Park Central Mall was the first
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 ...
in
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. 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-profit hospital operator
Dignity Health
Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) was a California-based not-for-profit public-benefit corporation that operates hospitals and ancillary care facilities in three states. Dignity Health was the fifth-largest hospital system in th ...
(formerly known as Catholic Healthcare West), and regional offices for
UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world's seventh largest ...
. The property currently is known simply as Park Central.
History
Park Central Shopping City, as it originally was known, was first envisioned by Ralph Burgbacher and his older brother, A.J. Burgbacher. The two men purchased the Central Avenue Dairy in the 1950s. At the time Phoenix was a much smaller city, and the mall's location, north of the
state capitol was an early
edge city
''Edge city'' is a term that originated in the United States for a concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional downtown or central business district, in what had previously been a suburban residential or rur ...
, which in time came to be known as "Uptown" Phoenix. Other developers criticized the brothers, believing a development out in the "dairy farm" area was futile, but development proceeded and the open-air mall was completed in 1957. The mall was designed by a collaboration of architects in the
Mid-Century Modern style.
Welton Becket
Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California.
Biography
Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...
designed the Goldwater's building and
Ralph Haver
Ralph Haver (1915-1987) was an architect working in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, USA, from 1945 until the early 1980s. Haver designed the Mid-Century Modern ''Haver Homes'', affordable tract housing executed in a contemporary modern style.
...
and John Schotanus Jr. designing other parts of the mall. The mall was built by Kitchell-Phillips Contractors Inc. When the mall opened, the primary anchors were a twin-level
Goldwater's
Goldwater's Department Store was a department store chain based in Phoenix, Arizona.
History
Michael Goldwater, the grandfather of U.S. Senator and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, established a trading post in 1860 in Gila City, A ...
which predated the initial opening of the mall. It opened November 8, 1956. There were also a twin-level
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 ...
, and a
J.J. Newberry
J. J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the 20th century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (1877–1954). J. J. Newberry learned the variety store business by working ...
five and dime store. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the mall and its first 31 stores were held on April 1, 1957.Goldwater's and Diamond's soon closed their older, downtown stores favoring their new midtown location in the mall. When JCPenney closed its downtown location in the mid-1960s, the downtown area never would regain its status as the retail draw it once was. The original Phoenix-based
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
club was across Central Ave. to the East; it closed in the mid-1980s.
As Phoenix quickly grew, the area around Park Central Mall saw an increasing number of mid-rise and high-rise office buildings built along Central Avenue, and eventually became known as the central business district. Part of this mid-1960s transition included the new addition of a twin level
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 ...
store at the mall, and a covered parking deck on the northeast end of the property built in 1967, to help combat the hot summertime temperatures. The new structures were designed by
Al Beadle
Alfred Newman Beadle V (1927–1998) was an American modernist architect active in Phoenix, Arizona.
Beadle is best known for designing Case Study Apartment #1, a three-unit apartment development known as the Triad in Phoenix, AZ, which was p ...
.
Unable to compete with newer enclosed and air-conditioned shopping malls, Park Central, still an open-air facility, had lost most of its major retailers by the very late 1980s. The first major anchor to leave was
Robinson's, which had purchased and converted the Goldwater's store years earlier, closing the location down just before the end of the decade. The second major anchor to leave was JCPenney, closing just at the start of the 1990s. Finally the last anchor,
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 ...
, which had purchased and converted Diamond's a few years prior, became a discount Dillard's Clearance Center and remained open in that format until the mid-1990s.
Current
Conversion of the property began shortly after the last anchor closed and most vacant retail space was converted to lease-able office space. Much of the original architectural design was covered up or removed and the exterior of the mall was given a
Postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
appearance. The Diamond's space at the west / back end of the old mall became the Arizona regional offices for Catholic Healthcare West (later known as Dignity Health after it became independent of the Catholic Church), parent company of
St. Joseph's Hospital located on an adjacent property.
Banner Health Systems soon moved some administrative functions into what was Goldwater's, and finally the old JCPenney space became offices for UnitedHealth Group. The remaining smaller retail spaces began to fill with nearly a dozen small restaurants mostly located at the east/front end of the old mall (including
Starbucks Coffee
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...
,
Jamba Juice and
Qdoba Mexican Grill
Qdoba ( ) is a chain of fast casual restaurants in the United States and Canada serving Mexican-style cuisine. After spending 15 years as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jack in the Box, the company was sold to a consortium of funds led by A ...
). Other smaller businesses, such as a flower shop, a shoe repair shop, a vitamin/health supplements store, computer training company Training a la Carte, the primary customer care
call center
A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...
for cable service provider
Cable One
Cable One, Inc. is an American broadband communications provider. Under the Sparklight brand, it provides service to 21 states and 900,000 residential and business customers. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, though it does not serve that ...
and a branch location of
Wells Fargo Financial
Wells most commonly refers to:
* Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England
* Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground
* Wells (name)
Wells may also refer to:
Places Canada
*Wells, British Columbia
England
* Wells ...
, occupy the remaining storefronts. A
Hampton Inn
Hampton by Hilton, formerly known (and still commonly referred to) as Hampton Inn or Hampton Inn & Suites, is an American chain of hotels trademarked by Hilton Worldwide. The Hampton hotel brand is a chain of moderately priced, budget to midscale ...
hotel location sits on the southwest corner of the property adjacent to the Dignity Health offices.
Nearly all the mall's original buildings still stand, and most have only cosmetic changes.
In October 2017, the city of Phoenix proposed that
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
locate its "second headquarters", expected to employ 50,000 people, at the Park Central location.
Anchor tenants
* Banner Health Systems – Occupying the original Goldwater's
* Dignity Health – Occupying the original Diamond's
* UnitedHealth Group – Occupying the original JCPenney
Light rail
Park Central Mall has its own "
Central at Osborn / Midtown Station" stop on the
Valley Metro Rail system.
See also
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
Chris-Town Mall
Christown Spectrum is the oldest operating mall in Phoenix, Arizona and was the third shopping mall 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 an ...
References
External links
Official Park Central Website
{{Shopping malls in Arizona
Shopping malls in Arizona
Buildings and structures in Phoenix, Arizona
Shopping malls established in 1957