Crossroads Center is a shopping mall located in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 67,314, making it the List of cities in Iowa, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

, United States. It was built in 1970 as one of the first malls in Iowa. It has five vacant anchors formerly occupied by

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company a ...

Gordmans Gordmans (stylized as gordmans) was a retailer founded in Omaha, Nebraska. The chain is owned by BrandX as of May 2022. In 2019, Stage Stores began converting other retail chains it owned into Gordmans stores, with the goal of having 700 Gordman ...

Younkers Younkers Inc. () is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer had evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout ...

, and At Home. It is owned by

Namdar Realty Group Namdar Realty Group is an American shopping mall investment company based in Great Neck, New York. They primarily purchase dead mall, dying or dead shopping malls with partner Mason Asset Management. Namdar and Mason are both family owned, and as ...

. It is located in the heart of a retail hub that includes a 12 screen theater,

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

Super Target Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of the ...

(opened 2000),

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

, and many other national tenants. The mall is located near the interchange of Interstate 380 and

U.S. Highway 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. ...

History

Crossroads Center Inc. announced plans for the mall in 1967, along with two other malls of the same name: one in

St. Cloud, Minnesota St. Cloud or Saint Cloud (; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the c ...

and one in

Fort Dodge, Iowa Fort Dodge is a city in and the county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. F ...

. The Sears anchor store opened first, on March 24, 1969. The mall itself opened one year later, in March 1970, as both the only two-story mall and the first enclosed mall in Iowa. The JCPenney anchor store opened along with the mall, as did Black's department store. Black's became

Donaldson's Donaldson's, previously known as the L. S. Donaldson Company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a defunct department store company. History Scottish immigrant William Donaldson opened a small store in Minneapolis in 1881, located at 3 ...

in 1978 and then

Carson Pirie Scott Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (also known as Carson's) is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. It was sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but sti ...

in 1987. The store closed on September 30, 1989. The upper level of the JCPenney anchor store was converted to a Herberger's anchor store in 1989. In 1991, Sears rented a 57,000 sq ft portion of its anchor store to become a

Phar-Mor Phar-Mor (stylized as ) was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, and founded by Michael I. Monus, Michael "Mickey" Monus and David Shapira in 1982. Some of its stores used the names Pharmhouse and Rx Place ( ...

pharmacy. In 1993, 1/2 Price Store (later renamed

) took over that space. Herberger's was renamed Younkers in 1997. The mall was renovated in 1997 at a cost of $4 million. At the same time, Dillard's constructed a new 155,000 sq ft anchor store connected to the mall, at a cost of $20 million, rather than leasing space. The Dillard's anchor store opened on August 13, 1997. All 1/2 Price Store locations were renamed Gordmans in 2000. On January 8, 2015, it was announced that JCPenney would close, as part of a plan to close 39 locations nationwide. At Home replaced the store in 2016. On January 4, 2018, it was announced that Sears would close, as part of a plan to close 103 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2018. On April 18, 2018,

parent company, the

Bon-Ton Bonton Holdings Inc. operating as Bonton () was an American department store chain and group founded in 1898. It operated in Western New York, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and throughout the Midwestern United States. The former York, Pennsy ...

, announced they would be completely liquidating and closing all stores including the one at Crossroads. The store closed on August 29, 2018. On May 11, 2020,

announced that it would be closing as the parent company is also going out of business. Just eight days later,

announced that this location would close. This left At Home as the only traditional anchor store. On August 2, 2023, it was announced that At Home would be closing by November 2023, which left the mall with no anchors.

References

External links

Crossroads Center official website
{{Shopping malls in Iowa Shopping malls in Iowa Buildings and structures in Waterloo, Iowa Tourist attractions in Black Hawk County, Iowa Shopping malls established in 1970 1970 establishments in Iowa Namdar Realty Group