Christown Spectrum is the oldest operating mall in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
and was the third
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
built in the city. It is located at 1703 W. Bethany Home Road in Phoenix, Arizona. The name Christown Spectrum is derived from Chris-Town Mall and Phoenix Spectrum Mall, previous names. Today it exists as an enclosed shopping mall, although the enclosed portion of the mall was greatly reduced when redevelopment changed the configuration closer to a
power center.
Christown Spectrum's anchor stores are
SuperTarget
Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...
,
Walmart Supercenter
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
, and soon to be occupied by another anchor store, American Furniture Warehouse, which will open later this year or early next year. There is one empty anchor formerly occupied by
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
. Christown Spectrum also has
Big 5 Sporting Goods
Big 5 Sporting Goods is a sporting goods retailer headquartered in El Segundo, California with 434 stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Steven G. Miller is the chairma ...
,
Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a ''Fortune'' 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its st ...
,
PetSmart
PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...
,
Ross Dress for Less
Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 sto ...
,
Walgreens
Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...
and a
Harkins Theatres
Harkins Theatres is an American movie theater chain with locations throughout the Southwestern United States. Harkins Theatres is privately owned and operated by its parent company, Harkins Enterprises, LLC. The company currently operates 33 the ...
14.
History
Chris-Town Mall
Chris-Town Mall was originally named after the farmer, Chris Harri, who sold a large portion of his farmland to the mall's developer, Del Webb in the late 1950s.
Construction was completed in mid-1961. Chris-Town Mall opened with much fanfare on August 24, advertised as the first indoor mall in Arizona. Another first for an Arizona mall was the air-conditioned interior, which may have led to competing Maryvale Mall converting to an indoor mall to stay competitive. The mall's original anchors included
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...
,
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
, and the first branch of the
Downtown Phoenix
Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is located in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County and ...
department store
Korricks
Korricks (in its earlier advertisements, Korricks' with final apostrophe (plural possessive) or "Chas. Korrick & Bro.") was a department store in Downtown Phoenix at 1 N. 1st St. at Washington, which later would be a branch of Los Angeles-based T ...
. Other major tenants included
S. S. Kresge, &
Woolworth. Themed Courtyards served as focal points in front of each of the three major department stores. The main courtyard at the center entrance that buffered JCPenney was named the Court of Fountains; another named the Court of Flowers ended the east wing near Korrick's, and the Montgomery Ward opened to the final one, named the Court of Birds, in the west wing.
By 1966 the mall already had begun the first of many significant changes as one of the original three anchor department stores,
Korricks
Korricks (in its earlier advertisements, Korricks' with final apostrophe (plural possessive) or "Chas. Korrick & Bro.") was a department store in Downtown Phoenix at 1 N. 1st St. at Washington, which later would be a branch of Los Angeles-based T ...
, was bought by and renamed
The Broadway
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, the Broadway became a dominant reta ...
. Also that year the mall's first of two movie theatres broke ground on the southwest side of the main parking lot. And a new subterranean tavern, called The Janitor's Closet, opened in the mall in front of The Broadway, down a winding set of stairs in the basement at the northeast end of the mall. The second significant change began in 1974 in reaction to
Metro Center, the new mega mall that opened just a few miles away. Woolworth's was demolished to make way for the new southwestern wing anchored by a
Bullock's
Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...
department store. While a second new wing on the southwestern side of the mall opened to a United Artists Cinemas 6 on the upper level making it Chris-Town's second movie theatre. Changes already were underway again by the mid-1980s when
Diamond's
Diamond's was a department store chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Originally named The Boston Store, it was founded in 1897 by Nathan and Issac Diamond, Jewish immigrants who had earlier begun a dry-goods mercantile in El Paso, it was rena ...
, which quickly became
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...
, moved into the southwestern anchor spot vacated by Bullock's short stay at the mall.
The next decade would not be kind to Chris-Town Mall following the rapid closure of many anchor stores beginning with The Broadway in 1994; JCPenney, store #1821, closed in 1997. The bankruptcy of Montgomery Ward on the west end in 2001, the closing of Butler Shoe store in 1990 next to Ward and the closing of a smaller anchor Woolworths across from Wards and Butler Shoes and the closing of the final anchor on the southwest end of the mall, Dillard's, in 2004. The closures of the major department stores and the smaller anchors also brought about the permanent closure of the life sized sand sculptures exhibit that adorned the mall for many years.
Phoenix Spectrum Mall
Beginning the new millennium the mall underwent a rebirth with a new name, Phoenix Spectrum Mall, and a Grossman Company Properties financed redevelopment was underway. The new spectrum of discount stores, replacing the old upscale ones, started with the demolition of The Broadway and replacement by
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
(originally built as a discount store, now expanded into a Supercenter). The $10 million renovation project also included the addition of the first
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
to be located in an enclosed mall, followed by the division of the Wards department store into a
PetSmart
PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...
and
Ross Dress for Less
Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 sto ...
. Walgreens, a longtime resident inside the mall located near the center court relocated outside the mall to the northwest corner of the parking lot where JB's Family Restaurant was located, with Big 5 Sporting Goods replacing that location in the mall.
Christown Spectrum
Following the sale of the mall to Developers Diversified Realty in 2006, Phoenix Spectrum Mall took on a hybrid of its previous names to become known as Christown Spectrum Mall.
