CCS has tentative agreement to purchase Keokuk mall | Daily Gate City – Keokuk, Iowa

The Keokuk mall has tentative new owners.

Adam Johnson with Commercial Contracting Services (CCS) of Keokuk came to the Keokuk City Council meeting on Thursday at Keokuk City Hall to tell the council the company has reached a tentative agreement to buy the property.

He said it is great but also “terrifying” for the company.

“I wanted to bring it to the council’s attention, because we will need help,” he said.

One issue will be zoning for what the company wants to use a portion of the mall for, should the sale go through. They want to have it as a headquarters on the Fourth Street side. This is the area that some will remember as furniture store Heilig Meyers. It was originally anchor store J.C. Penney when the mall opened in the early 1970s.

For the last few decades, it has been an empty, deteriorating storefront.

The first thing the probable new owners want to do is simply stabilize the building.

“It has been in disrepair since I’ve been alive,” Johnson told the council.

The area that the company would like to use, is in particularly bad shape with holes in the roof as well as trees growing on the roof itself.

He said after stabilization, the company, of course, wants to see if it can breathe new life into the building with some retail stores.

“We’re not going to have Hallmark, or J.C. Penney’s or Diamond Daves,” Johnson said. “Those aren’t coming back.”

But there are practically endless possibilities for local entrepreneurs to have something in the building, once it is in better shape. He said maybe the theater can eventually get up and running again.

The company also is purchasing the restaurant, once Country Kitchen, across Main Street. Johnson didn’t discuss any plans for that area.

CCS is in a unique position as it seeks to take on the project, Johnson said. Most companies or investors that bought the property would have to see a profit being turned almost immediately. Johnson said that isn’t the case for CCS.

Also, the contracting company is in the unique position to be able to pay its own workers for projects on the building. Others who bought the building would be looking at hiring an outside company which would make costs of repair higher.

The company could consolidate its operations at the mall. Right now it has several buildings including its building at 21 S. Ninth St., the old Wells Carey Elementary School on Timea Street, and a facility on S. 10th.

Should they get moved into the mall property, they may look at selling other properties.

Johnson said along with help with zoning changes, if there’s any tax abatement or grants the city knows of, they would appreciate the help.

Council Member Devon Dade said he was excited with what CCS had done with Wells Carey and is excited to see the company take on the mall project.

Now called the River City Mall, after being rebranded a couple of owners ago, the shopping center started out life as the Keosippi Shopping Plaza. Four city blocks were cleared after the “convenient” fire in the area that destroyed about 21 buildings in April of 1964.

The area was already set to see demolition for the mall. Montgomery Ward was the first store built; it was in the space that Dollar General now occupies and had a car care center as well. It opened in April of 1967, but the rest of the facility took a few more years to construct and get open to the public.

In its early years, the mall housed stores like J.C. Penney, F.W. Woolworth Co. (and its quaint little diner), Montgomery Ward – which later became Spurgeons, Disc Jockey where thousands thumbed through record albums and 45s, and who can forget the smell of Karmelkorn as you entered the mall, walking past Pizza Hut.

Shopping patterns began to change in the 1990s and malls are now largely out of favor. The smaller centers like Keokuk’s mall took the hit earlier than larger indoor malls, but now, across the country, many are struggling or abandoned.

Local ownership is an exciting opportunity to see the mall have a new life. Johnson said they are committed and aren’t ones that are going to buy the property then have it back on the market in a couple years.