Mall of the Bluffs

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Coyote
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Post by Coyote »

This place is dead. The only sign I saw on the whole complex was "Karate"...

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skinzfan23
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Post by skinzfan23 »

Sbarro to serve last pizzas on Sunday
The Nonpareil wrote:
Sbarro has been a fixture in the mall’s food court since the shopping center opened in 1986. In recent years, other eateries in the court began closing their doors. It’s now to the point where the Little King sandwich shop will be the mall’s only dining option come Monday.
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TitosBuritoBarn
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

If a Sbarro can't survive in a mall, nothing can. That's pretty much a death certificate.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Omaha_Gabe »

Pretty sure the mall should be torn down minus planet fitness or turned into something different. With buckle moving I don't see any other stores surviving. It was the only reason I stepped foot in the mall but who knows
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Post by Omababe »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:If a Sbarro can't survive in a mall, nothing can. That's pretty much a death certificate.
Wasn't Sbarro the last holdout in the Crossroads food court?
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Post by Joe_Sovereign »

Omababe wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:If a Sbarro can't survive in a mall, nothing can. That's pretty much a death certificate.
Wasn't Sbarro the last holdout in the Crossroads food court?
I ate at that Sbarro the day Mall of the Bluffs opened in 1985
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Post by Omababe »

Joe_Sovereign wrote:I ate at that Sbarro the day Mall of the Bluffs opened in 1985
I've eaten at the original Sbarro before it was a chain! :) :) :) (touche') :) :) :) :)
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Post by Joe_Sovereign »

Omababe wrote:
Joe_Sovereign wrote:I ate at that Sbarro the day Mall of the Bluffs opened in 1985
I've eaten at the original Sbarro before it was a chain! :) :) :) (touche') :) :) :) :)
You win.
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iamjacobm
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by iamjacobm »

Going up for auction. Bidding starting at $1.5 million.
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Linkin5
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Linkin5 »

iamjacobm wrote:Going up for auction. Bidding starting at $1.5 million.
You gotta think whomever buys it just wants to demo everything, right?
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skinzfan23
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

I doubt they demo it. Not many malls get demolished shortly after closing. Local examples (Crossroads, Southroads) Usually they try to revamp the space or lease it out as office space.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Greg S »

Just a sign of the times. The outdoor centers in CB crushed this place. I remember when Crossroads started it's down hill slide. Everyone criticized Simon at the time and praised General Growth. The reality is there are only going to be very few enclosed indoor centers going forward, and no or few new ones built going forward.


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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Joe_Sovereign »

That is a ton of land for 1.5 Million. You could build apartment buildings in 3/4 of the parking lot and not even touch the mall.

Keep a small portion of the mall open for retail, the residents and employees of businesses in the mall will increase traffic. Create a startup incubator and rent out space for very low rates, you can even get grants or donations to support this kind of operation. Look for businesses or entertainment options that require large amounts of cheap space.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

The $1.5 million is the starting price though, I wonder what it actually ends up selling for. I am thinking around $5 million or so.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Greg S »

Kevin Smith is touring recently vacated malls on the East Coast for locations to shoot Mall Rats. Granit Run in PA is a contender. If it's picked, they will shoot the movie there, then it will be torn up and converted to open air/lifestyle center.

If it was more than one floor, they could have considered Mall of the Bluffs. The original movie was shot in Minnesota.

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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Joe_Sovereign »

The Eastend of Council Bluffs around that Mall and the area to the South of Mall of the Bluffs is not poor. The immediate Mall area housing stock is a little old but is working class at the worst. The newer areas to the south of the mall are comparable to most West Omaha starter neighborhoods with pockets of much nicer high end homes.

The "Council-Bluffs" name calling cr*p is really old and really ignorant. It is also funny because by most objective standards both Iowa and Kentucky are much nicer states to live in then Nebraska.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by MTO »

Little Frankfurt aka CB is in the perfect situation to get dense. They have buttes to it's east and a state boundary to it's west that is butt up against the interior of a 1 million metro. Of course it can slowly cross the buttes or slip up or down the I29 corridor but screw that, build up. Take advantage of the proximity of downtown while the Nebraska suburbs grow so far away. I guess as an urbanist I look for any excuse to build up. Anyway an urban village like project with some green is what I'm hoping for.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by GRANDPASMUCKER »

Joe_Sovereign wrote:The Eastend of Council Bluffs around that Mall and the area to the South of Mall of the Bluffs is not poor. The immediate Mall area housing stock is a little old but is working class at the worst. The newer areas to the south of the mall are comparable to most West Omaha starter neighborhoods with pockets of much nicer high end homes.

The "Council-Bluffs" name calling cr*p is really old and really ignorant. It is also funny because by most objective standards both Iowa and Kentucky are much nicer states to live in then Nebraska.

