The mall I grew up going to, Metro Center, is closing on June 30. I have lived in the neighborhood for over 37 years. That was the year I moved there, and it was the first time I went ice skating. This alleviated a great deal of congestion in my neighborhood. It wasn't KB Toys.
The project was announced in November 1970, the first site plans and artist renderings announced in the spring of 1972, and construction beginning in June 1972. Black Fridays will mean I and my neighbors will have great difficulty getting in and out of our driveways, let alone trying to go somewhere other than Metrocenter. At 1.4 million square feet, it was the largest shopping center in Arizona and one of the largest in the United States. The History of Metrocenter Mall Mar 5, 2015 Phoenix has long been on the cutting edge of retail, especially when it comes to shopping malls. I remember the days when their were thing for the children to do ,when things get taken away the children will find their own excitement and a lot of it is not the good kindThere was an amazing pretzel shop here (maybe privately owned or franchised ) in the late 90’s. It wasn’t pretzel time or auntie Anne’s. Does anyone remember the name of it?I used to shop at Lotions & Potions in that little Alley in the mall back in the early 80's. I loved their Apricot lotion! Thankfully, the city changed the traffic control at 29th Avenue and Dunlap, requiring north and south bound traffic to turn at Dunlap rather than flow freely north and south. We lived just a short walk away! One on the first level at one end and the other on the second floor. The Broadway building was demolished and construction for the Supercenter began on July 20, 2016. Will always remember the better days.Remember they use to have Vans Skatepark so much memories thereI too remember the beautiful mall at its best... late 1970-1992. Diamond's was converted to Dillard's in 1984. The new ownership brought back the founding developer, Westcor, by now an Arizona retail giant and subsidiary of The Macerich Co., to manage the property.The Broadway was acquired by Federated department stores in 1996, and converted to a Macy's.
Its current anchor stores are Dillard's Clearance Center and Walmart Supercenter. I would go there at 6 & remember their pretzels being the best. By the time the mall was acquired by the California-based Macerich Company in 2002, Metro was on the skids. Goldwater's was converted to J.W. All of the anchors opened in 1973, save for Sears which opened in 1974. Inside the Mall is used by people staying out of the heat to do there daily walking . The company has publicly stated that over a period of five to six years, it hopes to turn the property into a mixed-use development site, with retail, residential, medical and possibly college campus tenants.Metrocenter was a joint venture of Westcor, a regional shopping center development firm headed by a group of real estate investors and developers led by Russ "Rusty" Lyon, Jr., and Homart Development Company, the real estate division of Sears, Roebuck and Company. I remember my brother and father worked at Pearle Vision.