Kirkwood Mall - History

History

The Wachter family (Wachter Real Estate Trust) built the Kirkwood Plaza shopping center and it opened in 1970. The first manager of the mall was Eddo Carlson. Mr. Carlson managed the shopping center until the Wachter family sold it in 1984 for a reported $40 million. Original Kirkwood Plaza anchors were Montgomery Ward, F.W. Woolworth Company, and Herberger's. The mall was initially built in the shape of a "Y", with Herberger's being the south end, or bottom, of the Y. However, the mall has seen several expansions and changes over the years. A new south wing anchored by a Target store and a JC Penney store was added approximately ten years after the mall was opened. Also, Herberger's significantly expanded its Kirkwood store after closing its Gateway Mall location on the north side of Bismarck.

Over the years Kirkwood Mall has seen a few changes with its anchors. After Woolworth closed in 1985, it became Dayton's. Then, in 2001, it became Marshall Field's after the merger of the Target Corporation's largest department stores into the one name. The store was closed in 2005 after Target sold their Marshall Fields stores to May Company and May Company sold the location back to the Target Corporation. The former Dayton' / Marshall Field's store was then demolished and the mall's Target store moved to that location and opened in the fall of 2006. Scheels All Sports then moved from its previous space east of Target into the former Target space after renovation was completed.

Originally Kirkwood Mall also had a Montgomery Ward store. Following that store's decline the space was taken over by I. Keating Furniture of Minot, ND in 2003.