PHOENIX-Metrocenter Mall, once a glittering, 1.3 million square-foot jewel with an indoor ice skating rink and five anchors of shopping space, declined in the decades since its 1973 grand opening.
Rising crime and vacancy rates had customers running the other way. Anchor tenants such as JC Penney had left and their spots stayed empty for up to eight years, according to city of Phoenix redevelopment documents.
Today, the mall enjoys 80%-plus occupancy rates, and its ownership expects to have a fully occupied food court within the next six months. Mentrocenter management says property crimes have dropped by 75%, and car thefts by 95%, making crime rates comparable to other area malls. Foot traffic has also increased by 10%.
Metrocenter general manager Brent Meszaros remembers what the mall was like when he was a kid. “Many kids my age at the time, early teens, would take the bus or get a ride over to the mall and go ice skating and just experience the big mall excitement that was going on,” he tells Globe St.
Eventually, neighborhood demographics changed. The ice skating rink made way for a Harkins. The recession hit hard.
By the time New York-based Carlyle Development Group bought the property in 2012, Metrocenter had been in various stages of foreclosure and receivership for three years.
Turning the property around required telling a new story, one that positioned the mall as a safe community haven and gathering place-as well as a fun place to shop
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