Southridge Mall

**cyclonedave25** · 05-22-2009, 10:24 AM

I haven't been to Southridge Mall in decades. I always thought it was kind of a dirty, POS mall. Do they still have that huge carrousel in the middle of the place???

**cyhiphopp** · 05-22-2009, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by cyclonedave25

I haven't been to Southridge Mall in decades. I always thought it was kind of a dirty, POS mall. Do they still have that huge carrousel in the middle of the place???

I think the carrousel is still there, but I wouldn't let my kids on it!

**cyclonedave25** · 05-22-2009, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by cyhiphopp

I think the carrousel is still there, but I wouldn't let my kids on it!

My parents never let me on that thing either...

That's about the only thing I remember from that mall, that and all of those candy machines and that huge gumball machine.

**Clone96** · 05-22-2009, 11:04 AM

To steal the line from Mallrats, Southridge is the dirt mall of the GDMMA

**capitalcityguy** · 05-22-2009, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by mjones34

My clothes shopping consists of two trips a year to Kohl's sale or no sale. Otherwise, anytime wedrive by an outlet mall because can't beat the prices.

Here is the secret: Tell your wife you'd loooove to take her to the Tanger outlet on I-80. You take her on a Sunday afternoon in the fall. Tell her to take all the time in the world. Then you go to the main office area in the Northeast corner of the complex. Go to the lounge with couches and there is a TV with NFL on. It was great last year.

Forgive me for feeling a bit superior, but you basically have it right about the wife heading to the outlet mall but you lose it when you indicate that you are going along for the ride. What's that about?

Wife + best friend - you (because you're staying back at home) = the winning formula.

If mjones gets his man card laminated (as was suggested), I deserve mine to be gold-plated.

**CYKID** · 05-22-2009, 02:47 PM

Does anyone remember the waterslide inside of southridge mall? It was hotter than hell in that thing. I remember the arcade prior to Alladins. Spent many hours playing Major Havoc and Track and Field. Good old southridge. They used to have a bar in there that served us even if we wore our school logo stuff in there.

**capitalcityguy** · 05-22-2009, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by jumbopackage

Southridge is all but dead.

It's probably around 60% occupancy, but the 60% occupancy is a church, a women's barbershop quartet, a dance troop and various other things you don't associate with 'healthy mall'. And these places don't have just tiny little small stores, no, the church takes up a space easily as big as Dave and Barry's once was.

Southridge is a succubus on the south side economy and needs to go away so they can redevelop shopping on the south side. There IS demand down there, believe it or not. Indianola and, to a lesser extent, Norwalk are both growing at a decent clip (or at least were), and there's plenty of development on the southeast and east side of town that would benefit from a healthy south side shopping environment.

Were it not for the only Target in a fairly big area being there and Sears, I'm sure the doors would already be shuttered.

I kinda enjoy wandering around there, though. It's got a spooky, eerie feeling to it.

Southside economy? How big has Des Moines gotten that we can slice and dice economic indicators within our metro? I think you meant to say demographics. That said, I don't think it is that simple.

Southridge suffers from something that is not easy to fix. That is, location. Logistically speaking, the most favorable demographics in the Des Moines metro live west, northwest, and north. For those population bases, there is no easy way to get to Southbridge. Period. Not that it is difficult to get there, but the other three malls are easier and thus you'd have to decide to bypass closer options to get to Southridge. IMO, no other mall suffers from that limitation, to this same extent.

We live in northwest Des Moines, and there is absolutely no great way to get to Southridge. It would take some very unique shopping experience to make it worth the trip. Right now, it has the worst selection, so there simply is no secret to why they are struggling.

That said, as long as the anchor stores can maintain their profitability, the place still has a fighting chance to survive. If they start pulling out, then I would say the end is near.

Finally, Merle Hay is doing the right things in updating their façade and bringing in new stores. I drove by the other day and couldn't help but notice they've really stepped up the curb appeal of the mall (at least from the exterior). The demographics around Merle Hay (i.e.….Beaverdale, NW Des Moines proper, Urbandale, Johnston, other northwest 'burbs) are very favorable and there is no reason to not expect that if the mall owners continue to work to improve the place, it will do just fine. NOTE: someone mentioned The Gap leaving - while that wasn't a favorable indicator for MH, the closing was part of a nationwide closing of Gap stores due to struggling sales for the chain. While this wasn't a good thing, I think you can somewhat temper what this closing really means for the long term viability of MH. It wouldn't surprise me to see them come back someday once the economy improves.

**ilovetheclones** · 05-22-2009, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by drmwevr08

There are troubles there, no doubt, but I'd be careful about saying itll fold up soon. Come check out Crossroads in Omaha and see just how far a mall can slip and still be open (sort of) for business. Both of these malls need to be redeveloped in a mixed use fashion andmade much more dense. I will have to go back there and check it out cause its probably been a couple years since I've seen it. Kind of sad though I as I grew up with that Mall and worked there for 5 years as well. And no, I'm not a carnie.

dont go back it is scary !!! went there to the gap and that was the only store on that side of the mall!!

Also there was a dead man found in the parking garage attached to the old dillards entrance area. Cops said he was there a while before anyone noticed.

baby clothes and baseball hats is all you get there, really dont bother

**swarthmoreCY** · 05-23-2009, 12:00 AM

I grew up close to DSM and do not recall ever going to SRM. What is it near?

**Haverhill** · 05-23-2009, 12:16 AM

The only good ways to get to Southridge is by taking SE 14th or Fleur unless you have easy access to the bypass, while other malls have relatively close Interstate access. However, the bypass is only convenient for people living in Norwalk or Altoona. People in Norwalk might as well go to Jordan Creek and people in Altoona might as well drive a little farther to Ankeny or Merle Hay.

**jumbopackage** · 05-23-2009, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by Haverhill

The only good ways to get to Southridge is by taking SE 14th or Fleur unless you have easy access to the bypass, while other malls have relatively close Interstate access. However, the bypass is only convenient for people living in Norwalk or Altoona. People in Norwalk might as well go to Jordan Creek and people in Altoona might as well drive a little farther to Ankeny or Merle Hay.

With the bypass, Southridge has as good or better access to the "interstate" as any of the other malls in the DSM metro. It may not be as convenient geographically as the other malls in the metro for a lot of people, but it's not that hard to get to if it's where you're wanting to go (for whatever reason). It's also clearly the most convenient mall to get to for people living in Indianola, as it's straight up the highway from them.