Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall
 Entrance from the intersection of 5th Avenue and D Street. | |
 | |
| Location | Anchorage, Alaska, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 61°13′02″N 149°53′19″W / 61.21722°N 149.88861°W |
| Address | 320 West 5th Avenue |
| Opening date | August 1, 1987[1] |
| Owner | Simon Property Group |
| Stores and services | 60[2] |
| Anchor tenants | 2 (1 open, 1 vacant) |
| Floor area | 447,000 square feet (41,500 m2)[3] |
| Floors | 5 |
| Website | simon.com |
Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall is a 447,000 square feet (41,500 m2) regional shopping mall located in Downtown Anchorage, Alaska, United States. It has five levels with the only JCPenney store in Alaska as its sole anchor.[4] It also has Alaska's only Victoria's Secret, Apple Store, Coach, and Michael Kors locations. There was also a Nordstrom as a second anchor store until it closed in September 2019.[2]
The mall is owned by Northwestern Simon Inc. and is administered by the Simon Property Group.
History
[edit]The mall opened in 1987,[5] covering a city block previously occupied mostly by small, two-story commercial buildings and parking lots. The original developers were JCPenney and The Rainier Fund.[6] The former Nordstrom at the mall was previously built in 1975 and was added on to the mall by a skybridge. Since JCPenney was one of the developers of the mall, they would also build a store at the mall, which is still open to this day. As the mall opened during an economic slowdown in Alaska, its occupancy rate hovered in the 20 to 30 percent range for most of its early years. It was later sold to Northwestern Simon Inc. in 1994, and it has been operated by Simon Property Group ever since.
On August 13, 2011, an Apple Store opened at the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall. It was the first Apple Store in Alaska. The store was built right next to the sky bridge that connected the former Nordstrom to the mall. On June 26, 2019, it was announced that Nordstrom would be closing on September 13, 2019.[7] The mall was closed for 2 weeks in March, 2020 as part of an attempt to curb the spread of the COVID-19.[8]
In 2022, after the Pandemic, some of the stores in the mall left the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall. One of those stores was Banana Republic's only store in Alaska. It was one of the standout stores in the mall. One of the stores that no other surrounding malls like Dimond Center had. Currently, Lululemon sits in the same spot that Banana Republic once did. This is Lululemon's second store in Alaska at the time. Its other store is a Pop-Up store at the Diamond Center.
Gap was another store that would be closed down due to the Pandemic and low sales. Gap is the owner of Banana Republic, and both companies were falling out, some leaving the Anchorage market. Thankfully, Gap had another store at Diamond Center, which was much more popular and in a better location than Gap's at the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall.
The Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall has only one major competing shopping center in Anchorage, that shopping center is the Diamond Center. Diamond Center is about 5 miles away from the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall. It features stores that the 5th Avenue mall doesn’t have or had, like Gap, H&M, and Best Buy. While the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall had stores that Diamond Center doesn’t have, like Apple, Michael Kors, Sephora, and Coach. The general labeling of these malls is that Diamond Center is more casual, while the 5th Avenue Mall is more high-end.
Facilities
[edit]Interior
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Compared to other malls in Alaska, the 5th Avenue Mall integrates many more aesthetic designs inside its buildings. Some examples are the sky-lit roof above the main "Arcade", and features galleria-style, wide, open spaces. The top floor of the Arcade is exclusively a food court. Most of the mall's elevators have glass panels and are decorated with neon lights. The mall uses skybridges to provide indoor access between buildings and parking, contributing to the streetscape of 5th and 6th Avenues. The ground floor of the galleria functions as an indoor pedestrian extension of "D" Street.[9]
Parking
[edit]There is significant parking available at the mall, which is owned and operated by ACDA via EasyPark. The 5th Avenue Parking garage is one of the largest parking garages Downtown, offering six levels of parking. The JCPenney parking garage, recently under renovation, offers additional parking Downtown, and the hourly fee to park in that garage is $2.00.
List of anchor stores
[edit]| Name | No. of floors |
Year opened |
Year closed |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JCPenney | 4 | 1987 | — | |
| Nordstrom | 1987 | 2019 |
References
[edit]- ^ Overbuilding In Alaska Makes Boom Go Bust
- ^ a b "About Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall - A Shopping Center in Anchorage, AK - A Simon Property". www.simon.com. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
- ^ Simon Mall Leasing Sheet[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Simon Malls: Anchorage 5th Avenue Information". Retrieved May 8, 2011.
- ^ "Mall loan approved". Anchorage Daily News. October 29, 1986. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ TRF, https://trfpac.com/
- ^ "Nordstrom will close its downtown Anchorage store".
- ^ DeMarban, Alex (March 19, 2020). "Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall will temporarily close doors to help curb spread of coronavirus". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
- ^ "New York Times, Downtown Anchorage Walking Tour". The New York Times. November 20, 2006. Retrieved October 2, 2007.