Westdale Mall reconstruction pace picking up

The pace of construction is picking up for the $90 million redevelopment of Westdale Mall in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Lisa Rowe, vice president of Frew Development Group and Westdale general manager, said work has begun on the Chick-fil-A restaurant along the Edgewood Road SW perimeter of the retail development.

'The contractor planned to pour footings for Chick-fil-A this week, weather permitting,” Rowe said. 'The restaurant will be located just north of the south Edgewood Road entrance.”

Rowe said the foundation has been constructed for the new U.S. Bank branch north of Chick-fil-A. She said both structures are expected to be open for business by the fall.

'The utilities were ready when construction began,” Rowe said. 'We are working on bringing some communication and electric lines around the other side of those perimeter lots, but the transformers were set along there right on schedule.”

Rowe said the interior and exterior remodeling of the 36-year-old J.C. Penney store is scheduled to start Monday.

'We have been working with them on the storage area for construction materials,” she said. 'We will be starting the exterior work about a week behind them, which includes sealing the west parking lot.

'We will are looking at demolishing the automotive tire and battery this summer and creating a new exterior facade and entrance. With the store continuing to operate, we have to make sure we have enough entrances open.”

Rowe said Frew Development Group will be filling in drainage areas along 29th Street SW to create additional pad sites.

'We have a signed purchase agreement for those lots, so we will be getting those filled in very quickly so construction can begin,” she said. 'We will continue to reconstruct the ring road around the Williams Boulevard side of the property.

'We're still in a ‘horizonal mode' in terms of doing a lot of infrastructure work this year.”