Metrocenter (Phoenix, Arizona) facts for kids
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| Location | Phoenix, Arizona, United States |
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| Coordinates | 33°34′30″N 112°07′17″W / 33.5750°N 112.1215°W |
| Address | 9617 North Metro Parkway West |
| Opening date | October 1973 |
| Closing date | June 30, 2020 |
| Developer | Westcor and Homart Development Company |
| Owner | Carlyle Development Group |
| Architect | Robert Fairburn, Charles Luckman |
| No. of stores and services | 175 at peak |
| No. of anchor tenants | 6 at peak |
| Total retail floor area | 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2) (GLA) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
Metrocenter was a large indoor shopping mall located in northwest Phoenix, Arizona. It was a very popular place for shopping and fun for many years. The mall was near Interstate 17 and had major streets like Dunlap and Peoria Avenues around it.
At its busiest, Metrocenter had 175 stores and six main anchor stores. Before it closed, it had about 100 stores, a 12-screen movie theater, and a food court. The main stores at the end were Harkins Theatres, Walmart Supercenter, and Dillard's Clearance Center. Other big stores like Sears, JCPenney, and Macy's used to be there.
The mall was owned by the Carlyle Development Group from New York City since 2012. Metrocenter officially closed its doors on June 30, 2020. A fun fact is that parts of the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure were filmed inside this mall!
Contents
The Story of Metrocenter Mall
Building a Giant Shopping Center
Metrocenter was a big project started by two companies: Westcor and Homart Development Company. Westcor was a group of real estate investors, and Homart was part of Sears, Roebuck and Company. They announced the plan in 1970 and started building in 1972.
The mall was designed by a local architect named Robert Fairburn. It was built on a huge piece of land, about 312 acres (1.26 km2), which was considered the edge of Phoenix back then. The people behind the mall believed that Phoenix would grow a lot in the northwest, and they were right!
Some people living nearby were worried about the new mall. They thought it would bring too much traffic and that the buildings would be too tall. But their concerns were addressed, and a lawsuit against the project was dropped.
Building Metrocenter was very expensive. It cost about $100 million in total. When it first opened in 1973, it was the first mall in the U.S. with two levels and five main anchor stores. It was the biggest shopping center in Arizona at the time. People came from far away, like Flagstaff and Tucson, just to see and shop at this huge new mall. Metrocenter became a model for other large malls built in Phoenix later on.
Changes and Updates Over Time
After the 1980s, Metrocenter started to face challenges. The areas around the mall changed, and new malls like Paradise Valley Mall and Fiesta Mall opened. These new malls attracted some of Metrocenter's customers.
Also, some local car enthusiasts started "cruising" around the mall. This meant they would drive their cars around the parking lot and socialize. While it was fun for them, it made it harder for regular shoppers to get around, and weekend visits to the mall went down.
To keep up, Metrocenter had a big makeover in 1992-1993. Later, in 2004, the mall got new owners. They brought back Westcor, the original developer, to help manage it.
More improvements happened in 2005-2006. The parking lot was fixed, and more lights were added to make it safer. New "Metrocenter" signs were put up, and the landscaping was updated with desert-friendly plants.
Inside the mall, more changes came in 2007. They added special rooms for parents to change diapers and for moms to nurse their babies. Wi-Fi was added, and a community room was created for events. The food court and play area were also updated. To improve safety, a new camera system was installed that could even read license plates in the parking lot.
Plans for a New Future
In 2012, a company called Carlyle Development Group bought Metrocenter. They had big plans to turn the property into more than just a mall. They wanted to create a "mixed-use" area. This means it would have shops, homes, offices, and possibly even a college campus or medical facilities.
In 2016, the city of Phoenix approved these big plans. This meant Metrocenter could be redeveloped to include apartments, senior housing, and health-care facilities, along with new shops and restaurants. The city even changed the rules for the land to allow for these different types of buildings.
Why Metrocenter Closed Its Doors
Sadly, the plans for redevelopment didn't happen fast enough. On June 19, 2020, Metrocenter Mall announced it would close. The main reason was a big drop in the number of open stores, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After 47 years of serving the community, Metrocenter Mall officially closed on June 30, 2020. The low number of open stores and the challenges from the pandemic made it impossible to keep going. The remaining items from the mall were sold off in an auction later that year.
Main Stores Over the Years
When Metrocenter first opened, it had five main anchor stores: Sears, Rhodes Brothers, Diamond's, Goldwater's, and The Broadway. Sears opened a bit later in 1974.
The mall also had a cool ice skating rink on the first floor, right below the food court. The food court was designed to look like the inside of an airliner. The ice rink closed in 1990, and that space was filled in to make more room for the food court.
A movie theater opened in 1974, and later Harkins Theatres took it over in 1999, turning it into a 12-screen cinema.
Over the years, the main stores changed as companies bought each other.
- Diamond's became Dillard's in 1984.
- Rhodes Brothers changed to Liberty House, then to Joske's. Later, it became a second Dillard's, and then a JCPenney. JCPenney moved out in 2007.
- The Broadway became a Macy's in 1996. Macy's later closed, then moved to another spot in the mall, and then closed again in 2015.
- Goldwater's became J.W. Robinson's, then Robinsons-May. When Macy's bought May Department Stores, this location also became a Macy's, but it closed in 2015.
In 2009, Dillard's changed its store to a clearance center, meaning it sold discounted items. It even closed its first floor.
A new Walmart Supercenter was announced in 2014. The old Broadway building was torn down to make way for it. The Walmart Supercenter opened in October 2017, but it did not have an entrance directly into the mall.
On May 31, 2018, it was announced that Sears would close in September 2018. This meant Metrocenter no longer had any of its original main stores left. Only Dillard's Clearance Center and the Walmart Supercenter remained as the last big stores.
