Construction of two new roads through the mall site is expected to begin late this year.

Additionally, construction of a new tire store close to Fifth Avenue South may also get started late this year.

Eventually, the main building of the mall will be leveled, making way for a complex of stores, offices, apartments, a gas station, a medical facility and a hotel. A 10,000-square-foot green space will be created near the center of the property.

The entire complex will be known as Corridor Plaza.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
The vacant building that once housed the JC Penney store in the Crossroads Mall will be torn down this year, with demolition work expected to begin in about 30 days.

That is the vision of Corridor Plaza LLC, an Ankeny firm that bought the mall in a $3.3 million deal that was closed in March. The property was purchased from Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and CH Capital, all of Great Neck, New York.

The former Sears store at the south end of the mall was demolished in late 2019.

Since then there hasn’t been any major work on the site. That is about to change.

”We are about 30 days away from starting demolition of Younkers and JC Penney,” BJ Stokesbary, a representative of Corridor Plaza LLC, said Tuesday evening.

JC Penney closed in 2017; Younkers was shuttered a year later.

Stokesbary said that when the demolition of the two structures is complete, work will begin on two new streets that will go through the site.

A new section of South 27th Street will extend from First Avenue South to Fifth Avenue South. A new section of Second Avenue South will go between South 25th Street and South 29th Street.

Discount Tire may start building its new store on the south end of the property, near Fifth Avenue South, this year.

That company purchased property there independently of the Corridor Plaza LLC deal. Although he’s not directly involved in that project, Stokesbary said he learned that Discount Tire is seeking bids from contractors, a move which would seem to indicate that construction is planned soon.

Stokesbary outlined the upcoming developments after the city’s Plan and Zoning Commission considered a couple of items related to the Corridor Plaza LLC project.

The commission recommended approval of the final plat for the site. The final plat is a diagram that shows where every building, street and utility will be located.

The commission also recommended that the 30.1-acre site be rezoned from arterial commercial and shopping center commercial to a planned development zone.