University Mall (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
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University Mall is the largest mall in western Alabama. It is located at the intersection of McFarland Blvd and Veterans' Memorial Parkway in Tuscaloosa, the busiest in the city.
Owned and managed by Montgomery-based Aronov Realty, the mall opened in 1980. Anchor stores of the 733,254 -ft2 enclosed mall include J.C. Penney (99,450 ft2), Sears (105,000 ft2), and Parisian (to be converted to Belk in Fall 2007) (172,396 ft2). The only outlier properties on mall premises are branches of Regions Bank and Candence Bank.
University Mall is located in one of Tuscaloosa's retail areas. Nearby retail properties include free-standing SuperTarget and Home Depot, McFarland Plaza (formerly known as Bama Mall), an open-air mall anchored by Stein Mart and Old Navy, and many free-standing restaurants and shops. Across McFarland Blvd., the new Midtown "lifestyle center" is under development. In addition to condos, the development will be anchored by Barnes and Noble.
Previously to there being a mall, the property was home to the ruins of World War Two-era Northington Naval Hospital which were finally destroyed for the final climactic scene of the 1978 Burt Reynolds film, Hooper. The ruins of the hospital had lain derilict for many years and included a few dozen buildings as well as an immensely tall brick smoke-stack. A few of the old buildings remained until the late 1990s and housed the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education offices until they relocated to the old Tuscaloosa High School (and later Tuscaloosa Middle School) building on Queen City Boulevard.
