Once the Southwest’s Biggest Mall, Metrocenter will be Demolished this Spring

Article originally posted on AZ Central on February 22, 2024

Metrocenter, once the Southwest’s largest indoor mall, has been closed for years. The former mall site is set to be redeveloped, with a handful of large real estate companies preparing to transform the site into an “urban village” focused on housing.

When will the mall be demolished?

Demolition of the mall, along with asbestos abatement and site grading is planned to start in the second quarter of the year, and will take roughly 12 months, Steve Betts, a Phoenix-based developer who is working as a consultant to Concord Wilshire, one of the owners of the mall, said.

The mall was built at a time when asbestos was very common in commercial buildings, so the demolition must be done very carefully to remove it safely. Betts said the two-tier mall site, which means the ground is not flat but allowed people to enter on both floors of the mall, also makes the demolition more complicated.

Betts said there are plans for eight pads that will be developed into multifamily housing, but a high volume of multifamily housing in the construction stages in Phoenix has made delivery of the pads “less urgent” because developers are looking to slow down some of those project starts.

What is planned in its place?

The ownership group, Concord Wilshire Capital, TLG Investment Partners and CDS International Holdings Inc. will partner with Hines on the redevelopment, which will include 2,600 housing units and other buildings like restaurants, bars, and entertainment.

The project is expected to have about 150,000 square feet of commercial space, with much of the restaurant and retail space planned for the ground floors of the apartment buildings.

It will also include a parking garage that is planned to have a rooftop park. A hotel is also part of the proposal, and could be developed depending on market conditions, Betts said.

Will the housing be rentals or for-sale dwellings?

The mall’s owners said they have been in conversations with developers for both rentals and for-sale housing, like condominiums or townhomes.

What pieces of the building will remain?

The Walmart store will stay. The store was never connected to the existing mall and will be an amenity to people living in the new buildings, the owners of the mall said.

One of the anchor store spaces was converted into a self-storage facility, which will also remain.

The developers have not acquired the Sears property on the site, so it is not part of the plans, but Betts said it could be likely that Sears will also want its property demolished and redeveloped, so it could potentially look like it was part of the redevelopment.

When will construction start on the new buildings?

Construction is expected to begin about 12 months after demolition begins, but Betts said some of those projects could begin sooner if the developer chooses to access their sites from the outer ring road, not the center of the mall property. Four of the apartment pads are planned to have access from the ring road.

Why are malls being redeveloped?

Nationwide, many malls have seen a slowdown in business with the growth of online shopping. Many malls are located in highly desirable locations for various types of commercial and residential development, making them prime sites for redevelopment.

In the Phoenix area, Metrocenter, Paradise Valley Mall, now called PV, Park Central and Fiesta Mall in Mesa are all in various stages of redevelopment.