Chandler Fashion Center is a two-level enclosed mall at 3111 W. Chandler Blvd. in Chandler, Arizona. The mall opened in October 2001 with four department stores. Its restaurants and a Harkins theater sat outside, in a district called The Village.
Sears was the first of the four to go, in 2019. The mall lost Nordstrom the next year. For a stretch, two of its department-store buildings stood empty at the same time.
Those closings left the mall with two big buildings to fill at once. Scheels rebuilt the old Nordstrom as a sporting-goods store with attractions inside. The old Sears took bowling downstairs and a supermarket upstairs.
The mall is bigger today than the day it opened. It has two department stores left. Now The Village is under construction, and the splash pad beside the food court is closed.
Chandler Fashion Center opened with dinner outside
Westcor started construction in late April 2000 on former farmland beside the Loop 101 Price Freeway.
That January, the plan called for about 150 businesses, three department stores, and a movie complex. The project kept growing.
By opening day, October 19, 2001, the mall had 229 stores and services and four department stores: Dillard's, Robinsons-May, Sears, and Nordstrom.
The shopping half was a conventional mall. It had two levels and about 1.3 million square feet, with retail wings running out to the anchors.
The eating went somewhere else.
Westcor put the restaurants outside the enclosed wings, in an outdoor district called The Village, and put the 20-screen Harkins theater out there with them.
The Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Kona Grill, and BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse opened onto its walkways.
In the middle, a Dancing Waters fountain ran a programmed show of water, light, and music.
The food court was where the two halves met.
It sat under a large metal roof and looked out through an 80-foot glass wall at The Village, and a covered drop-off on that south side joined the building to the district.
Shopping, dinner, and a movie sat on one walk, from the stores through the food court and out past the glass.
From a free fountain to a Crayola ticket
In summer 2014, Chandler Fashion Center removed the Dancing Waters fountain.
The Village reused the spot as a place to sit and picnic on the lawn, with a splash pad for children.
The fountain had given families a free show to watch outside the food court.
What replaced it gave them somewhere to sit down while the children played in the water.
Five years later, the mall added a draw that cost money.
A bright yellow mural roughly the length of a football field marked Crayola Experience, which opened near the west side on May 23, 2019.
Inside, 19 hands-on activities filled about 20,000 square feet. The separate Crayola Store sat next door.
Admission was $14.99 at the door. The old fountain and the splash pad were open public amenities outside the mall.
Crayola put a ticketed attraction inside the mall itself.
Sears and Nordstrom left within two years
Sears closed in January 2019, and its two-level building sat empty. Harkins, which already ran the theater in The Village, wanted the upper floor.
By early 2020 the plan had a name, BackLot. Bowling came in two forms, full-size and duckpin.
Around it were laser tag, a vintage arcade and sports simulators, with party rooms, a bar and restaurant, and an outdoor patio for games.
None of it had been built.
Then Nordstrom went. In May 2020 the chain put Chandler on a list of 16 full-line stores it would close for good, and by August the store was gone.
Two of the mall's four original department stores were now empty at once. The only named replacement for either building was an entertainment venue.
A Ferris wheel in the old Nordstrom
Nordstrom's building found its tenant first.
In May 2021, Scheels announced it would take the store once the building was fully renovated and expanded.
Just over two years later, on September 30, 2023, it opened as the first Scheels in Arizona.
Nordstrom's 149,000 square feet had become 220,000, so the building grew by nearly half once it stopped being a department store.
Scheels filled that space with attractions alongside the sporting goods. A 65-foot Ferris wheel stood inside the store.
A saltwater aquarium held more than 600 fish. Around them were a wildlife display, arcade games, sports simulators, a candy shop, and Ginna's Cafe.
The old department store had become a store and an attraction under the same roof.
Round1 downstairs, Seafood City upstairs
Sears took longer. By March 2023 the mall's development plans had changed, and Harkins had dropped BackLot.
The building ended up split by floor between two tenants with no connection to each other.
Round1 Bowling & Arcade took the ground floor, about 65,000 square feet, and opened February 8, 2025.
It has bowling, billiards, karaoke rooms, and a large arcade.
Round1 stays open until 2 a.m. every day, while the enclosed mall closes at 9 p.m. most nights.
So the bottom floor of the old Sears keeps running for five hours after the mall's corridors shut.
Four months after Round1 opened, the mall lost a paid attraction.
Crayola Experience closed for good after June 15, 2025, six years after its opening day.
Seafood City Supermarket opened upstairs in July 2026, in about 66,000 square feet with entrances from both the parking lot and the mall.
Along with grocery aisles, prepared-food counters, and a bakery, it brought a 300-seat food hall and a social hall for events.
The old Sears now held bowling on one floor and a food hall on the other.
That put it closer to the BackLot plan than to the department store it had been.
Chandler Fashion Center rebuilds its south side
The newest work is outside.
In 2026 construction started on the south side, around The Village and the food-court entrance, and the splash pad that replaced the fountain closed for it.
A new splash pad is planned closer to the food-court entrance.
Traffic is being removed from the covered drop-off by the food court so people can use the space instead.
The rest of the rebuild stretches toward Harkins with restaurant patios and room for events and family use.
New restaurants are lined up for the rebuilt district.
Din Tai Fung is due in 2027, Wagyu House is going into the old Kona Grill space, and La Popular Cocina Mexicana is set for fall 2027.
In September 2026, the construction was still under way.
Chandler Fashion Center is a two-level enclosed regional mall at 3111 W. Chandler Blvd. in Chandler, Arizona.
It opened under that name in 2001 with four department stores, and it's still open, with more than 180 retailers and services.
The mall has grown from about 1.3 million square feet at opening to 1.42 million in June 2026, while its department stores went from four to two.
Dillard's is still there, and Robinsons-May has been Macy's since 2006.
Scheels holds the old Nordstrom, Round1 and Seafood City share the old Sears, and the Harkins 20 still runs beside The Village.
On Friday and Saturday nights, Seafood City keeps its grocery open until midnight, three hours after the mall's corridors close.
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