Don't get me wrong I would much rather live in Council Bluffs then anywhere in Omaha east of 50th. :what:
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by EastCB »

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:
Joe_Sovereign wrote:The Eastend of Council Bluffs around that Mall and the area to the South of Mall of the Bluffs is not poor. The immediate Mall area housing stock is a little old but is working class at the worst. The newer areas to the south of the mall are comparable to most West Omaha starter neighborhoods with pockets of much nicer high end homes.

The "Council-Bluffs" name calling cr*p is really old and really ignorant. It is also funny because by most objective standards both Iowa and Kentucky are much nicer states to live in then Nebraska.

Don't get me wrong I would much rather live in Council Bluffs then anywhere in Omaha east of 50th. :what:

Yea, name calling is not cool. We don't want people like you.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by EastCB »

The areas east of the mall are VERY upscale. Forest Glenn, Bent Tree, etc. Also Ridgeview Estates in north CB. Heartland Country Estates to the south. The Hills of Cedar Creek, Ferndale, Briarwood and many more middle class subdivisions that make this a great city. It really irritates me that some old grandpa thinks he knows it all. Someone should smack his schmucker!
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by MTO »

Even Detroit has mansions but it's still Detroit.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by thenewguy »

I have never understood the 'council t ucky' moniker. There are trashy folks in every city, omaha, lincoln, des moines, etc, included. There are many more people that do not fit that description here than there are that do. Council Bluffs had long been industrial along certain well traveled corridors, which no doubt led to a less glamourous perception. But since the arrival of the casinos, there have been millions spent on civic improvements and beautification. Iowa west has done a lot to improve education, roads, and the city as a whole. Despite being different in size and population than Omaha (which is the difference in business need for high rises, etc), you could take a picture of nearly anywhere in Council Bluffs and it would be interchangeable with a similar neighborhood in Omaha.

But i suppose i will wait for some witty contradiction and thinly veiled insult to ensue, because people will always feel best when they elevate themselves above others.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by icejammer »

Mall of the Bluffs for sale
Mall of the Bluffs is once again for sale – this time, at auction. . . The auction runs from Aug. 3-5.

Namdar leasing manager Chiam Wiater confirmed the main mall building – a 491,988-square-foot facility, according to the listing – was for sale. The ultimate fate of the building, whether demolition or renovation, will be left up to the buyer.

Other properties on the grounds are for sale, but not as part of the auction, Mayor Matt Walsh said. . . .They are Council Bluffs Savings Bank, the Snyder and Associates office, a CHI Health clinic and the McDonald’s restaurant.

. . .A Dillards store attached to the mall building – which is owned by Dillard’s – and the outlying lots are not part of the auction.

According to the listing, Mall of the Bluffs’ occupancy rate May 1 was 35.2 percent, though Wiater believes it has increased since then.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

The sale is today:

Going once, going twice: Mall of the Bluffs will go on the auction block Monday
Opened in 1986 in a prime location adjacent to Interstate 80, the 492,000-square-foot Mall of the Bluffs sounded the death knell for Council Bluffs’ controversial downtown Midlands Mall – touted as an urban renewal project at the time it was built – that had opened in 1976. Once valued at $35 million, the Midlands Mall floundered almost immediately after the opening of the Mall of the Bluffs, losing the first of its anchor tenants in 1987.

Fast forward two decades from 1988, and Council Bluffs residents were again seeing what had happened at the Midlands Mall 20 years before occurring at the Mall of the Bluffs. Increased competition from newer shopping centers – here and in neighboring Omaha – and the closing of anchor stores left a growing number of empty spaces in the mall.
J.C. Penney relocated to the Marketplace on South 24th Street in 2008. Target followed suit a year later, moving to a stand-alone facility at Metro Crossing. Barnes and Noble shuttered its book-selling operation in 2011 without relocating in Council Bluffs. Like Barnes and Noble, Sears, once a mainstay of the Midlands Mall and which occupied the most recent addition to the Mall of the Bluffs, closed its store in Council Bluffs as part of a companywide restructuring.
Two years ago, Chicago-based General Growth Properties sold the Mall of the Bluffs and the other commercial structures on the sprawling property to Namdar Realty Group of Great Neck, New York, for $8.5 million.
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PotatoeEatsFish
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by PotatoeEatsFish »

Why are places like Village Point more popular than malls? Who wants to go shopping and have to walk from store to store on hot days? Plus malls have stores closer.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Joe_Sovereign »

Because they are new. Good Lifestyle Centers that are mixed use like Aksarben Village, I see the appeal.

