Former Sears space being demolished, replaced at Coral Ridge Mall

The former Sears space at Coral Ridge Mall - which has sat empty for three years - soon will be vacant no more.

Demolition of that empty portion of the mall began Wednesday, and a new single-story building housing six new retailers will be built in its place, officials said.

'We'll begin building right after demolition. You'll most likely see something coming out of the ground in the fall,” said Monica Nadeau, the mall's general manager.

Nadeau could not say which retailers will be filling the 98,000-square-foot building, but said the mall is in final negotiations with multiple retailers that are new to Eastern Iowa.

Coral Ridge is following other shopping center industry trends, she added, of filling empty anchor tenant space in more creative ways.

'Large anchor stores are few and far between,” she said. 'So we're filling (the space) up with smaller shops.”

Jim Kessler, a building and zoning official with the city of Coralville, said the new building will be attached to the mall but all of the stores will have separate outside entrances rather than entrances accessible from inside the mall.

No building permits have been filed yet, he said, and he has not seen final floor plans, but there will be some changes to the parking on the east side of the space and the entrance will be reshaped a bit.

Other changes happening at Coral Ridge Mall include Des Moines burger joint Zombie Burger, which Nadeau said will open in the food court at the end of September or early October and City Sports, which opened near Victoria's Secret last month.

Nadeau said the mall is also negotiating with a retailer to fill the empty space across from Scheels All Sports.