Improvements are coming to Crossroads Mall, and area residents should remain both patient and positive as new developments occur, the mall’s general manager said Monday evening.

During Monday’s Fort Dodge City Council meeting, Melissa Verschoor said five new businesses have opened in the mall since October 2018.

She added that she is now in conversations that could lead to a new anchor store opening in the mall. She said she hopes to be able to make an announcement about that by the end of this year.

”We do need to support the stores,” she said. ”We need to be positive toward the stores, and we need to be positive toward the community.”

Verschoor said people plan their vacations by researching places online. Business owners and managers do the same thing when considering new locations, but a bunch of negative commentary online could discourage them from coming to the mall or Fort Dodge, she said.

Verschoor said she will be meeting on Wednesday with three local girls who last month submitted a petition to the City Council, asking it to help get more stores in the mall. Samantha Andersen, 11; Marleigh Doan, 12; and Kyla Egli, 11; presented their petition to the council on June 24.

And Verschoor said that for several months, she has been working to educate the mall’s new owners on the realities of being a retail hub in the midst of a rural area.

Last year, the mall was acquired by Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and CH Capital, all of Great Neck, New York. Great Neck is on Long Island in the New York City metropolitan area.