THE BOULEVARD Dillard's did an "anchors away" in October 2008. The building would sit vacant for over 6 years. It was eventually retenanted by Goodwill Industries, John's Incredible Pizza and a Sutherland Global Services call center.
Photo from www.loopnet.com
By the 2010s, the mall was in decline. A new owner did a renovation and repositioning. THE BOULEVARD was marketed to the Latino and Filipino communities. By early 2017, things looked really rosy. Then the mall was hit with several closings. By early 2019, Macy's, J.C. Penney and Sears had gone dark. In spite of these setbacks, the revitalization marched onward. A cinema megaplex, SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium and Headz Up attraction opened for business.
A circa-2019 view of the mall's Main Entrance.
Photo from Wikipedia / "AJFU"
THE BOULEVARD
Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road
Clark County, Nevada
The first mall-type shopping center in the Silver State, CHARLESTON PLAZA, was built in southeast Las Vegas in the early 1960s. This neighborhood shopping complex was torn down and replaced by a strip center of the same name in 1988. Hence, Sin City's second shopping mall became its oldest by default.
THE BOULEVARD was built on a 77-acre tract. This was located 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Las Vegas, in a section of unincorporated Clark County known as Paradise. The shopping hub was conceived by Irwin Molasky, a real estate entreprenuer.
In the late 1950s, Molasky had formed the Paradise Development Company with fellow Las Vegan Merv Adelson. They envisaged Paradise Palms, an ultra-modern housing plat. This 720-acre community would eventually comprise over 1,000 homes. The first models debuted in July 1960. By 1963, planning for an adjacent shopping center was underway.
Going under the provisional name of PARKWAY MALL, the complex was renamed THE BOULEVARD before its completion. It was designed by a consortium of three architectural firms; Robert R. Weber & Associates {of Texas}, John Graham & Company {of Washington State} and Charles Luckman & Associates {of California}.
THE BOULEVARD was developed by a joint venture of Paradise Development and Dallas' Haas & Hayne Investment Corporation. The center was built in three phases. Ground was broken on June 30, 1964, with construction getting underway in January 1965. A 2-level (218,300 square foot) Sears opened in December of the same year.
A 2-level (120,000 square foot), Los Angeles-based The Broadway was completed next. This store was christened on April 29, 1966. The mall, and a 2-level (193,000 square foot) J.C. Penney, were officially dedicated on March 6, 1968. The 10-day grand opening celebration was attended by Nevada Governor Paul Laxalt (R).
In its original state, THE BOULEVARD spanned approximately 750,000 leasable square feet and housed forty-eight tenant spaces under its roof. Eleven stores were contained in a south site convenience center. Charter stores included King's Flowers, Orange Julius, Happy Holiday Gifts, Zales Jewelers, a 2-level (75,000 square foot) F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 and 2-level (40,000 square foot) Las Vegas-based Ronzone's junior department store.
Major shopping hubs in THE BOULEVARD trade area would eventually include THE COMMERCIAL CENTER (1963) {.9 mile northwest, in Clark County}, MEADOWS MALL (1978) {4.4 miles northwest, in Las Vegas} and FASHION SHOW (1981) {1.7 miles west, in Clark County}.
In 1979, operation of The Broadway store at THE BOULEVARD was assumed by Phoenix-based Broadway Southwest (a new division of Carter Hawley Hale Stores). Ronzone's was acquired -and rebranded- by Phoenix-based Diamond's in 1970. The store, which had been expanded into existing mall space, was rebranded by Dillard's in September 1986.
A 60 million dollar remodeling of THE BOULEVARD was done between October 1990 and August 1992. The project included rerouting East Twain Avenue around a 2-level (192,500 square foot) anchor store, which became a new home for Dillard's on November 6, 1991. A southeast mall concourse, known as The Promenade, was built along with three Parking Terraces. The interior and exterior of the original mall were also refurbished with an Egyptian motif. The renovation doubled the size of center, making it the largest mall in Las Vegas, as well as the state of Nevada.
