, and Starbucks operate on the outparcels of the mall. While most of the mall is in Des Moines, the wing that contains Younkers, Kohl's, and the food court is inside the city limits of neighboring Urbandale.

Merle Hay Mall is independently owned by the Merle Hay Mall Limited Partnership. A Chicago-based company, Urban Retail Properties, handles the mall's leasing duties.

[edit] History

Merle Hay Plaza opened as an outdoor mall on August 17, 1959, on the site of a former monastery. At the time of its opening, it had 31 stores, including its first anchor store, Younkers. A second anchor store opened later in 1959 as Sears moved from downtown Des Moines to Merle Hay Plaza. A movie theater and six-story office building were added in 1965. In 1972, Merle Hay Plaza was enclosed, becoming Merle Hay Mall. Two years later, as Valley West Mall and Southridge Mall were under construction, Merle Hay Mall completed a major westward expansion that doubled the size of the mall. Two additional anchors, Montgomery Ward (which also moved from downtown) and Younkers Store for Homes, were added to the mall as part of that expansion.

The original Younkers store was destroyed by a fire that broke out on the morning of November 5, 1978. The fire caused over $2 million in damage and killed ten of the store's 25 employees who were on duty at the time. The store was closed for nearly a year in order to rebuild. In the spring of 1979, Des Moines fire officials announced that a hydrogen buildup caused by alkaline water leaking from the store's heating and cooling system caused the fire. Court documents filed by prosecuting attorneys in 1981 stated that an electrical malfunction caused wires that were covered in polyvinyl chloride to overheat, giving off hydrochloric acid. Lawyers representing Younkers and the families of the ten victims sued more than 20 companies that manufactured or were associated with polyvinyl chloride, including Monsanto and Underwriters Laboratories. Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court in 1984.

Kohl's replaced the former Younkers Store for Homes in 1993. Montgomery Ward closed in 1999 as the chain went through its first round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Famous-Barr occupied that anchor space from August 2000 until June 2004. Younkers moved into the former Famous-Barr space on July 18, 2004, and the old Younkers was demolished shortly afterwards to make room for a new Target store that opened on July 20, 2005.

[edit] References

Alex, Tom. "25 Years After the Fire", Des Moines Register, November 4, 2003, p. 1B.
Elbert, David. "Mall Reaches Milestone", Des Moines Register, August 22, 1994, pp. 1B & 3B.
Henning, Barbara Beving Long, Patrice K. Beam (2003). Des Moines and Polk County: Flag on the Prairie. Sun Valley, California: American Historical Press. ISBN 1-892724-34-0.
LaMarca & Landry, P.C. One Theory on Younkers Deaths. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.