Not far away from those stores, the finishing touches are being put on the new Chick-fil-A restaurant.

“Our vision for Chick-fil-A Fort Dodge is to inspire future generations by building a legacy of remarkable care,” said Adam Heynen, the restaurant’s owner.

On the western edge of the development, an immense building that will house indoor sports and a brewpub/restaurant is being constructed. The 200-by-250-foot pavilion will house four basketball courts, three pickleball courts and a microbrewery restaurant.

It will be owned and operated by M & M LLC, of Ankeny.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Dunham's Sports is part of what's considered the Power Center of the Corridor Plaza. The store opened in early November 2024.

After what seemed like a long construction process, the site of the former Crossroads Mall is once again becoming a hotbed of retail commerce.

And there is more to come.

ULTA, a cosmetics store, will open in the same building with Dunham’s Sports, Shoe Sensation and Maurice’s. That store is scheduled to open this spring, according to BJ Stokesbary, a spokesman for Crossroads Plaza Development LLC, of Ankeny, which owns the site.

The building that houses all those stores was the Younkers wing of the former Crossroads Mall, and it is the only portion of the mall that is still standing. The new owners refer to it as the Power Center.

The ULTA store will fill the last vacancy in the Power Center. However, there is still space within Corridor Plaza.

Stokesbary said Autozone and Dairy Queen have both purchased lots in the development. Autozone will be located at the north end of the site, west of UnityPoint Clinic Express. Construction of the store hasn’t started yet.

Details on the new Dairy Queen haven’t been released yet.

And while the new stores and the pavilion are the most eye-catching new developments in Corridor Plaza over the last year, Stokesbary said that something just as important, but far less visible was also completed. He said all the roads, storm sewers, water mains and sanitary sewer mains are now complete.

This year, an outdoor plaza will be built on the west side of the property near the pavilion.

Stokesbary said there are four or five lots remaining in the complex.

He said the goal of building a hotel north of the plaza remains, while the remaining lots would be for other restaurants or stores.

Power Center stores

The opening of the Power Center marked a return to Fort Dodge for Dunham’s Sports and Maurice’s, which both had stores in the former Crossroads Mall. And it marked a return to its local roots for Shoe Sensation, which had a store in the mall, moved to a site on Second Avenue North when the mall closed, and then moved to Corridor Plaza.

All three stores opened in early November, in time for the Christmas shopping season.

“Fort Dodge has always been a great community for Dunham’s Sports and we are excited to be returning bigger and better than ever,” David Lynch, the company’s president, said when the new local store opened.

Dunham’s Sports previously had a store in the mall, which closed in 2022.

Timeline of Corridor Plaza Development

The transformation of the former Crossroads Mall property began in late 2019 when the former Sears store at its south end was torn down.

The JCPenny store on the north end was demolished a year later.

Crossroads Plaza Development LLC, of Ankeny, completed its purchase of the property in early 2020 and announced plans to turn it into a multi-use area of stores, restaurants, a hotel and outdoor gathering spaces.

The center core section of the mall was demolished in the fall of 2022.

A new section of Second Avenue South was built across the northern end of the site and a new section of 27th Street crosses the site from north to south.

Businesses in Corridor Plaza now include UnityPoint Clinic Express, Teriyaki Madness, Clean Laundry, T-Mobile, Tidal Wave Auto Spa, Dunham’s Sports, Maurice’s and Shoe Sensation.