Phoenix Spectrum Mall
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Phoenix Spectrum Mall, formerly known as Chris-Town Mall, is located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is situated at North 19th Avenue and West Bethany Home Road and opened on August 24, 1961. It was originally home to four anchors - JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, United Artists Theatres and Korrick's. Korrick's was purchased by Los Angeles department store chain The Broadway in 1966; the Chris-Town location became a Broadway Southwest store. A fifth anchor, Bullock's department store, was added to the mall in 1975. In 1985 this Bullock's location was sold to [[Dillard's]
Chris-Town was the first indoor, air-conditioned mall built in Arizona. For years, it was the shopping hotspot for Phoenix, and indeed, Arizona and the southwestern United States. However, the 1973 construction of Westcor regional mega-mall Metrocenter was the beginning of Chris-Town's decline. As the median household income in the area around Chris-Town dropped, business began to leave. The increasing urban blight in the Chris-Town area caused businesses to leave the mall, and slowly the mall began to fade to a shadow of its former self.
In 1995, The Broadway was purchased by Federated Stores. Rather than converting the Broadway Southwest at Chris-Town into a Macy's, Federated instead chose to close the store. It was then torn down, and a Wal-Mart was built in its place.
In 2000, Montgomery Ward entered bankruptcy and the Chris-Town location was closed. After remaining vacant for two years, in 2002 the old Montgomery Ward store was divided into a PetsMart and a Ross clothing store.
Owner Grossman Company Properties re-named Phoenix Spectrum Mall in 2001. Soon thereafter, JC Penney closed. After it closed, the building it occupied was torn down and in 2002 was replaced by a Costco warehouse store. In 2003, the UA Theatre closed and was rebranded as Spectrum Cinemas, which was now home to Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday nights. The cinema competed with a Harkins Theatres located just outside the mall within the parking lot. Wal-Mart expanded into a Wal-Mart Supercenter in late 2003. In 2004, Dillard's closed and remains empty.
In March of 2004, Phoenix Spectrum Mall was sold to a partnership formed by Developers Diversified Realty Corporation of Beachwood, Ohio, and Coventry Real Estate of New York. As of 2005, the mall is at 88% occupancy.
In 2006, plans were announced to remove the Harkins ChrisTown 11 theatre and replace it with the Phoenix Spectrum 14. Plans were also announced to raze the vacant Dillard's, replacing it with a new SuperTarget. Also, JC Penney announced its intention to return to the mall and open a new store at the Spectrum.
