Yahoo Finance

Originally the idea was conceived as a “mega mall,” with anchor stores like JCPenney, Sears and “the usual suspects,” Evans said. At the time Iowa's four largest malls were more than 25 years old, built on an aging template of big box stores connected by rows of smaller shops.

Jordan Creek would embody newer ideas aimed at getting shoppers to spend more time, and do more spending. To get a sense of the concept, West Des Moines city leaders toured the then-new, 99-acre, General Growth-built RiverTown Crossings mall in metro Grand Rapids, Michigan.

RiverTown Crossings opened in 1999. It had soaring spaces, a robust food court and lots of entertainment options. Almost 25 years later, it remains a local favorite.

“We came to the conclusion pretty quickly that this is going to spur a lot of development around it,” Evans said.

But RiverTown's designers learned some lessons from that development, he said. As a myriad of shops, restaurants and other businesses quickly sprung up on the mall's fringes, General Growth realized that it was missing out on the boom it had set off because it owned none of the land those projects occupied. So when the company set out to build Jordan Creek Town Center, it made sure to acquire not just the mall site but substantial outparcels to the north and south.

Now owned by New York-based Brookfield Properties, Jordan Creek is a complex that extends well beyond the enclosed mall anchored by the Von Maur and Dillard's department stores and the Scheels sporting goods megastore.

“In Grand Rapids they just had a mall, but then they didn’t have these big outparcels, what we refer to now as the Village, where you got Costco, Best Buy and all those types of players,” Evans said. “Same thing with the restaurant district.”

In addition, while most malls built through the 1990s were directly adjacent to interstate highways, Jordan Creek Town Center is purposely out of sight of either Interstates 80 or 35. The idea was that people who came to shop there would hang around, not be as tempted to jump on the highway and head to another retail center.

“They wanted to make it a destination,” Evans said.

Jordan Creek has been successful, but at whose expense?

Jordan Creek was not without controversy. Some thought it was too far from the interstates to make it viable. At the opposite end of the spectrum were concerns that it would draw business away from other local malls, borne out by the fact that the only mall that still has a traditional department store anchor is Valley West, with JCPenney. In foreclosure though still operating for now, Valley West lost its Von Maur to Jordan Creek last year.

An Iowa State University study paid for by Jordan Creek opponents found that Valley West, also in West Des Moines, would lose $37 million per year in sales to the new mall; Merle Hay Mall, on the Des Moines/Urbandale line, would lose $24 million annually; and Southridge Mall, on the southeast side of Des Moines, $12 million.

Merle Hay and Valley West sued West Des Moines, alleging the city had improperly allotted tax increment financing dollars to improve the infrastructure around the Jordan Creek site. Stephen Watson, then president of the Minneapolis company that owned Valley West, said it was “completely unfair to ask us to compete against a government-subsidized competitor.”

More: Ungraceful aging: a look at the history of Valley West Mall

The Iowa Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2002. And in Evans' view, the city’s bullishness on the project paid off.

The infrastructure in question included turning 74th Street into the six-lane Jordan Creek Parkway, linked to the similarly broad Mills Civic Parkway. Evans said the infrastructure investment was a major factor in Wells Fargo's decision to build a multibuilding, landscaped office at the southwest corner of that intersection to house its mortgage division. The company had considered sites in San Antonio, Texas; Phoenix; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Now, even more of the 11,000 people the San Francisco bank employs in the Des Moines metro are heading there as it sells off most of its downtown office holdings.

“Because of the infrastructure that the city put in, that drove Wells Fargo coming, because Wells Fargo was concerned about getting employees to and from their site,” Evans said.

If you build it, more will come

As the mall opened, other businesses moved in. A Super Target opened the same year in the West Glen area, a mile and a half from the mall. Walmart opened a Supercenter store in 2006 across the street from Jordan Creek’s southern outparcels. Wells Fargo completed its campus in 2007. Another major financial industry employer, Aviva, now known as Athene, built its corporate headquarters across Jordan Creek Parkway from Wells in 2010. Then stores like REI, Kohl’s and Lowe’s opened.

Smash Park, now in expansion mode, established it initial location east of Jordan Creek Town Center in 2018. A Residence Inn hotel sits on the property, and three other hotels are just east of the mall.

Land to the west filled up with the Spare Time bowling alley, Hobby Lobby and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Topgolf plans to build its West Des Moines location on the northwest corner of Mills Civic and Jordan Creek.

"You have the only REI, The Container Store, the only Nordstrom Rack" in the Des Moines metro, said Hyde, the retail industry analyst. "Those are all tenants that followed that mall, but they want to follow that trade area too."

Other only-in-Jordan Creek businesses include Trader Joe's, and several in the mall itself, including the metro's first location of the hot clothing retailer H&M. Residential development also mushroomed.

Viewed in time-lapse satellite photographs on Google EarthEngine, the development begins in the early 2000s with the mall going up in the middle of the quadrant southwest of the I-35/I-80 interchange, then explodes outward, filling in the area and helping fuel the suburban expansion that makes Dallas County one of the fastest-growing in the country.

As for the city of West Des Moines, from 2000 to 2020, its population grew 46%.

West Glen Town Center, the live-work-shop-play development anchored by the Target, would have developed at a slower pace were the mall not built, Evans said. The development was successful "because you have the draw of Jordan Creek,” he said. “Go out there any day of the week and see how much traffic is coming and going from that area to the interstate. Mills Parkway is probably carrying more traffic than a lot of the interstate system here in the metro.”

More: As suburbs annex land, how big will places like Ankeny and West Des Moines get?

