(ABC 6 News) — Two new tenants moved into the Southbridge Mall in Mason City this month: Mason City Gyro and Powder Street Pizza.

According to city administrator Aaron Burnett, it’s a step in the right direction after the city took over ownership of the property in May after numerous financing delays with the mall’s previous developer.

“The mall didn’t find its way into a set of, you know, high vacancy and dilapidation overnight,” Burnett said. “But we are seeing that buildings start to come back; together with the new offerings and new opportunities and new private investment.”

With the opening of the new store, Mason City Gyro operates now operates two brick-and-mortar locations (one in Clear Lake) and a popular food truck.

Powder Street Pizza is a new venture from first-time business owner Dustin Fratzke, who jumped at the opportunity to put his dream of owning a pizza parlor to action.

“This is something that my late grandpa always wanted to open,” said Fratzke.

The name comes from a nickname for Jackson Street in Mason City, popularly called ‘Powder Street’ back in the 1930’s, when the area was ridden with gang and mob activity.

“We make everything in-house,” said Fratzke. “We do our own red sauce. We do our own crust. We don’t really buy anything pre-made.”

The two additions effectively tripled the options at the food court, which had dwindled down to just one tenant: Pad Thai Express.

According to Burnett, adding food and drink was an obvious first step as the City is weighing several options for attracting new tenants to the mall.

“I think one of the I think two of the most frequent comments I’ve heard from the community,” said Burnett, “…is the desire to have the theater in some capacity open back up, along with bringing bowling back to Mason City. Obviously, we always are looking for, you know, new retail, new restaurant, new entertainment to be able to be in this space. But then you’ve got those really big spaces, you know, those ten, 20,000 square foot areas.”