NIT – The rumors have been there now, for weeks, but no one is confirming anything: Mason City may not be getting a Marshalls Department Store, after all.
A “big box” has been under construction, just west of Kohl’s Department Store, in the Indianhead Shopping District now for months. NIT reported in August that a Marshall’s department store is slated to be completed in 2014 and will be located west of Kohl’s department store in the Willow Creek Crossing Development. The store will be about 22,000 square feet in size and cost $2 million to build.
The developer, North Iowa Growth, LLC, will receive economic development grants of tax increment (TIF) – totaling $480,000 over 7 years – for increases in property value associated only with the 22,000 square foot building – that may now be without a tenant. (A Joann Fabric store is leaving the Southport Shopping Center to that area.)
In August, City Hall officials said they believed “that the Marshall’s store will be a ‘catalyst’ for the rest of the shopping center, ‘which will stabilize the current retail mix and draw new retailers to the center as well as new restaurants to the lots fronting Highway 122.'”
NIT has received a number of notes from readers alluding to Marshall’s pulling out of the deal, and rumors about it have popped up all over social media. Marshall’s corporate office has not yet confirmed this, however. At the same time, the official website for Marshalls says there are no “grand openings” planned in Iowa at this time. No hiring notices have been advertised for the store, either.
One person wrote to NIT, saying, “Marshalls is not coming, they changed their mind.” The source also said that “construction has slowed down. You will notice that they are not getting much done there, go see for yourself.”
City Hall will not confirm any of this, so far. If true, this would be the second major development that city officials trumpeted last year – leading up to city elections – that fell through. NIT readers may recall that a major hotel was reported last year to be on the way to downtown Mason City, only to be reported in recent weeks that the deal was never close to happening.
