THE CENTER
Center and South 42nd Streets
Omaha, Nebraska

In the MALL HALL OF FAME November 2006 archive is an article on Appleton, Wisconsin's VALLEY FAIR CENTER. This small, fully-enclosed mall formally opened in March, 1955. A similarly-sized, interior mall in Omaha, Nebraska was completed soon after.

These small shopping complexes predated Metro-Minneapolis' SOUTHDALE CENTER [May 2008 archive] by over a year. SOUTHDALE, as many know, is considered America's first fully-enclosed shopping center.

However, as we have found, there were two who could be considered the first and second....although these centers were, by no means, the large-scale, regional-class shopping venue that SOUTHDALE was even in its early years.

THE CENTER was developed by Omaha's John Wiebe, who built the 4-level, compact complex on a 6.6 acre site, 1.5 miles southwest of Omaha's downtown area.

It was small, even by the standard of a mid-1950s shopping center. The entire leasable retail area measured somewhere around 170,000 square feet. However, it did have three levels of stores facing onto climate-controlled "mall areas", which were accessed from a multi-level parking structure that surrounded the retail core.

THE CENTER was anchored by a 1-level, Omaha-based Kilpatrick's department store. It also featured a Shaver's Food Mart, J.G. McCrory 5 and 10, Thom McAn Shoes and National Shirt Shop. The Sky Lanes bowling alley occupied its top level.

The Kilpatrick's chain was bought by Des Moines-based Younkers ["yunk-erz"] in 1961. This store was rebranded as Kilpatrick-Younkers for a time, eventually going under the Younkers nameplate.

On October 17th, 1969, a fire raged through the mall structure, resulting in 5 million dollars in damage. THE CENTER was closed for a time and reopened with its interior redecorated in an "Olde English" motif.

The complex survived the next three decades, but by the mid-1990s, many retailers had moved on to newer shopping venues in the region, such as CROSSROADS MALL (1960) [November 2007 archive], SOUTHROADS MALL (1966), WESTROADS MALL (1968), MALL OF THE BLUFFS (1986) [across the Missouri River, in Council Bluffs, Iowa] and OAK VIEW MALL (1993).

THE CENTER was repositioned as more of an office and call center facility. Today, it is owned and operated by Nebraska-based Center LLC / First Management, Incorporated.

Sources:

Malls Of America Blogspot / "The Center" post by Keith Milford / Comments by "Anonymous" and "DanOlson"
Post comment by "Catalina Ven Du Ray"
Douglas County, Nebraska Tax assessor website
www.findinguniverse.com / "Younkers" article