University Mall is the largest mall in western

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. It is located at the intersection of McFarland Boulevard and Veterans' Memorial Parkway in

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

, the busiest in the city. The anchor stores are

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 2

Belk Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, ...

stores. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. Owned and managed by the Montgomery-based Aronov Realty, the mall opened on August 20, 1980. Anchor stores of the enclosed mall include

(), the vacant

(), Belk Women (), and Belk Men, Home & Kids (). The only outlier property on mall premises is a branch of

Regions Bank Regions Financial Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in the Regions Center (Birmingham), Regions Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The company provides retail banking and commercial banking, trust, stockbrokerage, and mortgage se ...

. The property where University Mall now stands was previously home to the ruins of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-era Northington Naval Hospital and associated support buildings. These ruins were finally destroyed during the filming of the climactic scene of the 1978

Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...

film '' Hooper''. The ruins of the hospital had lain derelict for many years and included a few dozen buildings as well as two immensely tall brick smoke-stacks. A few of the old barracks buildings remained until 2000; they housed the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education offices until they were relocated to the old

Tuscaloosa High School Central High School is a high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, enrolling grades 9 to 12. The school enrolls approximately 700 students, and is one of three traditional high schools in the Tuscaloosa City School District along with ...

(later Tuscaloosa Middle School) building on Queen City Avenue. On April 27, 2011, the mall was narrowly missed by a powerful tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa and killed dozens of people, sustaining moderate damage. On November 2, 2017, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 63 stores nationwide. The store closed in January 2018.

References

External links

University Mall website
{{Shopping malls in Alabama Buildings and structures in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Shopping malls in Alabama Shopping malls established in 1980 Tourist attractions in Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1980 establishments in Alabama