West Acres Shopping Center is a regional shopping mall located in Fargo, North Dakota near the intersection of Interstates 29 and 94. It is the largest mall in North Dakota and includes four major anchors, nearly 130 stores and services, and a 750 seat food court. The mall is also home to The Roger Maris Museum, a collection of regional art, the Touchstone Energy Dinosaur Playland, and a collection of spearfishing decoys created by the late John Jensen.
West Acres Shopping Center was developed in August 1972 by William A. Schlossman along with several other investors. Upon opening, the mall featured Dayton's, Sears and DeLendrecie's. The Dayton's store was the first outside the state of Minnesota. A 1979 expansion added J.C. Penney as a fourth anchor. DeLendrecie's became Herberger's in 1998, and a food court was added in 2000. The Dayton's store was re-branded Marshall Field's in 2001, and Macy's in 2006. In 2010, the first Forever 21 in North Dakota opened at the mall.
A centerpiece since the mall opened in 1972 is the Fountain of Abundance, created by (and refurbished by) Moorhead State University art professor, P. Richard Szeitz. The fountain was originally located in front of Dayton's (currently Macy's) and was moved in front of J.C. Penney in 2001 during the construction of the food court.
Other featured artists at the mall include Marjorie Schlossman, Black Pinto Horse (Monte Yellow Bird), Walter Piehl, Star Wallowing Bull, Dan Jones, Robert Crowe, Carl Oltvelt, Ellen Deidrich, Brad Bachmeier, and Alfred Dacoteau. In 2007, West Acres was named the Business Art's Advocate by the Lake Agassiz Arts Council.
In December 2012, the addition of Ann Taylor Loft and White House Black Market increased the mall to 100% occupancy.
Famous quotes containing the words shopping center, west, acres, shopping and/or center:
“The most important fact about our shopping malls, as distinct from the ordinary shopping centers where we go for our groceries, is that we do not need most of what they sell, not even for our pleasure or entertainment, not really even for a sensation of luxury. Little in them is essential to our survival, our work, or our play, and the same is true of the boutiques that multiply on our streets.”
—Henry Fairlie (1924–1990)
“Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Those holy fields,
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed
For our advantage on the bitter cross.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If Los Angeles has been called “the capital of crackpots” and “the metropolis of isms,” the native Angeleno can not fairly attribute all of the city’s idiosyncrasies to the newcomer—at least not so long as he consults the crystal ball for guidance in his business dealings and his wife goes shopping downtown in beach pajamas.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)