What's up with Southridge? (Des Moines: house, movie theater, restaurant)

[DMRyan]

If proximity an ease of access to the highway is a concern, Southridge is more accessible than Merle Hay Mall. It just doesn't sit near as dense of a populated area. I can't agree on that reason for its demise. Southridge held on just fine from the 1970's to the late 1990's and the Des Moines metro was a much smaller city in those days. When remodeled in the 90's, the interior of the mall looked better than Valley West Mall. Southridge was killed by competition, a lack of investment and upkeep by mall owners and comparitvely poor demographics. Southridge has always been south Des Moines' mall, even Southern Iowa's mall. South Des Moines isn't growing fast and southern Iowa is shrinking.

[Northern Traveler]

Originally Posted by DMRyan

If proximity an ease of access to the highway is a concern, Southridge is more accessible than Merle Hay Mall. It just doesn't sit near as dense of a populated area. I can't agree on that reason for its demise. Southridge held on just fine from the 1970's to the late 1990's and the Des Moines metro was a much smaller city in those days. When remodeled in the 90's, the interior of the mall looked better than Valley West Mall. Southridge was killed by competition, a lack of investment and upkeep by mall owners and comparitvely poor demographics. Southridge has always been south Des Moines' mall, even Southern Iowa's mall. South Des Moines isn't growing fast and southern Iowa is shrinking.

I disagree - Merle Hay is easily accessible from 80/35, and Southridge is just off of Highway 5 which is not heavily used and hard to get to for a lot of people.

[JoeisSweet]

I really love Southridge, but I feel so sorry for it some times.
It has some of the strangest "stores":
-It has two churches
-On every "corner" spot it seems like there's a jewelry store.
-It's the only mall I know of with a animal shelter in it.
-What's the deal with that Chinese store? I've never seen anyone in it and it's been open for years.
-It has a dance studio and a choir practice place, unusual.
-Even the Victoria's Secret is a bad one compared to the others in the metro.

One other thing I've also wondered is why there isn't hardly any development south of Southridge? The only road south of the mall that would be considered a "major" road would be County Line, and even it turns into a dirt road near Fleur.

Maybe they built the bypass to far from the city?

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by JoeisSweet

Maybe they built the bypass to far from the city?

The bypass is in a good spot and Southridge is in about as good of a spot as any for who it's catering to.




Fact: When I was a kid Southridge had a waterslide.

[JoeisSweet]

Southridge had a waterslide!? When did they take that out? Where in the mall was it? That would be so cool, they should have kept that, it would've been so cool.

[DMRyan]

You can still see part of the tower used to access the slide on the south end of the mall between Younker's and Sears, right next to the old theater site.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by JoeisSweet

Southridge had a waterslide!? When did they take that out? Where in the mall was it? That would be so cool, they should have kept that, it would've been so cool.

I want to say it was around 1985-ish.

[Northern Traveler]

Originally Posted by El Rhino

I want to say it was around 1985-ish.

Soo people just brought their suit to the mall and changed to go down one slide? lol.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by Northern Traveler

Soo people just brought their suit to the mall and changed to go down one slide? lol.

Yes and I believe there were two.

[JoeisSweet]

Wait, it was outside? Well I guess there's no other place for it. Is it that big upside down "L" shape on top of the mall? I saw that when I drove by today.

When was there a theater besides Southridge 12? There where two slides?

I only moved to Des Moines a couple of years ago, and I love Southridge. I never new there was so much history behind it!