Tucson, AZ. Wal-Mart is not the answer

Wal-Mart isn’t answer to El Con Mall’s woes [Arizona Star]

With our apologies to Charles Dickens: It is the best of malls; it is the worst of malls.

It is the epoch of belief and the spring of hope at Mesa’s Dana Park Village Square, a multi-building shopping center on about 70 acres at Val Vista Drive and Baseline Road.

Most of the stores are fairly upscale national chains and there is no major anchor, such as Macy’s or Target. The stores, small shops, restaurants and a boutique grocery — an AJ’s Fine Foods — are clustered and positioned to attract Mesa and Gilbert residents with disposable income.

It is the epoch of incredulity and the winter of despair at Tucson’s El Con Mall, on East Broadway west of Alvernon Way.

El Con sits on 93 acres of prime central Tucson property, nestled among several venerable, upscale neighborhoods. It is across from Reid Park, golf courses, the zoo and the tennis center, and is near to the University of Arizona.

It has everything before it, yet the mall core withers. Macy’s has packed up and moved out. Target and Home Depot are in separate buildings that back up to mall but do not open into it.
The Century multiscreen movie theater, at the rear of the mall, does not connect to it. And restaurants and a handful of stores stand on the Broadway side of the parking lot, separated from the core mall.

And behemoth retailer Wal-Mart may be eyeing the vacant Macy’s building, possibly avoiding the city’s “big box” ordinance by moving into the existing building without making major changes that would have to be approved by the City Council, the Star’s Christie Smythe reported Sunday.

El Con doesn’t need a Wal-Mart. Target is already at the site and we do not see the need for two discount retailers in the same mall.

El Con does, however, need creativity and a comprehensive vision.

We’ve advocated ripping off the mall’s roof and converting the space into an inviting outdoor shopping complex that promotes community involvement with performance spaces and paths linking the shops and restaurants, uniting the entire site. Our vision is similar to what Dana Park Village Square is.

We were encouraged in September, when Smythe reported there were conceptual plans for redeveloping the mall, which included tearing down the mall and giving the area and buildings a streetscape look.

Slipping a Wal-Mart into the vacant Macy’s is not visionary.

Wal-Mart may be able to keep to the letter of the law by not making major adjustments, but that action would certainly not be true to the spirit and intent of the law.
El Con management should not seriously entertain a deal that would be a slap in the community’s face. Rather, it’s time to stop allowing the mall to deteriorate. During this slow economic period, it’s time to plan for the possibilities.

If Wal-Mart is among those possibilities, that and all ideas should be fully vetted by the community.

El Con should move from its age of foolishness into an age of wisdom.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, May 06, 2008