Six Flags 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 along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

that opened in August 1970 in Arlington, Texas. Arlington's first enclosed shopping center, it was named after the nearby

Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Texas is a 212-acre (86 ha) amusement park, in Arlington, Texas, east of Fort Worth and west of Dallas. It is the first amusement park in the Six Flags chain, and features themed areas and attractions. The park opened on August 5, ...

theme park. When it opened, it was the largest shopping center in

Tarrant County Tarrant County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, it had a population of 2,110,640. It is Texas' third-most populous county and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 2 ...

and the area's first regional shopping facility. A new owner acquired roughly one-third of the mall in December 2012 and announced plans to redevelop it as a Hispanic-oriented shopping mall called "Plaza Central" and, after resolving legal issues, reopened in October 2014, but closed again in February 2016. Demolition began in summer of 2016, but was slowed by a lawsuit filed by Cinemark. Two separate two-alarm fires occurred on February 6 and March 2 during demolition. The site was rebuilt as industrial space to accommodate suppliers to the GM auto assembly plant.

History

Six Flags Mall opened in August 1970 at 2831 East Division Street ( SH 180) and SH 360 in Arlington, Texas, between Fort Worth and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. The mall flourished through the 1980s until

The Parks at Arlington The Parks Mall at Arlington is a shopping mall that opened in 1988 at 3811 South Cooper Street ( FM 157) and Interstate 20 in South Arlington, Texas between Fort Worth and Dallas. It went through a renovation in 1996. It is one of the leading s ...

, a new regional mall, opened in South Arlington in 1988. It struggled into the 1990s; the JC Penney anchor store closed in 1997.

Decline

Both Dillard's and

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 ...

closed in 2002.

Foley's Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's ...

(originally a Sanger-Harris location), the fourth and final anchor, closed in January 2005, but the Dillard's anchor reopened as Dillard's Clearance Center in March 2005 after the closure of Forum 303 Mall. By 2008 when the mall fell into foreclosure, only a dozen stores remained in its interior. When the property was placed up for auction in December 2011, the only remaining stores were the Dillard's Clearance Center and a Cinemark movie theater named Cinemark Tinseltown 9 which showed first-run movies at bargain rates. , American Motorcycle Trading Co. continues to operate on one of the out-lots.

End of the mall

In early December 2012, private investor G.L. "Buck" Harris purchased the former JC Penney anchor store and announced plans to redevelop it into a Hispanic-oriented shopping center named Plaza Central. He revealed plans to bring new tenants into the mall and return it to profitability over the following two years then donate the property to Youth With A Mission, a Christian outreach organization. However, the project was put on hold due to zoning issues with the City of Arlington; Harris filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city. On September 20, 2013, the Arlington Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans to overhaul the 22.5 acre property. The mall reopened as Plaza Central in October 2014, but closed a year-and-a-half later. Demolition began in 2016; the mall was completely demolished by mid-year 2017, around which time the city announced that the property would become an automobile parts supplier park to serve the nearby GM Arlington Assembly plant.

Tenants

; Anchor * Sanger-Harris (August 5, 1970 – 1987, converted to Foley's) *

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 ...

(August 5, 1970 - closed 1997, redeveloped as Plaza Center) *

(August 5, 1970 - closed 2002) * Dillard's (1989 - closed 2002, reopened 2005 as Dillard's Clearance Center, closed August 1, 2016)'' *

(1987-2005) * Cinemark Tinseltown USA 9 (March 21, 1997 – March 31, 2017) ; Other * Everest College Mid-Cities *

General Cinema General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certi ...

Six Flags Cinema (August 5, 1970 to August 26, 1990) in an outparcel complex known as The Village.

External links

Film of Six Flags Mall's opening
preserved by

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

.
News footage discussing the foreclosure of the mall mixed with dead mall footage.

More dead mall footage along with footage of the fences put up, preparing for demolition

References