Kennedy Mall

Kennedy Mall is a shopping mall located in Dubuque, Iowa. It is owned by the Cafaro Company. The mall's anchor stores are Edward Jones, Shoe Carnival, Planet Fitness, Vertical Jump Park, JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty, and Books-A-Million.

Description
The Kennedy Mall contains 700000 sqft.

Anchors

 * Best Buy
 * Books-A-Million (25,000 sqft)
 * Dick's Sporting Goods
 * JCPenney (83,524 sqft)
 * Planet Fitness
 * Shoe Carnival
 * Ulta Beauty
 * Vertical Jump Park

20th century
In 1964, Montgomery Ward announced that it would move its store in Dubuque, which was located in the downtown area, out to the west end. In February 1966, rezoning of the land on which the mall was built was approved. William M. Cafaro and Associates (now Cafaro Company) of Youngstown, Ohio developed the site. The mall was completed in 1968.

In 1968, Younkers was opened as the Kennedy Mall's first store. This was followed by Montgomery Ward in May 1969, and Roshek's in the fall of 1970. The mall was formally opened on April 15, 1970, with F. W. Woolworth Company operating as a junior anchor. At the time, it had sixty stores, which made it Iowa's largest enclosed mall. Soon afterward, a tornado had damaged the Dubuque area, including the mall.

In the 1980s, JCPenney, Younkers, Sears, and Armstrong's would move into the Kennedy Mall. A number of renovations were made to the mall in 1989. This included opening up a food court at the northeast corner of the mall and a number of cosmetic improvements to the mall. Also, a space for Sears was carved out of the Armstrong Department store.

Originally, there was a General Cinema movie theater with a single 795-seat auditorium located within the mall. In 1972, it was remodeled into a two-screen theater with about 300 seats in each auditorium. In the 1980s, General Cinema built a new six-screen theater named Kennedy Mall Cinema 6 in the parking lot just west of the mall to replace the theater inside the mall.

21st century
For many years Walgreens operated a store at Kennedy Mall. This store, with both interior and exterior entrances, sat between the Bishop's Buffet and J.C. Penney store. In 2005, the company built a new, free-standing store about 0.5 mi away at 55 JFK Road. When the new store was opened in late 2005, the company closed the existing store at the mall.

In April 2007, the Cafaro Company announced that it was moving forward with plans to renovate Kennedy Mall. The project will be completed in 2 phases, with work beginning in 2007. Changes to the mall included the replacement of floors, entrances, landscaping, and parking lots. Also, skylights were be installed, and the east front of the mall was re-configured to enable more stores to face Wacker Drive. The first phase cost an estimated $2.9 million.

The interior renovation was met warmly from local residents. As part of the plan, the mall's signature center water fountain was removed to make room for retail space. Many of the 37-year-old mall's parking lots, sidewalks, light posts, signage, landscaping, and exterior walls were in disrepair, and were completely renovated by the fall of 2008. A new children's play area, sponsored by The Finley Hospital, was open in late June 2008. The renovation was a result of the positive business climate in the area as well as the addition of additional retailers in the area, proving that Dubuque was ready for redevelopment of the mall. The upcoming work was only the second significant renovation in the 37 years the mall has been open.

Part of the northeast corner of the mall was torn down and rebuilt to accommodate a new Borders book store. The book store took over most of what had previously been the food court area and the mall's Sam Goody store. On July 15, 2011, Borders Group announced it would liquidate all of its stores by September, including the Kennedy Mall location. By the end of July, Books-A-Million acquired 30 Borders stores, including the Kennedy Mall location. Books-A-Million, opened the former Borders spot in late 2011, after renovations were completed.

On January 21, 2014, it was announced that Sears would be closing in late April.

Vertical Jump Park opened in 2016.

Mindframe Theaters closed down January 1, 2017 and was replaced with Michigan-based Phoenix Theatres.

In 2018, the Younkers closed, affecting ninety employees.

In early 2020, Kennedy Mall partnered with Carnegie-Stout Public Library to open the Reading Corner, a community reading space inside the mall. The space closed during COVID-19 pandemic and was later displaced by a retail store, but was reopened in February 2024.

In February 2023, it was announced that Books-A-Million would be moving into half of the former Younkers store, sharing it with Burlington Coat Factory. A HomeGoods will take over the book store and a few other empty store fronts inside the mall.

In June 2024, the mall requested zoning modifications to allow for businesses to be built in the southwestern parking lot.