Rogers Avenue and South 54th Street / Waldron Road
Fort Smith, Arkansas
The seventh major shopping mall in Arkansas was built on a 54-acre site, lying 3.6 miles southeast of the Fort Smith Central Business District. The fully-enclosed complex was situated south of, and adjacent to, the CENTRAL SHOPPING CENTER, a strip complex that had opened in 1969.
CENTRAL MALL was developed by Texarkana-based Warmack & Company. Encompassing approximately 650,000 leasable square feet, the shopping hub consisted of a main level of stores and second floor of leased office suites.
A 1-level (108,000 square foot) Sears opened, as the first operational store, on August 12, 1971. A 2-level (207,200 square foot) J.C. Penney commenced operation on April 11, 1972. In the same year, a 2-level (37,700 square foot), Beaumont, Texas-based Boston Store was dedicated.
As the preeminent shopping center in a 60 mile radius, CENTRAL MALL had -or has- no sizable competition. PHOENIX VILLAGE MALL (1970) {3.2 miles southwest, in Fort Smith} was a small, community-class center. MASSARD CROSSING (1997) {2.1 miles southeast, also in Fort Smith} is a strip-type complex anchored by a Walmart SuperCenter.
Further renovations of CENTRAL MALL were carried out in 1999 and 2001. During the first remodeling, previously-existing store space was gutted and expanded into Food Court Central, an 8-bay collection of fast-food restaurants. The 2001 renovation added a four-store (16,000 square foot) Main Entrance extension, which included a face lift of the front facade of the mall. With these modifications, CENTRAL MALL encompassed approximately 860,100 leasable square feet and housed ninety-three stores and services.
The shopping center was acquired by Atlanta-based Gregory Greenfield & Associates in December 2004, with Chicago's Jones Lang LaSalle recruited as a managing agent. In August, 2007, the holdings of Gregory Greenfield & Associates were acquired by Australia-based Babcock & Brown.
Charter CENTRAL MALL tenants included Wyatt's Cafeteria, Tilles apparel, Merchants National Bank of Fort Smith, A.J. August Menswear, The Country Cobbler shoe store, First Federal Savings & Loan Association and S & Q Clothiers. The Malco Trio II cinema, a three-screen venue, showed first features on November 15, 1974.
A northeastern mall expansion got underway in early 1984. This added a 2-level (124,800 square foot) Dillard's Women's, 60,200 square feet of inline stores and offices and a basement parking deck. This project was completed in the spring of 1985. The Boston Store was shuttered on July 3, 1986, with its vacant area divided into fifteen inline stores. Space was also gutted in the Sears Wing and rebuilt as a 1-level (35,700 square foot) Dillard's Men's. With its completion, CENTRAL MALL encompassed around 848,100 leasable square feet.
As the preeminent shopping center in a 60 mile radius, CENTRAL MALL had -or has- no sizable competition. PHOENIX VILLAGE MALL (1970) {3.2 miles southwest, in Fort Smith} was a small, community-class center. MASSARD CROSSING (1997) {2.1 miles southeast, also in Fort Smith} is a strip-type complex anchored by a Walmart SuperCenter.
Further renovations of CENTRAL MALL were carried out in 1999 and 2001. During the first remodeling, previously-existing store space was gutted and expanded into Food Court Central, an 8-bay collection of fast-food restaurants. The 2001 renovation added a four-store (16,000 square foot) Main Entrance extension, which included a face lift of the front facade of the mall. With these modifications, CENTRAL MALL encompassed approximately 860,100 leasable square feet and housed ninety-three stores and services.
The shopping center was acquired by Atlanta-based Gregory Greenfield & Associates in December 2004, with Chicago's Jones Lang LaSalle recruited as a managing agent. In August, 2007, the holdings of Gregory Greenfield & Associates were acquired by Australia-based Babcock & Brown.
In October 2007, eight malls of the former Greenfield portfolio, including CENTRAL MALL, were sold to Toronto, Ontario's Oxford Properties Group. CENTRAL MALL changed hands again in January 2020. A joint venture of the Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and CH Capital Group -all based in Great Neck, New York- acquired the property.
Meanwhile, Sears, a charter mall tenant, had shut down on January 30, 2018. A 50,000 square foot section of the vacant store was reconfigured as the River Valley Training & Fitness Center. Also in 2018, Dillard's consolidated its Women's and Men's stores at CENTRAL MALL. The Men's store was shuttered, with the Women's store becoming a standard Dillard's operation.
Sources:
The Southwest Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas)
The Arkansas Catholic (Little Rock, Arkansas)
The Southwest Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas)
The Arkansas Catholic (Little Rock, Arkansas)
The Baxter Bulletin (Baxter, Arkansas)
The Northwest Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
The Daily World (Helena, Arkansas)
library.uafs.edu (University of Arkansas Fort Smith)
www.cinematour.com
Sebastian County, Arkansas tax assessor website
www.centralmallfortsmith.com
www.joneslanglasalle.com
library.uafs.edu (University of Arkansas Fort Smith)
www.cinematour.com
Sebastian County, Arkansas tax assessor website
www.centralmallfortsmith.com
www.joneslanglasalle.com
https://talkbusiness.net
https://rivervalleyfitness.com
"Central Mall" article on Wikipedia
