By Corina Vanek | Phoenix Business Journal
When Los Arcos Mall opened more than 50 years ago in Scottsdale, it was one of the Valley’s few indoor shopping centers. The behemoth structure, anchored by Sears and Broadway when it first opened in 1969, quickly became a popular place to shop and gather.
But after years of decline and store closures, the mall shuttered in 1999 and was demolished the next year.
After many proposed and later scrapped plans, what now stands on the same 42-acre site, at the southeast corner of Scottsdale and McDowell roads, is a new kind of economic driver for the region: SkySong, a mixed-use project, made up mostly of office space and apartments. The project is expected to have an economic impact of $58.2 billion over the next 30 years, according to a study completed by Elliott D. Pollack & Co. in 2021.
The success of SkySong is something that many developers working in the Valley hope they can replicate as more large-scale retail developments are past their useful life, as shopping trends and neighborhood needs continue to change, and are primed for redevelopment in some of the most coveted corridors in cities.
Phoenix has now emerged as a national leader in mall redevelopment, with several shuttered malls in various stages of rebirth, and even more projects lined up. The Valley has about 40.5 square feet of retail per capita, much higher than the national average of 28 square feet, already creating a bigger imbalance of retail supply and demand.
Read More (subscriber content)
Some stories may only appear as partial reprints because of publisher restrictions.