When UNI marketing professor Matthew Wilson thinks back to growing up in Cedar Falls in the ’70s, a lot has changed. The Industrial Park was still cornfields, and downtown Cedar Falls was basically a ghost town. Another major change: the mall. What was once a hot spot for shopping is now a mostly empty building. “I just remember I spent hours in the bookstore there, hours in the Music Land that we’d buy records at,” Wilson recalls when reflecting upon his time in the mall as a child. “Those were the places you’d spend hours at. Your parents would go shopping and they’d hand you a handful of quarters, and you’d go play video games [at the arcade] for an hour.”

The College Square Mall has been in Cedar Falls for over 50 years now. The mall officially opened on Nov. 12, 1969, and at the time was the largest mall in the state of Iowa. For a long time, the mall was a popular spot, drawing in many customers by hosting Saturday concerts in the center court. A mall walking program was also introduced to attract more visitors.

In 1984, the mall took on a three-year renovation project worth $10 million. These renovations were a result of constant changes in tenants and included new signage, fountains, skylights and planters. Following these renovations, the mall was the second-largest employer in Cedar Falls.

The mall underwent a second renovation in 2005, this time with the opening of the current HyVee Supermarket directly to the west. However, the mall faced difficult times after the 2007-2008 recession, resulting in the loss of numerous tenants. In 2013, the mall was sold to Namdar Realty Group, a New York City-based company that, as of 2021, owns over 400 properties across the United States. Namdar currently still owns College Square Mall as well as Crossroads Mall in Waterloo. Following this change in ownership, the mall’s occupancy rate began to decline rapidly.

With newly elected city officials this year, the question has begun to rise of what will happen to prominent places in Cedar Falls such as College Hill and the College Square Mall. Newly elected Cedar Falls mayor Danny Laudick said that the first step to being able to improve this mall is acquiring the mall.

“It’s really hard for us as a community to do much with it when the people that own it don’t want to do much with it,” Laudick said.

The Cedar Falls Economic Development Corp has been in talks with Namdar, the mall’s current owner, to determine a reasonable asking price. Still, Laudick says Namdar is asking for an extremely high amount due to a lack of incentive to sell it.

Cedar Falls citizens, as well as UNI students and faculty, all have their thoughts and opinions as to what should happen to the mall once it is acquired. Several UNI faculty members grew up in Cedar Falls and can remember a time when the mall was more than a rundown mostly empty building. However, Wilson is unsure of what the future of the mall looks like. “I think they’re in a real bind,” Wilson said. “From a marketing perspective, they’ve got all this real estate. And the thing that is going to build up traffic again, you need destination stores.”

As it doesn’t seem like the mall is going to attract any big-brand stores, the city may need to look at other options. Laudick said possible ideas have included revitalizing the area for new retail space, a potential community center or mixed-use with retail and apartments.

“Businesses, I think, are interested in this area, just not the current mall,” Laudick said. “There’s really not much foot traffic in there; it’s not a great location to be.”

However, regardless of what the mall becomes, taking on a project this size means having long-term visions as to what is going to happen to the mall in the future.

In terms of whether the College Square Mall has a future in Cedar Falls, it’s hard to tell. Improving College Hill is at the forefront of what the city wants to do, but they are hoping in the next couple of years to begin putting the big plan for revitalizing the mall together in the coming years.

“I do think that there are ways to use the mall,” councilmember Aaron Hawbaker said. “But just not in the traditional sense.”

In the meantime, the city is currently looking at the 2027-28 FY to begin putting the big plans together for the mall and hopes to work with a private developer to begin conducting studies to get the city’s input on what the mall will eventually become.