Western Hills Mall
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| Location | Fairfield, Alabama |
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| Opening date | 1969 |
| Website | shopmalls.com |
Western Hills Mall is a shopping mall in metro Birmingham, Alabama.
The mall opened in 1969 as the second in Birmingham,[1] under the development of Aronov Realty.[2] Loveman's of Alabama, which became Pizitz in 1980, was one of its original anchor stores.[1] J.C. Penney was the other major store.
In 2006, Western Hills Mall underwent a major transformation. The J.C. Penney location was demolished, with the mall building being truncated at the former Penney entrance. A new Wal-Mart Supercenter was built on the site of the former JCPenney.[3] Parisian, which took the former Pizitz building, also closed in the late 2000s and a Burlington Coat Factory took its place.[4]
Western Hills Mall is #2 tourist attraction in Fairfield-Midfield. (#1 is historic downtown.)
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[edit] History
Western Hills Mall opened in Fairfield, Alabama on the border line of Fairfield and Midfield, Alabama as a competitor to Five Points West located in Ensley. Its sister mall, West Lake Mall, located in Bessemer was built and opened the same year. It opened with JCPenney and Loveman's of Alabama. Smaller tenants were Britling's Cafeteria, Woolworth's, and Pizitz Bake Shop. This bake shop showed the future of Pizitz coming. In 1980 Pizitz finally opened in the old Loveman's space. JCPenney had steady business and was longest lived of any of the many department stores at Western Hills Mall. In 1986 Pizitz was sold to McRae's who took over the original Loveman's spot. Later in the 1990's Parisian took over this spot of McRae's. In the early 2000's Parisian closed. Also in the early 1980's Sears closed their West Lake Mall location and opened in a strip mall with Winn-Dixie across the street. In 2006 JCPenney demolished their store and Burlington Coat Factory took over the old Parisian spot. Walmart which was at the same strip mall with Sears built a new location at the old JCPenney location. Soon after Sears closed, Winn-Dixie closed, and the strip mall was almost deserted.
[edit] Walmart
Walmart made plans in 2006 to take over the former JCPenney tenant. The mall management agreed thinking this would add to the mall's square footage and be a tenant by having a interior mall entrance. Walmart was also to have an AT&T, and have the biggest Garden Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Although Walmart has been built this doesn't mean they can't add on.
[edit] Exit 117
The Alabama Department of Transportation had plans for an exit to Weibel Drive. This would of been less than half a mile from the mall and helped much. The mall put down some money to support this.The problem was it ran right into Comfort Inn and Forest Drive in the neighborhood. Many people of Forest Hills Neighborhood protested. The department of transportation made a decided to take the money and make a new interchange a Exit 118. This included a new bridge of Interstate 20 over Valley Drive, and ramp to West Valley Drive going West to decrease traffic at the stop light. This project was finished in 2007.
[edit] Future
The future for Western Hills does not look very bright, but future hopes of the Aronov company which owns Western Hills Mall is to connect Walmart to the mall and make it a tenant. If business picks up to add a second story on Burlington Coat factory and possibly the whole mall, and add an upstairs food court with a Merry-go-round. They also want Walmart to look like the rest of the mall. They also hope one of the strip malls become a Target since the closest Target is near Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama. This would fill the other strip mall and possibly add on more shops in and near the mall.
[edit] Former tenants
- JCPenney (opened in 1969, closed in 2006)
- Loveman's of Alabama (opened in 1969, closed in 1980
- Pizitz (opened in 1980, closed in 1986 due to McRae's buying the Pizitz chain)
- McRae's (opened in 1986, closed in 1990)
- Parisian (opened in 1990, closed in 2005)
[edit] Current tenants
- Walmart (187,200 Square Feet)
- Burlington Coat Factory (140,000 square feet)
[edit] References
- ^ a b http://books.google.com/books?id=-EB4tzSefWEC&pg=PA127&dq=%22Western+hills+mall%22+%22loveman%27s%22&hl=en&ei=3AQ6TvC7MdPPgAfC3YTPBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Western%20hills%20mall%22%20%22loveman%27s%22&f=false
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=tMYSAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Western+hills+mall%22+%22loveman%27s%22&dq=%22Western+hills+mall%22+%22loveman%27s%22&hl=en&ei=3AQ6TvC7MdPPgAfC3YTPBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBQ
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2005/02/14/daily8.html?jst=b_ln_hl
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2007/02/19/daily19.html?jst=cn_cn_lk
