Westdale Mall
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| Westdale Mall | |
 |
|
| Facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States |
| Opening date | October 4, 1979 |
| Developer | The Hahn Company |
| Management | Heritage Property Management/ General Growth Properties (leasing) |
| Owner | Cedar Rapids Properties, Inc. |
| No. of stores and services | 49 (as of July 2007)[1] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 (+1 vacant anchor) |
| Total retail floor area | 854,000 ft² (79,000 m²)[2] |
| Parking | 5,500 spaces[2] |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | www.shopwestdale.com |
Westdale Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The two-level mall on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids is one of the city's two enclosed malls, along with Lindale Mall on the city's northeast side. In recent years, Westdale has taken on some characteristics of a dead mall as one of its four anchor stores and an estimated 60 percent of inline stores have been vacated as of July 2007.[3]
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Planning and construction
Plans for Westdale Mall were first announced on March 29, 1972. Original plans called for a 560,000-square-foot (52,000 m²) mall with two or three anchor stores and 30 to 50 smaller stores on 66 acres of land. Later that year, developer Ernest W. Hahn of The Hahn Company acquired the mall's property from Midwest Development of Cedar Rapids and Dial Realty of Omaha, Nebraska. In 1974, Hahn asked the Cedar Rapids City Council to rezone an additional 21 acres of land from residential to commercial use. An organization of citizens known as "Taxpayers for Sensible Planning" opposed the rezoning, claiming that construction of a larger mall would have a severe impact on existing businesses in the Cedar Rapids area. Despite the opposition, the City Council approved the rezoning by a 4-1 vote on May 22, 1974. The recession of 1974 delayed the start of construction until May of 1976 and a seven-week electricians' strike delayed the mall's opening to October 4, 1979.[4]
Despite the construction problems and layoffs in Cedar Rapids' manufacturing sector during the recession of 1980, Westdale Mall was at 93 percent capacity with 114 stores by the beginning of 1981. Westdale attracted shoppers from counties throughout eastern Iowa and surrounding states, including cities such as Davenport and Waterloo that already had enclosed malls.[5]
[edit] Anchor and ownership changes
JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, Younkers, and Brandeis signed on as anchors before construction of Westdale Mall began, but Brandeis withdrew from the mall while its store was still under construction.[4][5] Wards and JCPenney, which both relocated from downtown Cedar Rapids, were the first two anchor stores to open while Younkers and Petersen Harned Von Maur (Brandeis' replacement) opened in 1980. Wards closed in early 2001 as the chain ceased operations, and the anchor space remained vacant for more than four years until Steve & Barry's opened there in November 2005.[6] On January 31, 2007, Von Maur closed its Westdale Mall store due to a decline in business and offered its 80 employees positions at its Lindale Mall and Iowa City locations.[7] That anchor space remains vacant.
Westdale Mall was built by The Hahn Company, which became TrizecHahn in 1980; TrizecHahn sold Westdale to The Rouse Company in April 1998.[8] The Festival Companies of Los Angeles, California, took over management of Westdale in November 2004. Shortly after that, Festival announced a $20 million renovation plan that would expand the mall and add a new food court. However, those plans never materialized as tenants continued to leave the mall amid competition from Coral Ridge Mall 20 miles (32 km) to the south. In November 2006, Westdale was placed in administrative receivership after H-N-W Associates, a part-owner of the mall, fell behind on its mortgage payments. Heritage Property Management of Cedar Rapids took over management of the mall at the time.[9] In December 2006, General Growth Properties (owner of Coral Ridge Mall) took over the leasing duties for the mall. Westdale was sold to Cedar Rapids Properties, Inc., in a sheriff's sale on July 10, 2007.[3]
By March of 2007, over 50% of the mall stores had closed. The Cedar Rapids City Council voted to delay any major redevelopment work at the mall for six months, in the hopes that whoever purchases the mall property does not break it apart.[10] On May 9, 2007, the City Council voted 7-1 to lift the moratorium on a mostly vacant outparcel building that was originally built as an Econofoods supermarket and was more recently a Big Lots store; two local developers planned to reconfigure that building and build a Sonic Drive-In and T.G.I. Friday's on the property.[11] However in September of 2007 T.G.I. Friday's canceled its plans to open a restaurant at that location amid concerns that they would not make enough money there. Sonic also backed out of its plan to open a restaurant at that location shortly after that.[12] The city council later reimposed the development moratorium before they unanimously agreed to set it aside on December 19, 2007.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ General Growth Properties. Westdale Mall: Tenant List. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
- ^ a b General Growth Properties. Westdale Mall: Center Information. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
- ^ a b Smith, Rick. "No surprises in mall foreclosure sale", The Gazette (Cedar Rapids), 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b Hogan, Dick. "7-year saga of Westdale project", The Gazette, 1979-09-30, p. 1C.
- ^ a b Carlson, John. "Cedar Rapids survives... despite tough times in 1980", Des Moines Sunday Register, 1981-01-11, pp. 42Y-43Y.
- ^ DeWitte, David. "Sportswear chain joins Westdale", The Gazette, 2005-10-26, p. 7B.
- ^ Geary, Mark. "Von Maur to Close Westdale Mall Location", KCRG-TV, 2007-01-24.
- ^ Ford, George C. "Westdale marks 20 years", The Gazette, 1999-11-28, p. 1F.
- ^ DeWitte, David. "Foreclosure for Westdale Mall", The Gazette, 2006-11-15, p. 1A.
- ^ Geary, Mark. "Another Store Plans to Leave Westdale Mall", KCRG-TV, 2007-03-16.
- ^ Smith, Rick. "Council lifts Westdale moratorium", The Gazette, 2007-05-09.
- ^ Geary, Mark. "T.G.I. Fridays and Sonic Cancel Plans to Move Near Westdale Mall", KCRG-TV, 2007-09-11.
- ^ Smith, Rick. "Council steps back from Westdale's troubles", The Gazette, 2007-12-19.
