Park Central Mall
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| Location | Phoenix, AZ |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1957 |
| Management | Park Central Management |
| No. of stores and services | 10+ |
| No. of floors | 1 |
Park Central Mall was the first shopping mall in Phoenix, Arizona located on Central Avenue and Osborn Road. Today it exists as a mixed use business park primarily occupied by regional administrative offices for California-based Catholic Healthcare West, and regional offices for Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. The property is currently known simply as Park Central.
[edit] History
Park Central was first envisioned by Ralph Burgbacher and his brother, A.J. Burgbacher, who was five years older. The two men purchased the 46-acre Central Avenue Dairy in the 1950s. At the time, Phoenix was a much smaller city, and the mall's location, 2 miles north of the state capitol was an early edge city, 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. When the mall opened, the primary anchors were a twin level Goldwater's and twin level Diamond's department store.
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 J.C. Penney store at the mall, and a covered parking deck on the northeast end of the property, to help combat the hot summertime temperatures.
Unable to compete with the newer enclosed 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 a few years earlier, closing the location down just before the end of the decade. The second major anchor to leave was J.C. Penney, closing just at the start of the 1990s. Finally the last anchor, Dillard's, 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.
Conversion of the property began shortly after the last anchor closed and most vacant retail space was converted to leaseable office space. The Diamond's space at the west / back end of the old mall became the Arizona regional offices for Catholic Healthcare West, 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 J.C. Penney 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.
[edit] Light Rail
Park Central Mall has its own "Midtown Station" stop on the Valley Metro Light Rail system.
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 33°29′01″N 112°04′31″W / 33.4834826°N 112.0753312°W
