The Empire Mall

Originally developed in 1974-75 by Des Moines-based General Growth Development Corp., it opened as the Sioux Empire Plaza.[2] It was sold to the IBM Pension Fund in 1985 while General Growth continued to manage the property.[6] In 1998, it was acquired by a joint venture of The Macerich Company and Simon Property Group, with Macerich assuming the role of managing partner.[7] In 2012, Simon Property Group became the sole owner of the mall. In 2018, Simon Property Group, owner of the mall, posted a document about plans for the mall after losing two tenants.[8]

In 1978 the mall underwent its first major expansion, with the addition of Dayton's (later Marshall Field's, now Macy's) and 22 other specialty stores.[9]

On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Younkers would be closing as parent company The Bon-Ton Stores was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018.[10]

On May 31, 2018, Sears announced that its store would also be closing as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed in September 2018.[4] The vacant Sears store was occupied by a temporary Camping World store from November 2018 to April 2019.[11]

On December 3, 2018, Dillard's announced it would open a store in the vacant Younkers anchor store space. 40,000 square feet (3,700 square meters) of space would be added on to the existing 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters) of the former Younkers space. Dillards planned to open in late 2019.[3] However by late 2019, there had been no updates on the Dillard’s site.

As of July 2017, it has been managed by Dan Gies who replaced Ron Soucie.[1] In 2016, Ron Soucie replaced Dennis Gilliam.[12]

On August 2, 2022, it was announced that Dillard's will open in the fall of 2023.

On February 23, 2023, the opening date for Dillards has been delayed to spring 2024.