🐪 Happy Wednesday!

🌧️ Weather: Flood watch with a high of 72 and a low of 63.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Bill Menner, Katie Martin and Robert Jolly!

Today’s newsletter is 1,005 words — a 4-minute read.

After years of delays, Valley West Mall has finally sold, though a longstanding lease with JCPenney could hold up redevelopment.

Why it matters: The 58-acre site is in a popular traffic area ripe for commercial and residential development, but the empty, aging mall structure is a major impediment.

• "The slum and blight is going to start to spread if we can't start redeveloping that site," Mayor Russ Trimble tells Axios.

State of play: Threshold Capital, a real estate company based in West Des Moines, completed the $11 million purchase on Monday, CEO Brian Martin tells Axios. His company is behind Spectrum 36 in Ankeny.

• Martin wants to demolish the mall and turn the site into a mixed-use development, including housing, an outdoor music venue, shopping, restaurants and bars.
• But he says he can't move forward because JCPenney, the lone anchor left at the mall, has a lease through 2032 that doesn't allow redevelopment.
• He's asking a district judge for declaratory relief on the 50-year lease and clarification on restrictions.

What they're saying: The city is willing to invest $110 million into the site if Martin creates something "out of the box" that's pedestrian friendly and appealing to residents, Trimble says.

• He wants a site where people living in the area can walk to everything they need, like shopping, coffee shops and a gym.
• "I've got such fond memories of Valley West Mall, but it's time has come and gone," Trimble says, noting the affect of online shopping on retail.

The big picture: West Des Moines is also reimagining the areas surrounding the mall, including the Valley West Drive and Westown Parkway area.

What's next: Martin says JCPenney doesn't need to leave the property, but with how the lease is currently written, he can't even make changes to the parking lot.

• The lease was signed decades ago, when JCPenney was at its prime popularity and mall owners were willing to accommodate even restrictive terms, Trimble says.
• "We can develop around them," Martin says.

📣 Shoutout: What are some of your favorite Valley West Mall memories? Hit reply and let us know!

It's the first-ever Iowa Startup Week, and entrepreneurs from across the country are here for several days of pitches and networking.

Driving the news: We chatted with two Iowa startups, one in turkey barns and the other in plastics manufacturing, to learn more about their innovations.

Poultry Patrol, a Decorah-based company, is creating robots that turkeys chase after, helping them improve their health and gain weight by moving around and engaging with food and water more.

Why it matters: Even small weight gain can add up for producers raising thousands of turkeys at a time.

How it started: Jack Kilian of Decorah worked on a robot designed to chase geese off of lawns while working for a tech incubator in Minnesota.

• The technology worked, but he realized there wasn't enough demand to make it a business.
• After connecting with a turkey farmer, Kilian put a robot inside the barn and realized the turkeys were following it.
• He learned that encouraging movement resulted in better health outcomes than allowing the turkeys to remain sedentary.

How it works: A person working remotely controls the robot and makes several trips through the barn a day.

• Curious turkeys follow it, prompting the whole flock to move as well.

The result: The turkeys weigh about 2.5 pounds more and are showing higher survival rates.

Meanwhile, Saber Chemical, an Ames-based company, is making plant-based plastics less brittle.

Zoom in: While working on his doctorate at Iowa State, co-founder Baker Kuehl found a way to improve the durability of bioplastics through a blending method.

• Polylactic acid, a plant-based acid commonly used in 3D printing, food packaging and medical devices, is commonly made from corn. But it's had issues with fragility.
• Kuehl's blended plastic is stronger, even withstanding Iowa State football players trying to break it.
• "They're traditionally super brittle, and basically, only after 40 years, all we got to show for it is paper straws," he says.

Zoom out: Saber has successfully tested the more durable material in golf tees and 3D-printing applications and has sold film stock to a medical company for testing.

What's next: The public can watch startup finalists compete for $25,000 in the Best of the Midwest pitch event at 5pm on Thursday at Hoyt Sherman for free.

• Poultry Patrol and Saber were semifinalists for the competition.

🙅 The Iowa Board of Regents withheld a $15,000 payment to a group hired for training on stronger university governance after its work fell short of expectations. (The Gazette)

💵 Gov. Kim Reynolds called for lawmakers to return on Friday to amend an incentive program for Mesabi Metallics' proposed $15 billion Lee County steel mill, which is projected to create 1,750 permanent jobs. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

💰 Iowa will receive about $2.4 million from a $35 million settlement with Corteva over allegations its pesticide loyalty program limited cheaper generic competition and kept farmers' costs higher. (Radio Iowa)

Axios Social Club is bringing readers together for dinner in Des Moines' East Village neighborhood on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Why it matters: Des Moines is full of interesting people you haven't met yet!

How it works: Take a quick quiz, reserve your seat and we'll match you with five fellow locals for dinner at a restaurant we hand-picked.

• Come solo or bring a friend.
• Your restaurant and dinner crew stay a surprise until event day.
• After dinner, all the tables meet up at a surprise after-party.

If you go: Dinner starts at 6:30pm. Tickets are $15.99 per person, with food and drinks purchased separately.

The bottom line: Bring a friend or come make a few new ones.

Save your seat at Axios Social Club.

🎠 Linh remembers a little merry-go-round inside the Valley West Mall McDonald's back in the day.

🌺 Jason misses Kahunaville, the tropical-themed restaurant and arcade near Von Maur with giant tiki-style decorations.

This newsletter was edited by Chloe Gonzales.