When all construction dust settled, THE BOULEVARD encompassed approximately 1,210,000 leasable square feet and housed 133 stores and services. The mall's "largest in the state" distinction was surrendered after 11 years. It was bumped down to the second-place position following a 1999-2003 expansion of FASHION SHOW.
Meanwhile, Broadway Southwest was renovated and expanded to 179,000 square feet. A grand re-opening was held December 1, 1994, with THE BOULEVARD now spanning 1,250,000 leasable square feet. The Broadway Southwest store was rebranded by Macy's in May 1996. In June 1998, Chicago-based General Growth Properties acquired the assets of Dallas' MEPC American Properties, with THE BOULEVARD becoming a GGP holding. GGP placed the mall under the ownership of Rouse Properties, a newly-formed subsidiary, in January 2012.
By this time, competition from other malls -especially FASHION SHOW- had left THE BOULEVARD in dire straits. The shuttering of Dillard's, on October 31, 2008, exacerbated the mall's maladies. Rouse Properties bought the Dillard's building in September 2011, leading to speculation that a replacement tenant, or tenants, would be announced. This would take years to happen.
Rouse decided to sell the ailing complex. Henderson, Nevada's Sansone Real Estate Services acquired it in November 2013. A major renovation was announced in March 2014. The shopping hub would be marketed to a Latin and Filipino customer base. This concept had been successful in revitalizing moribund malls such as Greater Atlanta's PLAZA FIESTA and Fort Worth's LA GRAN PLAZA.
The remodeling project at THE BOULEVARD included a total rebuild of the mall's Main Entrance and west-facing facade, using an Art Deco motif. The existing Food Court was upgraded and a 99 Ranch Market Asian grocery installed in vacant Circuit City space in mall's south site Convenience Center.
A vacant Dillard's was also repurposed. Its first level was sectioned into a (60,000 square foot) John's Incredible Pizza family entertainment center and (28,000 square foot) Goodwill Industries thrift store. The second level became a (103,000 square foot) Sutherland Global Services call center.
Said call center was in operation by mid-2015. Goodwill held its grand opening on October 16, 2015, with John's Incredible Pizza debuting December 20 of the same year. In the mall proper, Olivia's Latin Cuisine opened in May 2016, followed by Furniture Fashions Las Vegas (August 2016) and Hitari Restaurant Sports Bar (January 2017). The (31,000 square foot) SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium was also dedicated in January 2017.
The mall's resurgence was stymied by several store shutterings, which took place in rapid succession. The Olivia's and Hitari stores abruptly closed in April 2017. Macy's shuttered their store on March 26, 2017, followed by J.C. Penney, which went dark on July 31st.
Undaunted, Sansone initiated construction of a Galaxy Boulevard Luxury Theatre 9-plex. In the meantime, other family fun facilities opened at the mall. The (30,000 square foot) Rex Center, which included a go-kart track, climbing wall, mini-golf and laser tag, was dedicated in October 2017 (but closed in August 2018). Headz Up, a (41,000 square foot) "virtual reality attraction", began business (in a portion of the old J.C. Penney) in February 2018. The new movie megaplex was dedicated on April 5, 2019. Sears, a charter -1965- mall store, had closed for good on March 2nd of the same year.
Sources:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
https://www.paradisepalmslasvegas.org
http://www.blvdmall.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
www.labelscar.com / "Caldor"
https://vintagelasvegas.com / Vintage Las Vegas
http://www.molaskyco.com
Clark County, Nevada tax assessor website
www.wrin.unlv.edu/biographies / Bertha Ronzone
www.ggp.com / General Growth Properties
www.rouseproperties.com / Rouse Properties
http://boulevardmall.com
https://www.pressreader.com
FAIR USE OF THE BOULEVARD IMAGE:
The photo from https://vintagelasvegas.com helps illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The image isof lower resolution than the original (copies made would be of inferior quality). The image is not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the image does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute it in any way. The images is being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and its use is not believed to detract from the original image in any way.
