Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KENNEDY MALL
KENNEDY MALL. Second of the major shopping centers in Dubuque and the first enclosed climate-controlled mall in Iowa. The west-side shopping center formally opened on April 15, 1970. With sixty-stores, Kennedy Mall became Iowa's largest enclosed shopping center.
The construction of a shopping center along Highway 20 at Kennedy Road was under consideration when Montgomery Wards, one of the major tenants downtown, announced it would move to the west side in 1964. Controversy continued into 1965 and became a major issue in the municipal election.
In February 1966, newly elected councilmen approved rezoning of the land on which the center was to be built. Developed by William F. Cafaro and Associates of Youngstown, Ohio, the Mall's original major occupants were Younkers, Wards, and Roshek’s. Younkers opened in the fall of 1968, Montgomery Ward in the spring of 1969, and Roshek's opened that fall. The original design of a 400,000 square foot facility became one that covered 676,325 square feet.
By the spring of 1983 only Younkers remained of the original three business anchors. A Midwest business recession in the early 1980s led to Roshek's closing in 1982. Montgomery Ward closed its Mall store in May 1983.
In the fall of 1990 Cedar Rapids-based Armstrong's, which had moved into the Roshek's store, announced it had filed for bankruptcy although the Dubuque store had shown a profit. Sears, which moved to the Mall in 1989, had shared the former Roshek's area with Armstrong's after major Mall renovation in early 1990.
