Scottsdale Fashion Square
Scottsdale Fashion Square
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Scottsdale Fashion Square

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Scottsdale Fashion Square

Scottsdale Fashion Square is an upscale luxury shopping mall located in the downtown area of Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. It is the largest shopping mall in the state, with approximately 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) of retail space, and is among the top 30 largest malls in the country. The mall features Macy's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, in addition to a 14-screen Harkins Theatres.

It has consistently been one of the most profitable malls in the United States, being ranked in 2016 as the second highest sales per square foot mall in the country, and as of 2016, it was ranked in the top 25 most visited malls in the country by Travel + Leisure magazine. The mall is located on the northwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Camelback Road in Scottsdale, Arizona, and has been owned by Westcor, a subsidiary of Macerich, since 2002.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the land which would become the Scottsdale Fashion Square was too far from the established Scottsdale and Phoenix business areas to be considered valuable. A Ryan-Evans drug store was the only retail establishment on the site. During the 1940s the 40-acre site was purchased by Harry Lenart. In the 1950s the land was used for a rodeo stadium before he began to plan for a small shopping center. In 1959, the center opened consisting of four stores in addition to the existing drug store: a grocery store, barber shop, liquor store, and camera store. In 1960 a steakhouse, built by Joe Hunt Sr. was added.

Scottsdale Fashion Square was originally built as a three-story open-air structure in 1961. The structure was designed by Edward L. Varney Associates, and built by Kitchell Contractors. It was anchored by two local Phoenix stores, department store Goldwater's and supermarket AJ Bayless. At the time, the primary competitor was the Los Arcos Mall, a fully enclosed mall built in 1969, also located in Scottsdale. Its early financial success led to an expansion of the west-side of the mall in 1974, which nearly doubled the square-footage of the mall. This expansion also added an additional department store, Diamond's, to the northern section of the mall.

In 1977, a competing mall, the fully enclosed Camelview Plaza, was built just west of Scottsdale Fashion Square, on the other side of North 70th Street. The competing mall was developed by Chicago business-man John F. Cuneo. Belli & Belli also of Chicago were the architects of the new mall. Camelview Plaza boasted Los Angeles department store Bullock's and Sakowitz. The shopping center also included a Harkins Camelview Theatre on an outparcel.

For several years, the two malls competed for shoppers and tenants. In 1982 after Westcor's purchase of the mall, the owners agreed to connect the malls by building a two-story retail bridge across North 70th Street, replacing the shuttle service that ran between the two malls. In the process, the street separating the two malls was sunk below grade-level, widened to four lanes, and renamed North Goldwater Boulevard. The two malls were largely gutted and completely renovated. Dillard's took over the former AJ Bayless and Diamond's spaces to create a new department store, while Goldwater's was expanded to 235,000 square feet (21,800 m2). A ground-level food court, anchored by a 7-screen Harkins Theatres cinema, was also added. The redevelopment was completed in 1991, closely followed by the addition of Neiman Marcus (in the former Sakowitz) in 1992.

Goldwater's became J. W. Robinson's in 1989, only to be converted into Robinsons-May in 1993. Bullock's closed its doors at Camelview Plaza in 1996, and remained vacant for several years. That same year, Westcor purchased Camelview Plaza and renamed the entire 1,800,000-square-foot (170,000 m2) shopping plaza, Scottsdale Fashion Square. The new ownership brought major changes to the mall, the largest being the addition of a new wing anchored by Arizona's first Nordstrom store and featuring many upscale retailers. At that time, Dillard's took over the former Bullock's store and expanded it to 365,000 square feet (33,900 m2), making the Scottsdale store the largest in the company's fleet. This expansion increased the mall's square footage to 2,000,000 sq ft (190,000 m2) and made it the 13th largest enclosed shopping mall in the country. The expansion was completed in 1998 and was designed by Callison Architects Inc. of Seattle, while the addition was built by the original contractor Kitchell.[citation needed]

Additions like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom were facilitated with aid from the city. For instance, the city gave the mall a $4 million tax rebate to attract Neiman Marcus and a 90 percent rebate on city sales tax generated at the waterfront for 25 years to bring in Nordstrom in the late 1990s.

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