West Bethany Home Road and North 19th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona
Arizona's first fully-enclosed shopping center was built on an 86-acre tract, located 3 miles north of downtown Phoenix. CHRIS-TOWN CENTER named was after Chris Harri, who had maintained a farm on the property for several years.
The mall was designed by Welton Becket & Associates of Los Angeles and the Friedman & Jobush firm of Tucson. It was developed by the Phoenix-based Del E. Webb Corporation. In its original state, the complex encompassed over 600,000 leasable square feet on a single level. A small Mezzanine housed 10,000 square feet of office space and a 300-seat Community Auditorium. The parking area had space for over 5,300 cars.
CHRIS-TOWN CENTER opened for business on August 24, 1961, with fifty inline stores (out of an eventual fifty-three). It was anchored by a 2-level (58,100 square foot) J.C. Penney, 2-level (146,100 square foot) Montgomery Ward and 2-level (86,800 square foot), Phoenix-based Korricks.
Charter tenants included Walgreen Drug, Hanny's men's wear, Guggy's Coffee Shop, Lerner Shops ladies' wear, Singer Sewing Center, Holiday Shoes, and S.S. Kresge and F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10s. A rear parking area Convenience Center included an El Rancho Market grocery store.
The mall proper was based around three central areas. J.C. Penney faced on the Court Of Fountains. Montgomery Ward opened on the Court Of Birds. Korricks mall entry ran along the east side of the Court Of Flowers.
An outparcel Piccadilly Cafeteria was added to the northeast corner
of the mall site in the mid-1960s. It was joined by the National General Corporation Fox Chris-Town
Theatre, which was a southwest parking area outparcel. This single-screen venue showed a first feature on February 8, 1967. It was renovated and re-opened, as the Fox Chris-Town 2, on December 25, 1970.
In 1966, Korricks was rebranded as a Los Angles-based The Broadway. As part of the transition, its floor area was enlarged to 149,100 square feet. Later in the decade, the existing Penney's was expanded into a 3-level (191,000 square foot) full-line store.
A mega-sized mall was built in the vicinity of CHRIS-TOWN in the early '70s. METROCENTER {4 miles northwest, in Phoenix} opened in October 1973. As a reaction, CHRIS-TOWN underwent a major renovation and expansion.
A corridor was cut though existing store space adjacent to S.S. Kresge, which connected into a new Southeast Wing. The mall's second theatrical venue, the United Artists Chris-Town Cinema 6, was installed in the Upper Level. The new theater showed first features on April 4, 1974.
On the periphery of the mall, the twin-plex movie house was expanded into the Mann Theatres Christown 5, which debuted on December 22, 1976. The venue was later reconfigured as the Harkins Christown 11, which was dedicated on November 22, 1996.
Meanwhile, the CHRIS-TOWN Woolworth had closed in 1974. A mall corridor was built through its space which connected into a Southwest Wing. This addition was anchored by a 2-level (149,800 square foot), Los Angeles-based Bullock's. A grand opening was held on November 14, 1977.
The completion of PARADISE VALLEY MALL {8 miles northeast, in Phoenix}, in 1979, put the hurt on CHRIS-TOWN. This resulted in a general decline of the mall during the 1980s and '90s, with several long-time tenants vacating the center.
Bullock's was replaced by Phoenix-based Diamond's on June 24, 1985. The store, rebranded by Dillard's in September 1986, was eventually demoted to a Dillard's Clearance Center. The Broadway, which had come under the Phoenix-based Broadway Southwest banner in 1979, was vacated in August 1992 and torn down in 1994. A 1-level (125,000 square foot) Wal-Mart was built on its space, which opened on January 3, 1995.
J.C. Penney moved to METROCENTER in 1997. Its former CHRIS-TOWN store sat vacant until it was bulldozed and replaced by a 1-level (137,000 square foot) Costco. This store began business in November 2002. The Montgomery Ward chain crashed and burned in March 2001. Its CHRIS-TOWN space was divided into four stores. One of these, a 1-level (30,000 square foot) Ross Dress For Less, opened in November 2002.
The shopping complex was renamed PHOENIX SPECTRUM MALL on November 19, 2001. Its Wal-Mart was expanded into a (251,300 square foot) SuperCenter in 2003. In March 2004, the mall was sold to a joint venture of Beachwood, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty and New York City-based Coventry Real Estate Advisors. The former owner, Phoenix-based Grossman Company Properties, retained a small ownership share.
In October 2004, the Dillard's Clearance Center went dark. The building was not retenanted, but demolished as part of a demalling. This project got underway in mid-2005. Nearly half of the 1,145,000 square foot shopping center was razed and replaced by new stores and services. The Harkins Christown 14 multiplex, built on the site of the shuttered Cinema 6, showed first features on July 13, 2007. A 1-level (98,000 square foot) J.C. Penney was dedicated on August 3, 2007, followed by a 1-level (173,900 square foot) SuperTarget, which held a soft opening on October 10th.
CHRISTOWN SPECTRUM MALL held a grand re-opening in November 2007. The shopping center proper now encompassed 830,500 leasable square feet and housed forty-four stores and services Phoenix's Valley Metro light rail system extended service to CHRISTOWN SPECTRUM MALL. The 19th Avenue-Montebello station, adjacent to the mall's west parking area, opened on December 27, 2008. In December 2015, Kimco Realty of Houston, Texas acquired the CHRISTOWN property.
The complex was hit with a double whammy in 2020. Costco went dark on September 20th. J.C. Penney did a second retail retreat from the complex on September 27th. The (137,000 square foot) Costco building was retenanted by Englewood, Colorado's American Furniture Warehouse. The abandoned J.C. Penney was divided two ways. A (60,000 square foot) Hobby Lobby welcomed first shoppers on July 8, 2024.
Sources:
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona)
http://www.barbarastew-art.com / "Chris-Town Retrospective" / JPB Publishing, Limited
Del E. Webb Corporation "Webb Spinner"
https://www.mcassessor.maricopa.gov / Maricopa County, Arizona
http://www.labelscar.com
https://www.cinematreasures.org
http://www.valleymetro.org
https://www.kimcorealty.com
https://christownspectrum.shopkimco.com
"Bullock's," "MetroCentrer (Phoenix, Arizona)" and "Paradise Valley Mall" articles on Wikipedia
The photographs from the Del E. Webb Corporation "Webb Spinner" / Sun City, Arizona Museum illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The images are of lower resolution than the originals (copies made would be of inferior quality). The images are not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the images does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute them in any way. The images are being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and their use is not believed to detract from the original images in any way.
