Scottsdale Fashion Square - History

History

Scottsdale Fashion Square was originally built as a 3-story open-air structure in 1961, anchored by two local Phoenix stores, department store Goldwater's and supermarket AJ Bayless. At the time, the primary competitor was the Los Arcos Mall, a fully enclosed mall built in 1969, also located in Scottsdale. Its early financial success led to an expansion of the west-side of the mall in 1974, which nearly doubled the square-footage of the mall. This expansion also added an additional department store, Diamond's, to the northern section of the mall.

In 1977, a competing mall, the fully enclosed Camelview Plaza, was built just west of Scottsdale Fashion Square, on the other side of North 70th Street. Camelview Plaza boasted Los Angeles department store Bullock's and Houston's Sakowitz. The shopping center also included a Harkins Camelview Theatre on an outparcel.

For several years, the two malls competed for shoppers and tenants. However, in 1982 after Westcor's purchase of the mall, the owners agreed to connect the malls by building a two-story retail bridge across North 70th Street, replacing the shuttle service that ran between the two malls. In the process, the street separating the two malls was sunk below grade-level, widened to four lanes, and renamed North Goldwater Boulevard. The two malls were largely gutted and completely renovated. AJ Bayless was torn down and the space merged with Diamond's to be replaced by Dillard's. Goldwater's, which became J. W. Robinson's a few years before, was expanded to 235,000 square feet (21,800 m2). The lower level food court added the Harkins Fashion Square 7 Cinema. Fashion Square was also enclosed by a system of retractable glass skylights. A variety of tenants were able to remain in-place and operating throughout this redevelopment process. The redevelopment was completed in 1991.

In the early 1990s, luxury developers and retailers believed the desert city would be the next retail destination. Developments such as the Scottsdale Galleria, The Borgata and Fashion Square lured internationally renowned retailers to the center of the city, including Adrienne Vittadini, A|X Armani Exchange, Bally, Escada, Gianni Versace, Royal Doulton, and Yves Saint Laurent. In 1992, Sakowitz was transformed into a luxurious, 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) Neiman Marcus. While many retailers discovered the market was too young and eventually withdrew from the market, Neiman Marcus experienced high sales and remained. Others would return later on.

During the luxury explosion, J. W. Robinson's, after being acquired by May Department Stores, became Robinsons-May in 1993. In 1995, the old Bullock's space was vacated, and remained empty for several years. Throughout this time, while connected, the two malls retained separate ownership and identities. Signage within the malls indicated to shoppers the demarcation between the two structures. These separate identities continued until, in 1996, Westcor purchased Camelview Plaza and renamed the entire 1,800,000-square-foot (170,000 m2) shopping plaza, Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Despite the early failure of several luxury tenants, the mall attracted a number of the state's first major luxury brands in the mid-to-late 1990s during its second major expansion. The mall was redeveloped and expanded south. In 1998, a second retail bridge was constructed to connect the newly built, 235,000-square-foot (21,800 m2), 3-story Nordstrom. Three parking garages were built as well. Nordstrom's arrival landed Fashion Square a number of the state's first luxury names, including Brooks Brothers, Montblanc, Nicole Miller, Niessing, Tiffany & Co., and Swarovski. Dillard's also moved across the mall to Bullock's old space. Sears temporarily occupied the vacant retail space from 1999-2000. At the end of the entire redevelopment, Dillard's was expanded to 365,000 square feet (33,900 m2), the largest store in the Arkansas-based chain. This redevelopment brought the center to nearly 2,000,000 sq ft (190,000 m2) and made it the 13th largest enclosed shopping mall in the country.

The revitalized mall helped luxury stores see record-high sales. Coach, St. John, Tiffany & Co., and Louis Vuitton underwent several expansions throughout the years, with all four having nearly doubled or tripled their spaces today. The mall continued to bring in more unique luxury tenants, including the Bang & Olufsen, BOSS Hugo Boss, Dana Buchman, Max Mara, Max Studio, and TUMI. Banana Republic opened one of its first free-standing individual Banana Republic Men and Banana Republic Women stores. Neiman Marcus also opened one of its exclusive Horchow Collection Show Rooms at the mall. Moreover, in 2002, Sears closed and was replaced by the area's first Macy's.

In 2004, Fashion Square joined 7 other malls owned by Macerich to form the Lumenati Brand, a mission by Macerich to bring their malls to a new level of luxury. Macerich hoped to make Fashion Square rival other upscale malls in the nation such as South Coast Plaza in Orange County, California, Bal Harbour Shops in Florida, and The Galleria in Houston, Texas, all of which are famed centers for luxury collections. Lumenati has helped raise the level of luxury at Fashion Square. Westcor began the transformation by transplanting Gucci and Betsey Johnson from Biltmore Fashion Park (several miles to the west, in the Biltmore district of Phoenix). The mall also brought in several established international luxury brands including, Burberry, Kate Spade, and Lacoste. Other stores in the mall benefited from the new store additions and expanded to meet the greater demand for luxury in the region. Tiffany's is among several who expanded, adding a second entrance to the store, a men's room and private VIP viewing salon. Bang & Olufsen and Max Mara also doubled in size.

The merger between Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores in 2006 presented an opportunity for Macerich to take the Lumenati initiative a step further. Robinsons-May at Fashion Square was closed in June 2006, creating an availability for a new luxury department store. While the mall considered filling the vacancy with Bloomingdale's or another Macy's, negotiations with Federated were abandoned for a proposal to develop the area to incorporate a new wing and a smaller anchor, Barneys New York. Despite the Global Recession in the late 2000s and corporate change, Istithmar, Barneys' owner, remained committed to Barneys' expansion plan. Barneys' announcement helped lead several additional stores to open despite the global economic downturn, including Armani, Bottega Veneta, Bulgari, Carolina Herrera, Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, Puma and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Barneys New York and a new east wing providing room for 30 new luxury stores opened in October 2009. The redevelopment includes street-scape retail flanking Scottsdale Road on the parcel previously occupied by the Robinsons-May parking garage. The grand opening included the launch of Microsoft's first venture into retail operations, opening their first retail store at the mall, and the opening of one of three Banana Republic "Revolution" store concepts (the other two located in Las Vegas and SoHo). The launch of the east wing contrasted with the significant underperformance of the retail sector and continued drop in consumer confidence during the recession. Significant retailers that opened during this time include 7 for All Mankind, Christian Audigier, LTJ Arthur, Tory Burch, and True Religion.