Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall facts for kids
The roofline of Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall as viewed from an adjacent parking garage.
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| Location | Anchorage, Alaska, United States |
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| Coordinates | 61°13′02″N 149°53′19″W / 61.21722°N 149.88861°W |
| Address | 320 West 5th Avenue |
| Opening date | August 1, 1987 |
| Owner | Simon Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | 81 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 2 (1 open, 1 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 447,000 square feet (41,500 m2) |
| No. of floors | 5 |
The Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall is a big shopping center in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. It's about 447,000 square feet in size. This mall has five levels filled with stores.
It's home to Alaska's only JCPenney store, which is its main anchor store. You can also find the only Victoria's Secret, Apple Store, Coach, Banana Republic, Sephora, Lululemon, and Michael Kors shops in Alaska here. The mall's website calls it a "distinctive, five level shopping center." It's right in the middle of Anchorage's busy downtown area.
A store called Nordstrom used to be a second main store here. However, it closed its doors in September 2019. The mall is owned by Northwestern Simon Inc. and managed by the Simon Property Group.
Mall History
The Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall first opened in 1987. Before the mall was built, this area was mostly small shops and parking lots. The first companies to develop the mall were JCPenney and The Rainier Fund.
When the mall first opened, Alaska was going through a tough economic time. Because of this, only about 20 to 30 percent of the stores were rented out for many years. Later, in 1994, Northwestern Simon Inc. bought the mall. The Simon Property Group has been running it ever since. On June 26, 2019, it was announced that the Nordstrom store would close on September 13, 2019.
What's Inside the Mall?
Cool Design Features
The 5th Avenue Mall has many cool design features inside. It looks different from other malls in Alaska. For example, the main "Arcade" area has a roof made of glass, letting in lots of sunlight. The mall also has wide, open spaces, like a big art gallery.
The very top floor of the Arcade is just for the food court. This is where you can find many different places to eat. Most of the elevators in the mall have glass walls. They are also decorated with bright neon lights. The mall uses special skybridges to connect its buildings and parking areas. These bridges let people walk indoors between places, which is great in cold weather. The ground floor of the main area also works like an indoor street.
Parking at the Mall
There are many places to park at the mall. The parking is managed by ACDA via EasyPark. The 5th Avenue Parking garage is one of the biggest parking garages downtown. It has six levels for parking cars.
There is also a JCPenney parking garage. This garage was recently updated. It offers even more parking spots downtown. The first hour of parking in the JCPenney garage is free.