This year a developer built two new buildings in Jordan Creek outlots north of Scheels, leaving few remaining places around the mall to build.

Another developer, Richard Hurd, "has a few parcels left between Jordan Creek and Mills Civic, but beyond that it’s pretty well developed,” Hyde said.

There's also a 3.5-acre site northwest of Scheels, one of the few undeveloped plots Jordan Creek owner Brookfield Properties still holds, Jordan Creek general manager Randy Tennison said. Someday, a hotel could be built there, but Jordan Creek's management will develop it only when the project feels right, he said.

“We don’t have too many opportunities to do many more things,” Tennison said. “So we still have this in our back pocket when the right thing happens. You don’t want to rush and do something to do something. So we’re taking our time with the opportunities that we have, to make sure that truly complements the property.”

Jordan Creek outperforms malls across the country

On Jordan Creek’s opening day, 134,000 people visited. Today the mall regularly draws people from seven states, Evans said.

Britt Burridge, Midwest vice president of leasing at Brookfield Properties, said that among the company’s 160 shopping centers in seven countries, Jordan Creek is one of the top performers. Des Moines is the 81st-largest metro area in the U.S., but Jordan Creek performs like a shopping complex in a top-20 market, Burridge said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, it has had 34 tenants move in or expand, Burridge said. Sales at the center are up 33% from five years ago, he said.

“Jordan Creek is in the top echelon of all of our properties,” he said. “We always laugh when we hear about the death of the mall. Because when you’ve got really good shopping centers like Jordan Creek, all the metrics are there. Certainly you see malls that are going the other way, but we’re lucky to have a good one here. “

Though online sales have eaten into traditional retailing, successful sellers cater to customers in both formats, according to a 2022 report from Moody's Analytics.

"Everyone wants to talk about online," said Hyde, the JLL analyst. "The businesses that give you that experience, they’re driving people out to the locations. People are going out to see the new gadget or touch the material or try on clothes."

The strength of the Des Moines market, the fastest-growing major metro area in the Midwest, is one reason Jordan Creek performs so well, Burridge said.

“The more people you have, the more potential customers you have," he said. "So I’m sure that’s a big component of the traffic increases and the sales increases that we see for our retailers.”

Of course, not every business at Jordan Creek is a raging success. The Zombie Burger location “does OK,” but does not hit the sales targets Orchestrate hoped for when it opened, owner Formaro said. But Jordan Creek feels like vibrant malls of his youth, he said.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for malls, and watching them die over the last decade has been painful to watch,” he said. “ I’m happy to be a part of that mall, and as simple as that sounds, that’s an important thing for me.”

Will Jordan Creek add another wing?

Tennison is the mall’s de facto historian. Stores fit together like puzzle pieces. As they come and go through recessions and bankruptcies, the puzzle changes shapes. Tennison remembers every puzzle combination. As he strolls through the mall, he points out where old stores were or where management moved stores so others could expand.

In July, Rally House, a sports apparel store, moved from a temporary location in the middle of the mall to a permanent location across from the food court.

“It’s a nice little addition. They do well. What’s cool about them is they carry the local restaurant type stuff too, like shirts with Fong’s Pizza and stuff like that,” Tennison said. “It’s kind of different than just a sports company.”

Only one space in the mall has never been leased and has its original concrete floor. Next to Dillard’s, the space is covered with a wooden, black wall.

“It’s kind of down here way away from everything. But someday we’ll find the right thing to do with it," Tennison said.

His biggest problem is finding space. Jordan Creek has a 99% occupancy rate. From the second quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, malls nationwide had a vacancy rate of 10.3 %, according to Moody’s.

Jordan Creek was built with space for 165 stores, but several stores now take up room designed for more than one store. Since 2004 the Apple Store has tripled in size. Lululemon moved into a new space that spans three storefronts. H&M occupies four spaces on the first floor and two upstairs. In September Urban Outfitters opened a second-floor store that takes up five spaces.

Crate and Barrel used to be at the mall, and shoppers want the store back, Tennison said.

“It’s just a matter of finding space for somebody like that,” Tennison said. “I don’t have 5,000 or 6,000 square feet.”

Tennison dreams of the day when Jordan Creek will build its third shopping wing. Designers left room at the center of the mall to do it. Over the years Brookfield explored building it to host several prospective anchor tenants, but none has bit. Jordan Creek needs the room to house mid-sized shops, but the addition would cost $20 million to $50 million, Tennison said.

“So how can you make sure you get that return back without overcharging on rent?” Tennison said. “It’s nice to have in our back pocket, but the numbers haven’t worked yet. So some day.”

Holiday retail sales are expected to increase 3.5% to 4.6% above the 2022 holiday shopping period, according to Deloitte. But consumers now have less buying power. Since 2019, the Consumer Price Index has gone up 21%, Hyde said.

"That stings a little bit," he said of this year's holiday shopping projections.

Wells Fargo predicted that holiday sales will increase 5%.

"Even though it would be an above-average year, it would still mark the slowest pace of growth since just ahead of the pandemic and will feel like somewhat of a slowdown to many retailers," according to Wells Fargo's holiday forecast.

As Santa Claus gets shoppers in a festive mood, Tennison expects sales at Jordan Creek to be stronger than ever this holiday season.

"We have been trending well above the national average, and I think we will continue to do that," Tennison said. "We’re in a great economy. We’re in a great market, great customers. Then the property itself has what people want."

In part 2: As Jordan Creek thrives, Valley West becomes a liability. What's next for the aging mall?

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Are malls dying? Don't tell that to Jordan Creek Town Center