Grand openings, new businesses and award winners

Clothing store returns

to Valley West Mall

A new rue21 clothing store is open in Valley West Mall. The store is part of a national chain that headquarters in Pittsburgh. The store bills itself as “the largest fast-fashion growth retailer in the nation,” and it offers clothes for both guys and gals, along with shoes and other accessories including swimwear.

Valley West Mall is located in West Des Moines at 1551 Valley West Drive, and the new rue21 is in suite 158 of the mall. Call 515-226-3128 for details or visit www.rue21.com.

Store Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m to 6 p.m.

Grinnell Mutual opens

in West Des Moines

Grinnell Mutual, opened a new West Des Moines office on April 3. Company officials have said that this move is being made, in part, to help recruit IT professionals from the greater Des Moines area.

For more than 100 years, Grinnell Mutual has offered various types of insurance, including auto, home, farm and business. The company works with 250 mutuals around the United States and with more than 1,600 local independent agencies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The Grinnell-based company is North America’s largest primary reinsurer of farm mutual companies, and it has more than 700 employees at its home office in Grinnell.

The new office in West Des Moines is located at 2829 Westown Parkway. Learn more about Grinnell Mutual at www.grinnellmutual.com.

New Waukee credit union

The Greater Iowa Credit Union celebrated its Waukee branch’s grand opening celebration on May 20.

Greater Iowa Credit Union is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative with operations in central and western Iowa. The credit union offers a full range of financial services in Ames, greater Des Moines, Indianola, Waukee and Denison.

The new Greater Iowa Credit Union Waukee Branch is located at 1195 S.E. Alice’s Road in Waukee. Call 1-800-296-9064 for details, or visit www.greateriowacu.org.

New look Sears Hometown and Outlet stores

The Waukee Sears Hometown and Outlet store, in an attempt to better meet its customers’ needs in new ways and to embrace its nationwide branding as “America’s Appliance Experts,” has “refreshed” its store and reopened. The store held a celebration to commemorate the event on April 28-29.

The refreshed and reopened store features a new product assortment, redesigned merchandising, new fixtures, new signage and a comprehensive new employee training program.

The store is said to offer a better floor representation of appliances, which now occupies more than half of the available sales floor and has the ability to showcase complete kitchen packages.

Sears Hometown Store in Waukee is a locally owned destination geared to meet home appliance and mattress needs as well as lawn and garden products. The store’s hours are Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The store is located at 300 W. Hickman Road in Waukee. Call 515-987-3500 or visit www.shos.com.

Waukee Dental ribbon cutting

The Waukee Area Chamber of Commerce helped welcome Waukee Dental to the community and celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, May 18. The new facility is located at 350 E. Hickman Road in Waukee. For more information, call 515-777-7568 or visit waukee.dental.com. The clinic’s regular hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Monday; 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday; 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday; and the office is closed Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

New spa

Asian Massage Spa recently held a grand opening at its new location at 75 N.E. Dartmoor Drive in Waukee. For an appointment, call 515-987-6989. The spa hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Sunday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Saturday.

Chain store to remain open

Gordmans Stores Inc. recently announced it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 13, and though it originally planned to liquidate all of its stores, the location at 1400 22nd St. in West Des Moines — and two other metro stores — is now set to remain open, as a result of the bankruptcy settlement.

The terms of the settlememnt allow for the three area stores to be sold to Stage Stores Inc. Stage Stores Inc. currently manages Bealls, Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles, Stage & Steele’s. Stage Stores Inc. is a Houston-based retailer with more than 820 stores in 38 states.

Gordmans was founded in 1915, the Omaha-based discount chain operated 105 stores in 22 states, with most locations in the Midwest. Company officials say the bankruptcy settlement will allow for more than 50 stores to remain open under new ownership, including all eight Iowa locations.

The West Des Moines location is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. For more information about the store visit www.gordmans.com or call 515-225-3526.

Co-working space opens second location

Gravitate opened its second location at 318 Fifth St. in Valley Junction on May 3. Gravitate is a co-working space where anyone can purchase a monthly co-working membership with desk space from $75-450 per month, a community membership or drop-in for $10 per day.

The original Gravitate is located downtown on the third floor of 205 Sixth Ave. and opened in September 2014. A third location in Ames is also in the works. For more information, visit www.gravitatedsm.com or call 515-207-8105.

Golf store reopens in new location

Golf Headquarters — formerly known as Nevada Bob’s — opened in mid-April at its new location in Clocktower Square at 2900 University Ave., suite 250. The golf outfitter opened in 1988 and carries golf equipment for every aspect of the game. The new store’s hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call the store at 515-255-4433 or visit www.golfhqdm.com.

The store had previously been in the Apple Valley Shopping Center in Windsor Heights for more than 20 years, but it was forced to move out in 2015 when the shopping center was slated for demolition with the intent to rebuild. Since the move, Apple Valley did not move forward with its original plan and has reopened with new retail tenants. ♦