Western Hills Mall
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Western Hills Mall is a shopping mall located in Fairfield, Alabama (with part of the property within the city limits of Midfield, Alabama). It opened in the late 1960s with two anchor department stores, Loveman's and J.C. Penney, a Woolworth's discount store, a Britling cafeteria and about three dozen specialty stores. It was the second mall to be built in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area.
The mall is owned and operated by Aronov Realty of Montgomery, Alabama, one of Alabama's largest commercial developers. The Fairfield City Council renamed Weibel Drive, which runs in front of the mall, to Aaron Aranov Drive in honor of the developer.
[edit] Decline
As is the case with many malls from that era, Western Hills Mall was a successful regional mall based in a community that saw its economy change with the decline and/or closing of numerous steel-related industries, particularly the nearby U.S. Steel factories. Britling's closed, along with the rest of the chain, in the 1970s. The Woolworth location closed with the rest of the chain in the 1990s. After Loveman's ceased operation, the location became Pizitz and later Parisian, before finally closing in 2005. J.C. Penney finally closed its store in 2005. Most specialty stores went through numerous changes; those that were part of national chains had largely pulled out by the turn of the century. The stores that remain are mostly independent stores, and largely cater to the African-American and multi-cultural community that now is predominant in the surrounding areas. The mall has a large primary market that includes Fairield, Midfield, Pleasant Grove and Hueytown and Bessemer among other communities.
[edit] 2006 transformation
In 2006, Western Hills Mall underwent a major transformation. The Penney location was completely demolished, with the mall building being truncated at the former Penney entrance. In its place, a new Wal-Mart Supercenter was built. The Supercenter replaces an existing standard Wal-Mart (itself a former Woolco location) across the street. The new store has been sought by Fairfield officials for many years; former mayor (now Jefferson County commissioner) Larry Langford had conducted negotiations for a Supercenter during most of his time in office, and originally had made a deal for Wal-Mart to build on a former U.S. Steel office site about a half mile (800 meters) away, but that deal fell through after he was elected to the county commission. (Cities in Alabama are keen to attract new retail businesses, because the state's tax structure makes them heavily dependent on sales tax revenues.) The mall is unique in that it has successfully implemeted a redevelopment plan that now includes a new anchor, Burlington Coat Factory, and is a cornerstone to the redevelopment of the Fairfield-Midfield retail district.