Village Point is really a reconfigured strip mall, it is upscale and has a good location otherwise I don't see any reason for it's success. It will be dead in 20 years. Instead of connecting Village Point with the Hospital, Medical Buildings, Hotels and now additional retail in Village Point West they are building that area as a suburban Office Park with no Street Grid and random surface parking. There is a Apartment Complex on top of the hill across 180th from Village Point that has to be one of the largest complexes in Omaha that has grown up at the same time as Village Point. Imagine if those couple hundred apartments had been built on top of the Village Point Buildings or at least in Village Point West integrated with the Office and Hotel Space and tied to Village Point with sidewalks and a consistent street grid.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

I agree, I think I have posted this on here before but I wish Village Pointe and Shadow Lake would have better layouts similar to this one north of Milwaukee (Bayshore Town Center) I think this is more sustainable since there are actually residences there as well. I think Village Pointe and Shadow Lake will be popular for 15-20 more years until the newest fad comes along.

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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Joe_Sovereign »

Will there be retail in 15-20 years or will everything come off your 3D printer or be ordered on Amazon and delivered to your door by drone?
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Coyote »

Auction failed to get the $5M minimum bid...
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

I thought the bids were starting at $1.5 million. I realize that starting and min bid can be different but did they honestly think they were going to get at least $5 million.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Coyote »

Yes, that was where it may have started, but the Mall set their minimum acceptable selling bid at $5m which was sealed, so nobody knew how much they were really seeking. They could negotiate with the 'winning bidder' or go back to auction, now that everyone knows what the going price is... But I heard that after buying it for $8m+ a few years back, they may have to reevaluate how they want to proceed... Anyway, it is still for sale...
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Coyote »

BTW, I heard someone suggest that an institution like Iowa Western should buy it and turn it into classrooms and offices...
One problem though was in determining how much of the Mall is actually up for sale...
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by nebugeater »

Coyote wrote:Yes, that was where it may have started, but the Mall set their minimum acceptable selling bid at $5m which was sealed, so nobody knew how much they were really seeking. They could negotiate with the 'winning bidder' or go back to auction, now that everyone knows what the going price is... But I heard that after buying it for $8m+ a few years back, they may have to reevaluate how they want to proceed... Anyway, it is still for sale...

Does anyone know how high the actual bidding got to? Were they even close?
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Ben »

nebugeater wrote:
Coyote wrote:Yes, that was where it may have started, but the Mall set their minimum acceptable selling bid at $5m which was sealed, so nobody knew how much they were really seeking. They could negotiate with the 'winning bidder' or go back to auction, now that everyone knows what the going price is... But I heard that after buying it for $8m+ a few years back, they may have to reevaluate how they want to proceed... Anyway, it is still for sale...

Does anyone know how high the actual bidding got to? Were they even close?
$4.5M So not too far off. My guess is that they're in negotiations with the high bidder now, trying to work out a deal. Must have been a hot and heavy last half hour or so in the auction, as only a couple of hours before, it was sitting at $1.5.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by EastCB »

The current owners replatted the property earlier this year. They have sold a couple of the outlots already. They still own the HyVee store and it has a valuation of around 6 million. I am sure they know what they are doing and won't get stung!
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by Coyote »

nebugeater wrote:Does anyone know how high the actual bidding got to? Were they even close?
Didn't I hear around $4.5M?
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by MTO »

The city should force eminent domain under the auspices of an obstinate seller initiate another bidding but this time without reserve. Get this thing moving in some direction..
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

We shouldn't be optimistic about a grand development going in here. Council Bluffs (and southwest Iowa in general) has stable population and income growth and among Market Pointe, Metro Crossing, River's Edge, and the the area around the Mid-American Center, there is enough available commercial space to occupy the City for awhile. The West Broadway redevelopment plan will add even more competition to the area. If anything I think they should rezone it for residential.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by advcomp2019 »

Coyote wrote:BTW, I heard someone suggest that an institution like Iowa Western should buy it and turn it into classrooms and offices...
One problem though was in determining how much of the Mall is actually up for sale...
I heard this too, but it was way back when Kaplan University was still in the mall, tho.
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Re: Mall of the Bluffs

Post by skinzfan23 »

Not necessarily Mall of the Bluffs news, but

Sears-brand store interested in returning to Bluffs
Officials of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. have announced they are looking to open a store in Council Bluffs. Sears Hometown Stores offers a wide selection of appliances, lawn and garden equipment, tools, fitness equipment and mattresses, according to a press release sent to The Daily Nonpareil. Potential investors have the option of opening a stand-alone store – typically between 8,000 and 10,000 square feet – or adding a Hometown Store to their existing business through the “store within a store” offering, he said. The footprint for an add-on Hometown Store is much smaller, occupying between 2,000 and 5,000 square feet of available space.
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