UNIVERSITY CENTER
Old Seward Highway and East 38th Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska
The second major shopping complex in the Land of the Midnight Sun was built by Anchorage's Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel, under the auspices of the Hickel Investment Company. Designed by Anchorage's Crittenden, Cassetta & Canon firm, the fully-enclosed complex occupied a 32-acre site, located 2 miles southeast of downtown Anchorage.
Plans for UNIVERSITY CENTER were announced in July 1971, with construction, on a 147,000 square foot first phase, getting underway soon after. A (28,000 square foot) Safeway supermarket became the first operational store, on April 30, 1972. All twenty-six tenants were open for business by June of the same year.
The initial phase of UNIVERSITY CENTER was anchored by a 1-level (47,000 square foot), Seattle-based Pay 'n Save Drug-Ernst Hardware. Charter tenants included Bering Sea Originals Gifts, Tape & Platter Music and a Swensen's Ice Cream Parlor.
A second phase, added to the south end of the complex, was started in mid-1974. Its anchor, a 1-level (50,500 square foot), Bellevue, Washington-based Lamonts, held a grand opening on April 28, 1975. New stores in the new South Wing included Kinney Shoes and The Book Cache.
BONIFACE CENTER {2.9 miles northeast}, which was the city's third enclosed mall, held its grand opening in June 1976. In August 1977, DIMOND ["Diy-mund"] CENTER {2.7 miles south} was dedicated. May 1980 brought the completion of NORTHWAY MALL {2.5 miles northeast}. The most recent mall dedication in Anchorage was held in August 1987, when downtown's FIFTH AVENUE MALL opened its doors.
A third construction phase added 92,000 square feet to the south end of UNIVERSITY CENTER. This project was completed in late 1985. New mall tenants included Round Table Pizza, The Chocolate Chippery, Hickory Farms of Ohio and the Festival Enterprises University Cinemas 6. This multiplex showed first features on November 27, 1985.
The gross leasable area of UNIVERSITY CENTER now measured around 360,000 square feet. The late 1990s brought the first anchor rebranding. Pay 'n Save Drug became a Los Angeles-based PayLess Drug in May 1993. The PayLess chain was acquired by Philadelphia-based Rite Aid Drug in October 1996. The UNIVERSITY CENTER store was shuttered in 1998.
With all of the shopping mall competition, it wasn't long before UNIVERSITY CENTER began to suffer. The oil pipeline boom of the 1970s, which was an impetus for the mall's development, went bust in the 1980s. The mall's decline was exacerbated by new big box stores built in its vicinity in the 1990s. By 1998, UNIVERSITY CENTER was on life support.
Lamonts was rebranded, by Fresno-based Gottschalks, in September 2000. Unfortunately, this new store failed to slow the decline of the mall. Gottschalks was shuttered in May 2001. PayLess Drug had been rebranded by Rite Aid in 1996. This store was short-lived. The UNIVERSITY CENTER Safeway closed on April 29, 2000 and was replaced, by Natural Pantry Fresh Market, in June. Cinema 6, now operating under the Regal banner, went dark on June 30th.
UNIVERSITY CENTER was placed on the open market in October 2001. The University of Alaska Anchorage submitted a bid to purchase the property. They were out-bid by a joint venture of Anchorage-based Furniture Enterprises Alaska and JL Properties. In May 2002, the joint venture sold a 92,000 square foot section of the mall (mostly comprised of the 1985 expansion) to the University of Alaska Anchorage.
They reconfigured the area as classrooms, administrative offices and a Student Services Center (which occupied the old cinema). This satellite campus was dedicated in January 2003. At the same time, the retail area of the mall was refurbished, with a 2-level warehouse addition built at the rear of the structure. The mall anchor buildings now housed a Sadler's Home Furnishings store and La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery.
Other stores and services in the retenanted-UNIVERSITY CENTER included Museum Source, Peppercini's Deli House, Seams Like Home Quilt Shop, Wind River Silks and La Bodega Wine & Spirits. The Natural Pantry Fresh Market relocated out of the mall in January 2014.
The University of Alaska Anchorage shuttered its satellite UNIVERSITY CENTER campus in 2019, with all facilities relocating to the main campus. JoAnn Fabrics set up shop in the old Safeway-Natural Pantry space in May 2020, but closed for good in February 2025.
Sources:
"Malled To Death" / Anchorage Press, 2000
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu / University of Alaska Anchorage
http://www.universitycentermall.wordpress.com
https://www.cinematreasures.org
"JoAnn (Fabrics)" article on Wikipedia