At this same time the southwestern wing that was added in 1974 was demolished and replaced by
Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
, as well as creating space for smaller specialty shops that would no longer be directly connected to the mall. The former United Artists Cinemas and food court were demolished and replaced by a Harkins Theatre with stadium seating which resulted in the Chris-Town Cinemas located in the parking lot to also be demolished. Most of the enclosed section between the old Court of Fountains and the new PetSmart and Costco was demolished for the return of a previous anchor, JCPenney, which relocated from their recently closed location at nearby
Metrocenter. This demolition cut off mall access to the Petsmart and Ross, thus leaving only the center and eastern side as traditional enclosed mall.
In December 2015,
Kimco Realty
Kimco Realty® (NYSE:KIM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Jericho, N.Y. that is North America’s largest publicly traded owner and operator of open-air, grocery-anchored shopping centers, including mixed-use assets. The ...
acquired the mall for $115.3 million or $136 per square foot. At that time, the property was 94% occupied.
Today the only remaining original structures are the center entrance, east wing and the Montgomery Ward building although the second floor remains non-leasable space. The rest of the buildings that housed the original anchors have been razed, along with the movie theatre and the entire western wing. Although the mall's central complex remains, the fountains were removed shortly after new flooring was added.
On February 11, 2020, it was announced that Costco would be closing. The store officially closed on September 20, 2020.
There was an online petition to keep the store from closing, which received over six thousand signatures, but the store still closed on September 20, 2020.
[
On June 4, 2020, it was announced that JCPenney would also be closing as part of a plan to close 154 stores nationwide. The store closed October 18, 2020.]
Light rail
Christown Spectrum Mall has its own " 19th Avenue/Montebello Station" stop on the Valley Metro Rail system.
See also
* Arrowhead Towne Center
Arrowhead Towne Center, often referred to by locals as Arrowhead Mall, is a super-regional shopping mall located in Glendale, Arizona (west suburban Phoenix). The mall is owned by Macerich & GIC Private Limited. It is anchored by Macy's, Dillard' ...
* Park Central Mall
Park Central Mall was the first shopping mall in Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in Encanto Village, on Central Avenue and Osborn Road.
Today it exists as a mixed-use, business park primarily occupied by regional administrative offices for non ...
* Maryvale Mall
Maryvale Mall, originally known as Maryvale Shopping City, was a shopping mall in the Maryvale area of Phoenix, Arizona that, for a time, was the biggest shopping mall between Dallas, Texas and the West Coast.
The mall was located on 51st Aven ...
* Desert Sky Mall
Desert Sky Mall is a regional shopping mall in west Phoenix, Arizona. It is located at 75th Avenue and Thomas Road. The mall was developed by Westcor and is managed by Macerich. The anchor stores are Curacao, Burlington, Mercado de los Cielos, a ...
* Encanto, Phoenix
Encanto Village is one of the 15 Urban villages that make up the City of Phoenix, in Arizona. The village includes the city's midtown and uptown districts, as well as the popular Encanto neighborhood, its namesake. In 2010, Encanto had a population ...
City of Phoenix, Arizona Urban Villages Map
* Mesa Riverview
Mesa Riverview is an outdoor shopping center in Mesa, Arizona (part of the Phoenix metropolitan area) located in the northwestern corner of the city near Loop 202 and Dobson Road.
The shopping center has a gross leasable area of 1,115,112 squar ...
* Tempe Marketplace
Tempe Marketplace is an open-air shopping center located in Tempe, Arizona. It is located along the Salt River near the interchange of Loop 101 (the Pima/Price Freeway) and Loop 202 (the Red Mountain Freeway) near the Tempe borders with Mesa ...
* Superstition Springs Center
Superstition Springs Center is a shopping mall located in Mesa, Arizona. It is owned by Macerich, and was developed by Westcor. The mall features the traditional retailers Dillard's, JCPenney, and Macy's in addition to an 8-screen Picture Show. ...
* Fiesta Mall
Fiesta Mall is a former shopping mall in Mesa, Arizona, United States. Opened in 1979 after nine years of development, it was built by Homart Development Company, the former shopping mall development division of the department store Sears. Sears w ...
* Tri City Mall
Tri-City Pavilions, formerly Tri-City Mall, is a shopping mall in Mesa, Arizona, United States. It was developed in 1968 as an enclosed shopping mall featuring Diamond's and JCPenney as the anchor stores. The mall underwent a period of decline fo ...
* Los Arcos Mall
Los Arcos Mall was an enclosed shopping mall on the southeast corner of Scottsdale and McDowell roads in Scottsdale, Arizona. The mall, which operated from 1969 to 1999, featured a Spanish architectural motif and took its name from "The Arches" ...
* Metrocenter (Phoenix, Arizona)
Metrocenter was a regional enclosed shopping mall in northwest Phoenix, Arizona. It was bounded by Interstate 17, 31st, Dunlap and Peoria Avenues. Before its closure, the three most recently open anchor stores were Harkins Theatres, Walmart Superc ...
* Paradise Valley Mall
Paradise Valley Mall was a shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops ...
References
External links
Official Christown Spectrum website
{{Shopping malls in Arizona
Buildings and structures in Phoenix, Arizona
Shopping malls established in 1961
Shopping malls in Arizona
Shopping malls in Maricopa County, Arizona
Del E. Webb buildings
Welton Becket buildings