Coral Ridge Mall
Encyclopedia
Coral Ridge Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall
located just south of Interstate 80
in Coralville, Iowa
. The mall's primary trade area includes Iowa City
, Cedar Rapids
, and other parts of eastern Iowa
. It is managed by General Growth Properties
.
The mall has a total floor area of 1,187,097 square feet (110,285 m2), with a gross leasable area
of 979,415 square feet (90,991 m2). It also features a 1,000-seat food court with Wi-Fi
internet
access, a 10-screen movie theater
complex, a large "antique" carousel, a children's play area, the Iowa Children's Museum, and an NHL
regulation-sized ice rink. While the ice rink is primarily used for public skating, the University of Iowa
Hawkeyes hockey team plays most of its home games there.
Coral Ridge Mall's anchor store
s are Sears
, Dillard's
, JCPenney
, Younkers
, Target
, and Best Buy
, which is attached to Target but not accessible from the rest of the mall. Other major tenants include Barnes & Noble
, Old Navy
, and Scheels All Sports
.
, Lowe's
, Dress Barn, Gordmans
, and a Wal-Mart
SuperCenter have opened in the years following Coral Ridge's opening.
On September 3, 2003, during routine structural checks, officials discovered someone had been secretly growing marijuana near the mall's ceiling. No plants themselves were found but growing lights, gardening pots, and seeds were found in the roof space above one of the tenants. The amount of marijuana that had been grown could not be determined. The perpetrator faced an additional five years to their prison sentence due to the proximity of the Iowa Children's Museum in Coral Ridge Mall.
economics professor Kenneth Stone stated that 18 eastern Iowa counties lost over $120 million in retail sales to Johnson County
in Coral Ridge's first year. In addition, despite the overall increase in taxable sales, general merchandise and apparel sales in Iowa City declined between 1997 and 2007.
Several malls in eastern Iowa, including Old Capitol Mall
in downtown Iowa City and Westdale Mall
in Cedar Rapids, saw an increased number of store closings after Coral Ridge Mall opened. Most of Coral Ridge Mall's anchors, except for Younkers and Dillard's, relocated from other shopping centers in the Iowa City area; Younkers ran two stores in Johnson County before closing its Old Capitol Mall store in January 2005. By 2008, Old Capitol Mall and Sycamore Mall in Iowa City would rebound to 95 percent occupancy under local ownership while downtown Iowa City merchants began to focus on specialty retail.
Coral Ridge Mall was built in a tax increment financing
district. The Des Moines Register reported on August 13, 2006, that the city of Coralville was using the $7 million in property tax
es generated by the mall to pay off long-term debts on a new hotel and convention center instead of using it for local services.
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
located just south of Interstate 80
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...
in Coralville, Iowa
Coralville, Iowa
Coralville is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is a suburb of Iowa City and part of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The mall's primary trade area includes Iowa City
Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...
, Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
, and other parts of eastern Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. It is managed by General Growth Properties
General Growth Properties
General Growth Properties, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust in the United States. It is based in Chicago, Illinois at 110 North Wacker Drive, a historic building designed by architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White...
.
The mall has a total floor area of 1,187,097 square feet (110,285 m2), with a gross leasable area
Gross leasable area
Gross leasable area in the retail development industry is a term applied to shopping malls, lifestyle centers, outlet malls and other retail centers to indicate the amount of floor space available to be rented...
of 979,415 square feet (90,991 m2). It also features a 1,000-seat food court with Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access, a 10-screen movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
complex, a large "antique" carousel, a children's play area, the Iowa Children's Museum, and an NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
regulation-sized ice rink. While the ice rink is primarily used for public skating, the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
Hawkeyes hockey team plays most of its home games there.
Coral Ridge Mall's anchor store
Anchor store
In retail, an anchor store, draw tenant, anchor tenant, or key tenant is one of the larger stores in a shopping mall, usually a department store or a major retail chain....
s are Sears
Sears Holdings Corporation
Sears Holdings Corporation is a retail conglomerate formed in 2005 by the merger of Sears, Roebuck and Co., of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, with Kmart Holdings Corporation, of Troy, Michigan...
, Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
, JCPenney
J.C. Penney
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
, Younkers
Younkers
Younkers is an American department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer has since evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa and surrounding states in the Midwest region of the United States...
, Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, and Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, which is attached to Target but not accessible from the rest of the mall. Other major tenants include Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...
, and Scheels All Sports
Scheels All Sports
Scheels All Sports is a privately held, employee owned and operated sporting goods and entertainment chain store headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. Scheels operates 24 store locations in nine U.S. states. Their slogan is Gear. Passion. Sports....
.
History
Coral Ridge Mall opened on July 29, 1998, with 100% of its floor space leased. It attracted one million visitors in its first 30 days and continues to attract roughly 10 million visitors a year. It also spawned additional retail development at the interchange of I-80 and Iowa Highway 965, now known as Coral Ridge Avenue. Big-box stores such as Kohl'sKohl's
Kohl's Corporation is an American department store chain headquartered in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, operating , 1,089 stores in 49 states. In 1998, it entered the S&P 500 list, and is also listed in the Fortune 500...
, Lowe's
Lowe's
Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in...
, Dress Barn, Gordmans
Gordmans
Gordmans Stores is a chain of mid-western off-price department stores founded and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Today, Gordmans operates 66 stores in 16 states in the United States.-Beginnings:...
, and a Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
SuperCenter have opened in the years following Coral Ridge's opening.
On September 3, 2003, during routine structural checks, officials discovered someone had been secretly growing marijuana near the mall's ceiling. No plants themselves were found but growing lights, gardening pots, and seeds were found in the roof space above one of the tenants. The amount of marijuana that had been grown could not be determined. The perpetrator faced an additional five years to their prison sentence due to the proximity of the Iowa Children's Museum in Coral Ridge Mall.
Economic impact
When Coral Ridge Mall was planned, Iowa City business owners were concerned that the mall would take business away from them. While taxable sales in Coralville increased from $171.2 million in 1998 to $314.6 million in 1999, sales in Iowa City increased from $701.1 million to $733.3 million in that same period. By 2006 taxable sales in Coralville would grow to $549.7 million while sales in Iowa City grew to $901.4 million. However, a 2000 report by Iowa State UniversityIowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
economics professor Kenneth Stone stated that 18 eastern Iowa counties lost over $120 million in retail sales to Johnson County
Johnson County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 130,882 in the county, with a population density of . There were 55,967 housing units, of which 52,715 were occupied.-2000 census:...
in Coral Ridge's first year. In addition, despite the overall increase in taxable sales, general merchandise and apparel sales in Iowa City declined between 1997 and 2007.
Several malls in eastern Iowa, including Old Capitol Mall
Old Capitol Mall
The Old Capitol Mall is a shopping mall in the downtown area of Iowa City, Iowa during the late 20th century...
in downtown Iowa City and Westdale Mall
Westdale Mall
Westdale Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The two-level mall on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids is one of the city's two enclosed malls, along with Lindale Mall on the city's northeast side...
in Cedar Rapids, saw an increased number of store closings after Coral Ridge Mall opened. Most of Coral Ridge Mall's anchors, except for Younkers and Dillard's, relocated from other shopping centers in the Iowa City area; Younkers ran two stores in Johnson County before closing its Old Capitol Mall store in January 2005. By 2008, Old Capitol Mall and Sycamore Mall in Iowa City would rebound to 95 percent occupancy under local ownership while downtown Iowa City merchants began to focus on specialty retail.
Coral Ridge Mall was built in a tax increment financing
Tax increment financing
Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is a public financing method which has been used as a subsidy for redevelopment and community improvement projects in many countries including the United States for more than 50 years...
district. The Des Moines Register reported on August 13, 2006, that the city of Coralville was using the $7 million in property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
es generated by the mall to pay off long-term debts on a new hotel and convention center instead of using it for local services.