Prescott Gateway Mall is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Prescott, Arizona Prescott ( ) is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the city's population was 45,827. The city is the county seat of Yavapai County. In 1864, Presc ...

. Opened on March 8, 2002, it includes

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

, and

Bed Bath & Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 5 ...

as its

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls ...

History

Westcor Westcor was a subsidiary of The Macerich Company and a large developer of shopping malls in the Southwestern region of the United States. It was founded in 1964 by entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic v ...

first announced plans to build a mall east of Prescott on

Arizona State Route 69 State Route 69 (SR 69) is a highway that serves as the main road to Prescott, Arizona, from Interstate 17 (Arizona), Interstate 17. It is almost all divided four-lane although some sections in Prescott and Prescott Valley are wider). Prior to t ...

in 1998. The decision was met with local opposition from members of the community, and petitioned for a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

after city council approved a change in zoning. Under Westcor's original plans, the proposed mall would have

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began ...

and

as anchor stores. The former two stores were already anchors at an existing mall, Ponderosa Plaza, but the managers of both stores considered their existing locations too small. Following the referendum, a lawsuit was filed over the agreement made between the city and mall developers. The lawsuit was later dropped. Construction began on the mall in 2001. Besides the three anchor stores, other confirmed tenants at the mall included Barnes & Noble and

Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things was a Clifton, New Jersey-based big-box retailer specializing in home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories. The chain operated 571 stores in 47 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and had 7,300 employees as o ...

, the latter of which was located in an outdoor village section in front of the mall. Although Westcor officials said that the diversity of the Prescott market made it difficult to choose tenants, they expected the mall to be over 96 percent leased by 2002. The mall opened to the public on March 8, 2002, with a "Party of the Year" the day before. Among the stores that were new to the Prescott market included

Buckle The buckle or clasp is a device used for fastening two loose ends, with one end attached to it and the other held by a catch in a secure but adjustable manner. Often taken for granted, the invention of the buckle was indispensable in securing tw ...

KB Toys K·B Toys (also known as Kay Bee Toys) was an American chain of mall-based retail toy stores. The company was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. The company opened a wholesale toy store in 1946, and ended its candy wh ...

and

Casual Corner Casual Corner was an American retail clothing chain founded in 1950. It operated stores under the names Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman brands, among others, with more than 525 stores at its peak. History In 1950, childho ...

. It was 80 percent leased at opening, and increased to 86 percent a year later, adding 24 stores. After Linens 'n Things closed in 2008, it became a

in late 2009. Barnes & Noble, an original tenant, closed in 2011. Trader Joe's, announced in 2011, opened a store at the Shops at Prescott Gateway outparcel in 2012. The mall was first sold to the Tabani Group in 2013, and was then later sold to Kohan Retail Investment Group in 2018, who purchased the mall for $8.8 million. In 2015,

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th- ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Prescott Gateway Mall, into Seritage Growth Properties. On November 7, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 96 stores nationwide. The store closed on February 2, 2020.

References

{{Shopping malls in Arizona Shopping malls in Arizona Shopping malls established in 2002 Buildings and structures in Prescott, Arizona 2002 establishments in Arizona Kohan Retail Investment Group