Valley View Mall opens on State Road 16, marking a new era
On July 31, 1980, Valley View Mall opened its doors as a new $23 million retail complex serving shoppers across western Wisconsin.
The debut featured four anchors: Dayton's, Herberger's, Sears, and JCPenney. The project had been developed by Equitable Life Insurance, with the design led by Architectonics, Inc. of Chicago.
Built on a single level, the mall offered 598,000 square feet of enclosed shopping space.
Its layout placed the department stores at the ends of the concourse, with rows of smaller shops in between.
It was the style of the time to build big malls that promised everything at once, hoping to catch shoppers from across the La Crosse area.
La Crosse had not seen a regional mall before this one.
Residents of small towns around the city came in for chain stores that once meant a longer trip.
It became a central retail address in western Wisconsin.
Anchors settle in, and the first overhaul, 1985-1991
By the middle of the 1980s, Valley View Mall was running on a steady track.
The edges of the building were claimed by four giants - Dayton's, Herberger's, Sears, and JCPenney.
The concourse tied the anchors together.
Shoppers walked through it, passing racks of clothes and displays of shoes and gifts.
The anchors gave the mall its structure. The other shops filled in the day.
The setup carried into the next decade without any major turnover.
Visitors saw the same department stores in the same places each time they came through.
That consistency turned the mall into a regular stop for people from La Crosse and surrounding towns.
What changed in this period was less about the tenant mix and more about how the property was kept up.
In 1991, the mall went through its first renovation.
The work freshened the public spaces and updated the look of the concourse.
It was the type of project that regional malls undertook to stay current with shopper expectations.
The result was a building that felt renewed while the anchor lineup stayed exactly the same.
Food court arrives, then a big bookstore, 2001-2006
In 2001, Valley View Mall added a food court, a feature that had been missing since the mall's opening.
Fast-food outlets were grouped side by side and connected by a shared dining zone.
Visitors no longer wandered from counter to counter. They had a central place to sit and remain longer than before.
Five years later, another addition altered the property. A 22,400-square-foot Barnes & Noble opened in late 2006.
The bookstore was one of the largest tenants outside the department stores, with enough space to operate almost like an anchor.
It brought in customers looking for novels, magazines, and music, who might not have visited the mall otherwise.
The food court and the bookstore gave the property new reasons for people to visit.
Dining and books became part of the mix alongside department store shopping.
The mall's offerings grew broader, with spaces that encouraged longer visits and added variety to the original retail lineup.
These changes marked a new stage for Valley View Mall as the 2000s moved forward.
Closures and a swap reshape the floorplan, 2017
By 2017, Valley View Mall faced the kind of anchor turnover that was spreading across American malls.
On January 4, Macy's announced it would close its La Crosse location as part of a nationwide round of shutdowns.
The store closed its doors on March 26, leaving a major vacancy at one end of the property.
A replacement was already in motion by spring.
On April 26, Herberger's confirmed it would relocate from its longtime spot to the former Macy's space.
The move meant the department store was not leaving the mall, but shifting into a larger box that had just gone dark.
On September 14, the new Herberger's opened inside the Macy's footprint, restoring a sense of completeness to the mall's floor plan.
The layout of the mall changed, but the anchor count stayed the same, keeping the property aligned with its original four-corner design.
The year captured both the challenge of anchor closures and the adaptability that allowed the mall to keep its format intact.
Two anchors exit and the lights thin, 2018
In April 2018, Herberger's announced it would close at Valley View Mall after its parent entered liquidation.
By August 29, the store shut down, leaving the newer box it had taken the year before standing empty.
Weeks later, a second hit arrived.
On August 22, Sears was placed on a closure list, and the La Crosse location ended operations in November 2018.
The departure removed one of the mall's original department stores.
At the close of 2018, the mall was down to two anchors.
JCPenney was still trading, and Barnes & Noble held on to its oversized bookstore.
Macy's, Herberger's, and Sears had all gone dark.
The concourse kept going, but now shoppers passed shuttered entries on their way to smaller stores.
The change hit quickly and was obvious on a walk through the mall.
Fewer anchor signs glowed, and two corners of the floor plan sat empty.
The closures had little to do with the local mall. They were part of a wider corporate retrenchment.
Pandemic, foreclosure, and new uses emerge, 2020-2022
On March 17, 2020, Valley View Mall closed its interior during the first wave of pandemic restrictions, then later reopened with limits on hours and access.
The pause interrupted daily trade and reset how shoppers used the enclosed spaces.
The common areas returned in phases as tenants adjusted to occupancy rules.
In August 2020, PREIT lost control of the mall by court order, and the property was listed for sale the following month.
The shift placed the center in transition while daily operations resumed under new constraints.
New uses started to arrive.
On December 14, 2020, the VA moved its La Crosse clinic into the Valley View Mall Annex at 4000 State Road 16.
On October 18, 2022, Hy-Vee opened a supermarket on the property, taking over a former Sears anchor site.
Health care and grocery joined apparel and books on the same campus, broadening the mix of retail activity.
At the same time, the former Macy's space remained dark.
By 2023, Valley View Mall was under Kohan Retail Investment Group ownership, which remains the current owner.
Demolition, outages, and new openings, 2024-2025
In January 2024, the La Crosse City Council approved a permit to demolish the former Macy's building at the mall.
Plans called for three restaurants and a car wash to replace the box, with site work tied to parking changes and new drive lanes.
Maintenance issues followed in the summer.
On August 1, 2024, most of the interior closed after an air conditioning failure, while tenants with exterior doors kept trading.
The concourse reopened on August 5 once repairs were finished.
On November 26, lighting and electrical problems led to early closures on two separate days.
Openings arrived in 2025 on the redeveloped parcel. Mister Car Wash began service at 3850 State Road 16 on July 17.
Raising Cane's opened on August 19, and local police prepared traffic control for the first week.
A state notice on September 28 set a public meeting on Highway 16 improvements near Valley View Mall.
