River Park Square is a shopping mall and entertainment complex in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

. The shopping center was originally opened in 1974. Following years of decline, the center was redeveloped in 1999 using public and private funds in an effort to revitalize downtown Spokane. The mall, still privately owned by

Cowles Company The Cowles Company is a diversified media company in Spokane, Washington, in the US. The company owns and operates '' The Spokesman-Review'' in Spokane, founded in 1894, and owned the '' Spokane Daily Chronicle'' until it was shut down in 1992 ...

, is anchored by

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

and contains an outpost of

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

History

The original River Park Square was opened in 1974. In 1978, an expansion added a 55,000 square-foot enclosed second level and two skywalks connecting the mall to the

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

stores. When completed, the shopping center contained 800,000 square-feet of retail space with The Crescent, JCPenney, and Nordstrom as anchor stores. In February 1984, a new skywalk was constructed to connect the center to

The Bon Marché The Bon Marché, whose French name translates to "the good market" or "the good deal", was a department store chain launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the note ...

, which was located east of the complex. The addition of the skywalk added 20,000 square-foot of retail space to the center. In January 1987,

Osco Drug Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. Skaggs Drug Centers boug ...

closed its drug store at the shopping mall. The drug store, which previously operated as

PayLess Drug Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Stores chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed in April 1994 when Los Angeles-based TCH Corporation, the p ...

and Skaggs, had been located in downtown Spokane since 1942. The space was quickly replaced by Thrifty Drug in November 1987. In April 1994, PayLess Drug, which acquired the pharmacy from Thrifty, closed for good. In 1991, JCPenney closed its store at River Park Square after relocating to the newly renovated NorthTown Mall.

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...

moved into the space in 1994 and remained at the mall until moving to a larger location in 2001. In April 1992, the shopping mall suffered a big loss when

Frederick & Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acquired by Marshall Fiel ...

, which acquired The Crescent in 1988, liquidated and closed its remaining stores. In 1995, the Spokane City Council announced that it would seek a $23.8 million federal loan to build a larger Nordstrom store in an attempt bring shoppers back to the ailing shopping center. On February 12, 1998, Nordstrom signed a 20-year lease on a new building at River Park Square. Construction began in April 1998. The old Nordstrom building was demolished shortly after for new retail space. The redeveloped $110 million shopping center opened on August 20, 1999 to a crowd of about 2,000 people. DownTown_Mall_(8113384065)

The mall has expanded in the 2010s with the acquisition of the Saad building in 2015 on the corner of Main and Wall Street being replaced with a 10,000 square foot

Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, K ...

location and in the spring of 2016 with the acquisition of the shuttered

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

building across from Wall Street, which was converted into luxury apartments with first floor retail. A

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

Factory Store became the tenant in the new 12,000 square foot retail portion of the building, now called “The M” in reference to the buildings former tenants, The Bon Marché and Macy's. A Flatstick Pub was added as an additional tenant in 2019. Being an urban, mixed use mall has been beneficial to it. Its proximity to other foot traffic generating attractions such as Riverfront Park, a public library, and eateries and having a revenue generating parking garage downtown has allowed River Park Square to weather a deteriorating retail outlook that has challenged suburban outlet malls; River Park Square's customer base is also more recession resistant as it has more high end luxury stores such as an

Apple store The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital me ...

and Nordstrom than do typical outlet malls.

References

External links

River Park Square Official Site
{{Authority control Cowles Company Buildings and structures in Spokane, Washington Shopping malls established in 1974 1974 establishments in Washington (state) Shopping malls in Washington (state)