Scottsdale Fashion Square and its first bet
In the 1930s and 1940s, the land that would become Scottsdale Fashion Square made almost no money. It was too far from the main business areas of Phoenix and Scottsdale to bring in many customers.
In the 1940s, Harry Lenart bought the forty-acre piece of land and decided to wait for the right time to develop it.
During the 1950s, the site was used as a rodeo stadium, showing it could bring in crowds even before there were shops to sell to them.
In 1959, a small group of stores opened: a grocery store, a barber shop, a liquor store, and a camera store joined with Ryan-Evans drug store.
In 1960, Joe Hunt Sr., who ran a steakhouse, opened a restaurant, bringing dinner to a place that was still becoming a popular spot.
In 1961, the project finally made its mark. Scottsdale Fashion Square opened as a three-story, open-air shopping center on about thirty-two acres at Scottsdale Road and Camelback Road.
Kitchell Contractors built it for $5 million, and Edward L. Varney Associates, the Phoenix design firm known for Hotel Valley Ho and Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium, designed it.
Varney worked in Phoenix from 1937 until he retired in 1985.
The building had a simple, modern look with clean lines and little decoration. The first main stores were Goldwater's Department Store and AJ Bayless Supermarket.
Expansions, air-conditioning, and rivalry
Scottsdale Fashion Square's early sales encouraged it to grow.
In 1974, Kitchell Contractors built an addition to the west that almost doubled the mall's size for $2 million and brought in Diamond's Department Store, making the main group of stores stronger and showing that Scottsdale's growth was focused on this spot.
Other malls tried to change that.
In 1969, Los Arcos Mall opened at Scottsdale and McDowell as a fully indoor, air-conditioned center, a $6 million option with Spanish-style decorations, murals by Mexican artist Jose Maria Servin, and even a movie theater in the basement.
It gave people a break from the heat and, in the end, showed the importance of location: even with its nice features, it was farther from the growing neighborhoods near Fashion Square.
Los Arcos stayed open until 1999, when its last main store, Sears, moved to Scottsdale Fashion Square.
The competition grew stronger in the early 1970s, when Camelview Plaza opened right across North 70th Street.
Built by Chicago businessman John F. Cuneo and designed by Belli & Belli, Camelview was an indoor mall with Bullock's and the upscale clothing store Sakowitz as its main stores, plus a Harkins Camelview Theatre nearby.
The two malls stood across from each other like friendly rivals, and Scottsdale Fashion Square's managers had to update the mall and make sure shoppers stayed loyal for real reasons.
Westcor's underground street and bridge era
Westcor bought Scottsdale Fashion Square in 1982 and saw Camelview Plaza across North 70th Street as an opportunity, not a rival.
Westcor, started in 1964 by Rusty Lyon and Bob Teske, had a plan that was both city-focused and a bit mischievous: combine two competing malls into one.
The construction work started in 1988. For $29.7 million, Westcor managed upgrades and new buildings covering 591,500 square feet and kept stores open during all the changes.
North 70th Street was lowered below ground level, made wider with four lanes, and renamed North Goldwater Boulevard. Above it, a two-story shopping bridge with 100 stores joined the two former competitors.
Inside, the project added a glass roof that could open and close over the Palm Court area and rebuilt the food court as the main gathering place in the mall.
A seven-screen Harkins Theatres movie theater became the main feature of that area.
Anchors rename, and Nordstrom changes scale
Scottsdale Fashion Square's anchors grew and shed identities the way department stores do. Goldwater's, the original 1961 flagship, expanded to 235,000 square feet.
In 1989, May Department Stores dissolved Goldwater's division, consolidated the location with J.W. Robinson's, and rebranded the store as J.W. Robinson's.
After the merger that created Robinsons-May, the Scottsdale Fashion Square store carried that identity until the chain dissolved in September 2006.
Luxury sharpened too. After the 1991 connection, Neiman Marcus opened in 1991 in the former Sakowitz space. In 1996, Westcor bought Camelview Plaza and unified the complex under one name: Scottsdale Fashion Square.
The late 1990s delivered the expansion that reset the mall's scale. Westcor secured Arizona's first Nordstrom and built a new upscale wing.
Dillard's absorbed Bullock's former space and expanded to 365,000 square feet, the largest Dillard's in the company.
Another two-story bridge for both shops and cars crossed Camelback Road, one of Scottsdale's busiest streets.
Even the escalators were moved around like furniture: the heavy units were lifted by crane and put in new spots, as if the mall was being changed in the middle of everything.
Designed by Seattle's Callison Architects and built by Kitchell, the 1996-1998 project pushed the property to about 2 million square feet, briefly the 13th largest enclosed mall in the United States, and a luxury template for the region.
Scottsdale helped lure the anchors, offering a $4 million tax rebate to attract Neiman Marcus and a 90-percent rebate on city sales tax revenues for 25 years.
Yet, by 2016 the center was generating $13.1 million a year in sales tax, about seven percent of the city's total.
Macerich buys in, Barneys bows out fast
On July 26, 2002, The Macerich Company bought Westcor for $1.475 billion, making Scottsdale Fashion Square a key part of its business.
