Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team moving to new 3,500-seat arena at Merle Hay Mall

The Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team plans to move out of its aging facility on Hickman Road — where the team has played since its founding 40 years ago — and into a new home at Merle Hay Mall. 

The vacant Younkers department store there will be converted to house a 3,500-seat arena, as well as three rinks with bleacher seating for practices and tournaments. A 150-room hotel is slated as part of the new development, which sits on the west side of the shopping center at 3800 Merle Hay Road. 

Regional and national hockey tournaments, as well as e-sports events, trade shows and concerts, also are planned for the space. 

For Merle Hay Mall and for Urbandale and Des Moines, the cities the mall's site straddles, the United States Hockey League club's move is a chance to revitalize a long-vacant space into a destination for the metro and region, said Liz Holland, CEO of Merle Hay Investors. Traditional malls are moving away from retail-only tenants and toward an experience-based economy as shoppers' habits change. 

The 61-year-old Merle Hay Mall, Des Moines' oldest regional shopping center, began its transformation in 2005 when Target moved in as an anchor. Since then, the mall's owners have grappled with store vacancies — the biggest being the closures of Younkers and Sears in 2018. But they've also brought in new tenants such as Flix Brewhouse and the GameDay arcade and sports bar that draw people to the shopping center for entertainment and recreation. 

Holland said adding Flix, a movie theater that has a full dinner menu and craft beer brewed in-house, was a "tremendous benefit" — though currently it is closed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is a continuation of that," she said. "The continuation of being not just convenience and value, which we feel like we have created with Kohl's and Target ... but also being a destination."

For the Buccaneers, the move is a chance to create a new fan experience, with upgraded public address systems, lighting and seating options, including club level and on-ice suites, in a new facility that will also better suit the players, said team president Nate Teut. 

Those upgrades were not feasible or financially possible in the aging Buccaneer Arena, which opened 60 years ago at 7200 Hickman Road in Urbandale, particularly after its roof suffered major damage in this August's derecho. 

"When you really start to peel the layers off the onion ... it made more sense to build new as opposed to renovate this current place," Teut said. 

"Nobody can argue the fact that when you walk into our building as it is, it's like walking into a time capsule," he said. 

The Buccaneers temporarily are playing at Wells Fargo Arena, home to the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League. while the roof undergoes repairs. But an arena that seats 15,000 for upper-tier minor-league games is less conducive to the environment the Bucs, members of the junior-level USHL, are known for: a raucous crowd that is close to the action. 

So although the team will be leaving behind some of the nostalgia that surrounds its longtime home, a new arena of the same size will still give fans the experience they've come to love at Buccaneer Arena, Teut said. 

"Change is never easy for anybody, and there's going to be a lot of people that just don't understand ... but it's a much bigger picture than that," he said. "It's not just about the Des Moines Buccaneers. It's about growing hockey in the Des Moines community."

The Buccaneers' facility will join the MidAmerican Energy Co. RecPlex, under construction in West Des Moines, as another indoor hockey facility serving the growing youth and adult sport.

About 1,000 youths and 800 adults in the metro participate in ice sports, including figure skating and hockey, according to 2018 data from the Iowa Ice Sports Foundation. 

Yet, as of 2018, there were only three ice rinks in the metro area, which has hindered the sport's growth, the Iowa Ice Sports Foundation previously told the Register. 

The RecPlex, near Des Moines Area Community College's West Campus, also will include indoor and outdoor soccer fields, as well as meeting and convention space.

►More:Merle Hay Sears to be demolished for new retail space as mall reinvention continues

Last year, Merle Hay Mall purchased the Younkers building for $1.5 million with help from the Polk County Board of Supervisors, which agreed to provide a loan for the acquisition. Younkers closed in August 2018 after its parent company filed for bankruptcy.

The mall's owners also recently purchased the former Sears building, which it plans to demolish to make way for a commercial and retail strip center. 

Merle Hay Mall and Orchard View Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Des Moines Buccaneers, are still working on site plans and construction documents for the multi-purpose arena and hotel.

The total cost of the new development has not been determined, Holland said. 

The cities of Des Moines and Urbandale will jointly apply to the Iowa Reinvestment Act program, which establishes a tax-generated district for large-scale development projects, said Curtis Brown, Urbandale's director of economic development. Applications are due in February. 

Brown said Urbandale also anticipates entering into an economic development agreement for the project, which would also use tax-increment financing to help offset the cost. 

The Des Moines Buccaneers hope to start their 2022-23 season in the new arena. The team will likely be back at the current Buccaneer Arena in January, depending on the progress of the roof repairs and COVID-19 restrictions. 

It's unclear what the Buccaneers' owner plans to do with the current facility once the team moves out. 

Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259. Follow her on Twitter @KimNorvellDMR.