Catherine Reagor

The Republic | azcentral.com

The west Phoenix mall could grow from 800,000 to 1.6 million square feet

The area around Metrocenter was categorized as blight by Phoenix in 2013

The first new development at Metrocenter will be a Walmart Supercenter

Once one of the nation's premier shopping malls, Phoenix’s Metrocenter could finally get a much-needed makeover that would double its size and include buildings as tall as 15 stories.

The Phoenix City Council unanimously approved a new zoning plan last week for the 130 acres in and around the struggling shopping center. The mall, which is almost 45 years old, is in the middle of a designated blight area near Interstate 17 and Dunlap Road.

The approval opens the door for Metrocenter's owner to add more retail and restaurants as well as office buildings, apartments, senior housing and health-care facilities to the mall.

“We now have the official green light to redevelop this valuable infill site in a very significant way,” said Warren Fink, chief operating officer of Carlyle Development, which bought the mall for $12.2 million in 2012.

Revitalizing neighborhood

Carlyle and city leaders have been working for the past several years to revitalize the west Phoenix area anchored by Metrocenter.

“I grew up just a few blocks from Metrocenter, which has been an important part of my life and the lives of so many other Phoenix residents,” Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement. “It feels good to help this area maintain its vitality as one of our Valley’s most important and recognizable retail and employment areas.”

One of the first new buildings at Metrocenter will be a 148,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter. It will be located in a site where a department store stood for decades but has been empty for several years.

No other additional developments or tenants for Metrocenter have been announced yet.

“We are in active talks with a number of potential development partners now,” Fink said.

The zoning allows Metrocenter to grow from 800,000 square feet to 1.6 million square feet. It also allows construction of three electronic billboards along Interstate 17 between Peoria and Dunlap roads.

“Many people have worked hard to move this project forward, and the end result will be such an asset in our community,” said Phoenix Councilwoman Thelda Williams, who represents District 1, where Metrocenter is located.

The mall and the neighborhoods around it thrived during the 1970s and '80s but then began to suffer in the '90s as more people moved to Valley suburbs.

Fear of a slum

In 2014, a year after the city designated the Metrocenter area a blight spot, Williams said the mall could “turn into a slum” if something wasn’t done soon to revitalize the development.

Last year, the Macy's department store closed; it had opened there in 1973.

When Metrocenter opened in the early 1970s, it was one of the largest U.S. malls. It is believed to be the first to have five anchors: Sears, Rhodes Brothers, Diamond's, Goldwater's and Broadway.

About $32 million was spent to renovate Metrocenter in 2007, but the shopping center and area were hit hard by the real-estate crash. The neighborhoods around the mall have recovered more slowly from the housing downturn than most other Valley neighborhoods.

Light rail is scheduled to be extended to Metrocenter by 2023.

Christown Spectrum, another older mall in west Phoenix, was also hit hard by growth away from the central city. But it has been renovated and sold for $115 million in December.