Des Moines Business Record
03-11-07
Ames remains divided on new shopping mall
By Sharon Baltes sharonbaltes@dpcdm.com
These illustrations show various views of the proposed regional shopping center that a Tennessee developer hopes to build at the northeast corner of Ames.
The developer of a new regional shopping center on the northeast side of Ames has the city's approval to move ahead with creating detailed site plans.
But even after nearly five years of public meetings and discussions about the proposed shopping center, Ames residents are still divided on whether the project makes sense. Though some believe the shopping center would have a positive impact on the city's economy, other residents fear that it will have a disruptive influence on overall land use and hurt retailers in other parts of the community.
"We'd like to think that a facility like this would bring more people and more retail dollars to our community, but no one can say for sure what kind of economic impact it's going to have," said Dan Culhane, president and CEO of the Ames
Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Commission.
Wolford Development Options LLC of Chattanooga, Tenn., is the developer behind the open-air shopping center and big-box retail area proposed for land near Ames' 13th Street exit from Interstate 35. The project was first proposed a few years ago, but it has been slow to move ahead because of a long public debate over the plans. In 2006, the scales started tipping in Wolford's favor. First, the city rezoned the 236-acre site for the shopping center from agricultural to regional commercial. Then in December, it approved Wolford's master plan for the site.
New Look for North Grand
The owner of North Grand Mall, Illinois-based GK Development Inc., has plans of its own for keeping its property a shopping destination.
Kurt Carlson, the mall's general manager, said GK has submitted plans to Ames'
Planning and Zoning Commission for a 150,000-square-foot addition. The plans call for an "open-air" center to the south of the main mall. In addition, the company plans to renovate the interior of the mall in the near future and make updates to the exterior façade. Carlson said portions of the construction could begin this year if plans are approved in time.

North Grand currently has 56 stores, Carlson said, with a occupancy rate of about 90 percent.
"Competition keeps everybody on their toes," Carlson said. "We are anxious to get started with the expansion and keep working forward to improve our shopping offerings to our customers."
Now, the developer is producing more detailed site plans for the project, which will go before the Ames City Council for approval. If those plans are completed and approved soon, construction could begin this year, Culhane said.
"We are under the impression that the project has the clearance to move full speed ahead as long as they are in compliance with the city of Ames," Culhane said.
James "Bucky" Wolford, the president of Wolford Development, was unavailable for comment about his company's plans. Dan Rice, an Ames city councilman who has opposed Wolford's project from the start, still hopes that Wolford's company will abandon its plans altogether.
"I have never really been in favor of the project, so if it gets dropped, it would be the best thing for the city in my mind," Rice said.
Rice is not alone in his views. Land use is among the top concerns of opponents of the project, especially among members of the Ames Smart Growth Alliance.
The area where Wolford's mall would be built, north of 13th Street and west of
Interstate 35, is agricultural land with adjacent industrial land. Sauer-Danfoss
Inc.'s campus is on the south side of 13th Street, across from the proposed site.
Barilla - North America's plant is nearby on the east side of I-35.
"Our group feels like the location for the mall is not the most appropriate," said
Catherine Scott, chairwoman of the Ames Smart Growth Alliance. "Because of its proximity to rail and interstate access, that land would be better used for industrial purposes."
Another concern about the shopping center's location is that it does not complement current growth trends within the city, according to Dave Swenson, associate scientist in economics at Iowa State University . Swenson, an
Ames resident, said the city has been growing primarily to the south along Duff
Avenue, and some to the west and southwest. The shopping center location is about a mile and a half away from other commercial development in Ames,
Swenson said.
"It's going to have a disruptive influence on overall land use," Swenson said.
"When you have a bunch of commercial development this far away from the rest of the city, its efficacy to the community is relatively low."

But Ray Anderson, a planner for the city of Ames, said the location for the proposed mall makes sense from a development standpoint.
"For this type of development, you need quite a large number of acres of land to accommodate it, and there is no other area in the community where there is that much land available," Anderson said. "And being a regional commercial site, it needs to be accessible for people outside the community in addition to local residents."
Swenson acknowledges that it is common for large retail developments to locate at the edge of a city where there is undeveloped land. Jordan Creek Town
Center in West Des Moines is an example of that trend. But the anomaly with
Wolford's project is that most retail developments "follow rooftops," and there is no housing in the industrial area where Wolford wants to build. That concerns the
Ames Smart Growth Alliance.
"Our organization believes in people being able to use alternative forms of transportation besides the car, and this is too far for people to walk or ride a bike, and it will cost a lot for the city to extend bus service out there," Scott said.
Another potential problem with the development site is its proximity to a wetland area called Ketelsen Marsh. Even if Wolford built a fence and kept a large buffer zone between the retail areas and the marsh, Scott expects the project would still have a negative effect on the wildlife in the wetland area.
In addition to issues pertaining to the site Wolford has selected, some Ames residents are worried that the city would not be able to support its existing retail base in addition to the new shopping center. The current mall, North Grand Mall, would likely suffer should the new shopping center open, Swenson said.
"A big portion of the gains with any new retail configuration comes at the expense of other commercial activity," Swenson said. "We would see a shift where commerce takes place."
Swenson expects that some of the stores at North Grand would "jump ship" to go to the new mall, because retailers generally migrate toward where they can make the most money.
But Swenson also thinks the new shopping center has potential to benefit the local economy by making Ames a slightly more desirable destination for people from the west, east and north, while preventing some retail sales from leaving
Ames. But he doesn't think the long-term economic impact would be significant.

"Ten years down the road, we should be able to claim a net positive for the economy; whether or not the community is in better shape at that time remains to be seen," he said.