Update: ICON Architectural Group dismissed its lawsuit over payment for the Merle Hay arena project in June 2026. Court filings do not identify any settlement terms or amount, and attorneys for the parties did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Original article:
Already delayed, the planned Des Moines Buccaneers arena project at Merle Hay Mall is facing new troubles that could potentially sink the project despite a pledge of $26.5 million in state of Iowa support.
The Buccaneers have been planning to build the 3,500-seat arena in the former Younkers department store on the mall’s west side since 2020, and in 2021 won the state reinvestment district funding. But since a ceremonial May 2022 groundbreaking, the team’s owners have repeatedly put off the work, citing rising construction costs. Now, ICON Architectural Group is suing the owners of the team and the mall, alleging they have failed to pay more than $1.1 million owed for design services.
Contacted Thursday, Buccaneers part-owner Scott Clemmensen said the team’s ownership group, Orchard View Sports & Entertainment, is continuing to seek a suitable long-term home for the Buccaneers. The United States Hockey League junior team currently trains and plays in the 62-year-old Buccaneers Arena in Urbandale, a building the Polk County Property Appraiser’s Office lists as being in “below normal” condition.
Options now include sites other than the mall, “whether that be new construction, an existing project or renovating the old Buccaneers Arena on Hickman” Road, said the Urbandale native, a former Buccaneers and National Hockey League player who now is a coach for the New Jersey Devils.
“We’ve looked at a number of different avenues and this mall project is one of those avenues that we’ve obviously extensively invested our time,” Clemmensen said. “Whether it’s at the mall or somewhere else … our intention is to find a suitable solution for the Buccaneers’ arena.”
Liz Holland, CEO of the mall’s management group, Merle Hay Investors, declined to comment.
Merle Hay Mall straddles the city limits of Des Moines and Urbandale, which has pledged $3 million in tax support for the arena. In a joint statement issued Thursday afternoon, the cities, which played a key role in securing the state funding, said the project would be further delayed because of the lawsuit as well as rising interest rates and lease negotiations between the mall and the Buccaneers.
Carrie Kruse of the Des Moines office of Economic Development said in an email that “discussions and negotiations are still ongoing, but there are now additional delays and hurdles that need to be worked through with this most recent pending litigation.”
“We remain hopeful that the project can find a path forward,” Kruse said.
Cost rises sharply since Buccaneers arena plan announced at Merle Hay
The arena was initially estimated to cost $40 million, and the plan also calls for a hotel on the site of the mall’s since-relocated Kohl’s store. But by 2022, the expected arena construction cost had increased to $58.9 million as the price of building materials, including steel, increased sharply.
Kruse said the project remains eligible for the $26.5 million in state funds through a reinvestment district agreement with the Iowa Economic Development Authority. But it must secure substantial funding before it can begin to receive the reinvestment revenues, generated by sales taxes in the district encompassing the mall.
ICON is a North Dakota-based architecture firm that has designed similar arenas for USHL teams in Fargo, North Dakota, and Ralston, Nebraska. The firm also designed a hockey arena in Mason City.
Craig Martin, a lawyer for ICON, wrote in the lawsuit, filed July 6, that from May 2020 to May 2022, ICON performed design work for the mall’s owner, Merle Hay Anchors, Merle Hay Investors and Orchard View.
In addition to those entities, it named as defendants Merle Hay Mall redevelopment manager Abbell Associates and Port Royal Holdings, a limited liability company that owns an interest in the property on which the new arena is slated to be constructed.
The suit said the work included widely circulated renderings of the planned arena used in the presentation of the project to the state. The arena was among winners that edged out competitors for the state funds, including proposals for redevelopment of West Des Moines’ Valley West Mall and a sports-centered complex in Johnston.
“To date, none of the defendants have paid ICON for the work and reasonable expenses ICON incurred in connection with its work on the Project that benefited each of the defendants,” the suit said.
Arena project aims to transform two Des Moines staples
The planned transformation of the vacant Younkers space has the potential to revitalize two aging Des Moines area staples, the Buccaneers and Merle Hay Mall.
The Buccaneers entered the USHL in the 1980-81 season, shortly after the league transitioned from a semi-professional to a junior league for players trying to qualify for college hockey rosters. Over the 40 years since then, the USHL has grown to be the premier American junior hockey league and a feeder to the NHL as well as NCAA Division I college hockey teams. NHL standouts like Buffalo Sabers forward Kyle Okposo, Los Angeles Kings goaltender Phoenix Copley and former New York Islanders defenseman Brett Skinner have played for the Buccaneers.
Clemmensen, a goaltender, parlayed his time with the Buccaneers into a scholarship with Boston College and a 12-year NHL career split between the Devils, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
But while the USHL has flourished, Buccaneer Arena, built in 1961, has declined. The building’s roof suffered major damage in the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho. And in September, its ice freezer failed, forcing the team to move its 2022 home opener from the 3,500-seat arena to the smaller MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex in West Des Moines.
Numerous USHL teams over the last 20 years have built new arenas or entered the league with superior facilities, so it can be hard for the Buccaneers to attract players, Orchard View head Michael Devlin told the Des Moines Register last year. Since Orchard View bought the team in 2017, its intention “from day one” has been to upgrade facilities, Clemmensen said.
“When I was a player, the players needed the league to help them gain scholarships to play at the NCAA level,” Clemmensen said. “Times have changed so much where these players are coming to us with scholarships already in hand and we need the players more than they need us. … You’re in a recruiting battle with the other teams, and the facilities come into account.”
The assessed value of Buccaneer Arena is $1.4 million, according to the county assessor’s office. Orchard View Sports bought the Buccaneers for $3.2 million from Gil Peled and Buccaneers Hockey LLC. Several federal tax liens were pending against Buccaneers Hockey LLC at the time.
Merle Hay Mall, built in 1959, had likewise experienced a downturn, losing its Sears and Younkers anchor stores in the last decade. In a bid to turn around its fortunes, Abbell Associates plans to separate the aging mall into two zones: shopping on the east side along the Merle Hay Road corridor, and entertainment, including the hockey arena, on the west side.
Entertainment assets already include the Flix Brewhouse cinema and the Gameday arcade, bar and bowling alley. But the arena construction and move of Kohl’s to an eastern site facing Merle Hay Road have cut traffic on the west side of the mall, endangering the tenants in its food court.
Thursday’s joint statement from Urbandale and Des Moines stressed the importance of the arena and mall to the cities’ future.
“The cities will continue to work with mall leadership to achieve the vision of the campus as a vibrant, renewed destination for the metro and the region,” the statement said. “Urbandale also desires to see a strong Des Moines Buccaneers organization as it is an important existing business and quality of life attraction for the community.”
The growing troubles for the arena plan come as another Des Moines project that won state funding alongside it also is facing headwinds. A planned soccer stadium in downtown Des Moines has likewise been delayed because of rising costs, and its chief planner, Krause Group CEO Kyle Krause, has been lobbying city and Polk County officials for more public funding.
Staff writer F. Amanda Tugade contributed to this report.
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Facing lawsuit, Des Moines Buccaneers could shelve Merle Hay Mall hockey arena plan
Reporting by Philip Joens, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Philip Joens, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
