COUNCIL BLUFFS — A shopping center next to the Mid-America Center will hit the auction block Friday.
The Plaza at Mid-America Center — on Arena Way west of Bass Pro Shops — will be sold at a Pottawattamie County sheriff’s auction.
Greg Cutchall, owner of the Famous Dave’s franchise in the shopping center, didn’t know the details of the auction but said the company will be represented.
“We’ll go. We pay rent there already,” he said.
While the barbecue restaurant has had steady traffic since it opened, with business increasing year after year, Cutchall said, the shopping center as a whole never blossomed.
About two-thirds of the 72,000-square-foot property is empty.
“The expectations for what was going to be developed out there really never came to fruition,” Cutchall said. “We heard about water parks, outlet malls, things like that. Not that it won’t ever happen.”
Court documents indicate Mutual of Omaha LoanPro filed a mortgage foreclosure petition in December 2009 against CMK Development LLC, which built the Plaza in 2003. A judge ruled in favor of Mutual in October 2010.
More than $5.5 million still is owed on the property, according to the sheriff’s office foreclosure posting.
Rick Crowl, the attorney for CMK, said trouble acquiring additional financing proved to be too much for the developer.
Crowl said interested tenants asked for improvements to the space before signing lease agreements. CMK, he said, planned to pay the loans back once leasing fees began to flow in.
“The funding was cut off,” Crowl said. “(CMK) needed funding for projects, but the bank was unwilling to extend additional loans.”
Crowl also noted the economic downturn and trouble in the planning stage as other problems faced by the developer.
Verne Welch, chairman of the Convention Center and Arena Commission for Council Bluffs, described the situation as “a mess.”
“We’d like to see this finalized,” he said. “It’s been a nightmare.”
Welch said he thought CMK should have finished the buildings before seeking tenants. “They never did finish the floors. It’s still dirt.”
He also said “the square-foot price for leasing was always an issue.”
Crowl described leaving the building unfinished as normal because some tenants often want to put in their own features. He said he’d heard similar complaints about pricing.
Cutchall said he negotiated lower rent terms for Famous Dave’s because the amount sought on open storefronts was much less than he had paid.
Welch said he’s hoping a developer will come in and fill the vacant storefronts.
“We need something in there that would complement the whole area, something to add to the opportunities for people who come to the area for events,” he said. “It’s a beautiful area.”
The foreclosure auction is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, 1400 Big Lake Road.
World-Herald staff writer Michaela Saunders contributed to this report.
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