Macerich later combined Westcor's operations into its own company in 2012, but the mall itself stayed the same: the hallways looked familiar even as the store signs changed.
Anchor stores changed as usual. Sears briefly took over a former Dillard's spot, then Macy's moved in and stayed, showing that retail can change quickly but also stick around.
When Robinsons-May closed in 2006, Macerich decided not to fill the space with another regular department store.
Instead, it tore down the building and built a new section with Barneys New York as the main store, which opened in 2009.
This mix showed the mall was learning to offer both high-end and fast fashion at the same time.
Barneys opened just as luxury stores were dealing with the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. In February 2016, Barneys said it would close after six years.
The old Barneys space, 33,000 square feet over two floors, reopened in 2019 as an Industrious co-working space, a company from New York City that turned the former store into a place for laptops, meetings, and people working quietly on calls.
The luxury wing, Apple, and dinner plans
In 2015, Macerich built a two-story building with Dick's Sporting Goods on the first floor and a 14-screen Harkins Theatres movie theater on the second floor, replacing the old seven-screen theater from 1991.
In 2016, Macerich announced a renovation plan costing over $100 million that focused on luxury fashion, fancy dining, and hotel-like features.
Construction started in 2017, and the first part, the north luxury wing, opened in fall 2018 with a big entrance and a two-story glass front.
On September 29, 2018, Apple moved its main store from Biltmore Fashion Park to Scottsdale Fashion Square.
Ennead Architects designed a 17,000-square-foot, two-story store with different levels inside and an outdoor stage area, meeting international green building standards.
The list of stores shifted toward designer brands like Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Versace, Cartier, Bulgari, Bottega Veneta, and many watch shops.
The restaurants were just as fancy, with places like Nobu, Ocean 44, Francine, Toca Madera, and Tocaya.
In May 2023, Macerich announced Elephante, a 12,000-square-foot Mediterranean-Italian restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating and more than 1,200 kinds of wine.
As longtime stores like Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and Ann Taylor left, some critics said the focus on luxury was leaving people out.
At the same time, ASU professor Hitendra Chaturvedi said it matches the area's growing wealth. Wonderspaces added changing displays of modern art.
Taxes, zoning fights, and uneasy security
In May 2019, Macerich announced a new hotel that would have seemed unlikely in 1961: Caesars Republic Scottsdale, Caesars Entertainment's first hotel in the United States without a casino.
The 11-story, 265-room hotel opened to the public on March 6, 2024, offering 20,000 square feet for events, two pools, and three places to eat or drink: Luna by Giada, Pronto, and Seven.
Macerich also worked with Life Time in 2021 to open a 40,000-square-foot, three-story gym and wellness center.
Those additions brought back local debates. In 2017, Macerich asked for changes to the rules so it could build taller buildings like hotels, offices, and homes, since the mall did not have much space to expand sideways.
People in the neighborhood pushed back, so the plans were changed to include bigger spaces between buildings, more open areas, and limits on how tall some buildings could be, with a maximum of 90 feet.
Another argument was about the nearby "Nordstrom Garage." The city rented it for 50 years for $31.375 million, paid for it up front with borrowed money in 2012, and later the IRS questioned if the deal met the federal "public purpose" rule.
The mall also faced some difficult events. On February 19, 2018, an off-duty Scottsdale police officer working as a security guard shot and killed a man in the parking garage after the man pointed a loaded gun.
During the protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death, the mall was damaged by looting and vandalism. Twelve people were arrested, including YouTuber Jake Paul. Charges were dropped on August 5, 2020.
Palm Court's makeover and the next season
The pandemic made things harder for the mall. Macerich said about 91 percent of the spaces were filled, and the number of visitors was about 80 percent of what it was the year before.
Revenues for the third quarter of 2020 were down 19 percent, and they worked out deals to delay rent with most tenants. By October 7, 2020, all Macerich properties had reopened.
By 2025, Scottsdale Fashion Square could boast what malls like to show off: being big, making lots of sales, and sticking around.
It had about 1.9 million square feet with more than 240 shops and restaurants, with big stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Dillard's, Macy's, and Dick's Sporting Goods, and the 14-screen Harkins Camelview Theatre bringing in plenty of visitors.
In 2023, Macerich said Scottsdale Fashion Square's year-over-year sales reached $1,700 per square foot, up from $1,032 before the luxury-wing redevelopment and new dining options.
As of December 31, 2024, they reported a leased occupancy rate of 96.7%
Now the mall is getting ready to renovate again. In September 2025, Macerich announced a new look for Palm Court, the main gathering area on the lowest level.
Work will start in January 2026 and finish before the 2026 holiday season, with as little disruption as possible.
Plans include higher ceilings, better landscaping, nicer finishes, bigger restrooms, and more seating areas, all centered around a three-sided digital screen.
Edo Japanese Grill will be added to the casual dining options, joining Chipotle, Five Guys, Johnny Rockets, Panda Express, Mia Pasta, and Charley's Philly Steaks.
After sixty years of changes, the future still depends on an old idea: make the place nice enough that people want to stay.
