Western Plaza Shopping Center

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Western Plaza Shopping Center was a shopping mall in Amarillo, Texas, United States. It opened in 1968 with a construction cost of approximately US$13 million.^[1] Western Plaza was once a main shopping point in Amarillo, but from the 1980s to 2000s has suffered stores leaving its complex. It is demolished and a new shopping center is being built. The Western Crossings shopping center is estimated to cost US$40 million.^[2]

1 History
2 Selling and Demolishing
3 Present as of Summer 2007
4 Future
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] History

The mall opened with White & Kirk (a local department store), Woolco, and Montgomery Ward as its anchor stores. In the 1970s, White & Kirk was converted to Sakowitz, which in turn was converted to Dunlaps before closing in the 2000s. Woolco closed in the early 1980s and was replaced with Wilson's, a catalog showroom that later became Service Merchandise. After Service Merchandise closed. The mall was also home to the first Hastings Entertainment store in the chain.^{[citation needed]} In addition, Western Plaza also had a business college, Academy of Professional Careers.

Brian Deneke (March 9, 1978 – December 12, 1997) a punk rock fan from Amarillo whose homicide galvanized the punk community was deliberately struck with a Cadillac, ran over, and was killed there during a parking lot brawl in 1997.

[edit] Selling and Demolishing

August 1, 2001, Triple Net Properties of California officially announced the purchase of the run down mall. They announced plans to rejuvenate Western Plaza., including bringing in new anchor stores. Cathy Derr, the leasing representative for Western Plaza was quoted in the Amarillo Globe news saying she hopes to have the mall up to 65 to 85 percent occupancy within the year.^[3]

By late 2005 plans had been altered significately. November 29, 2005, The Sietz Group of Plano, a developer hired by Triple Net Properties, announced plans for a new retail center called Western Crossing to be built in place of Western Plaza. "We're going to completely redo it. We're going to tear it down," said Carmen Dominguez, in-house counsel for The Seitz Group of Plano.^[4] Negatiations began to relocate the remaining tennants.

In 2006, several problems arose. A tax abatement sought from the city to help with costs was unsuccessful. Asbestos problems increased projected demolition cost to $29 million from $27 million.^[5] And a former tenant, Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation, sued the owners of Western Plaza for more than $50,000 the local community mental health mental retardation center said it had incurred since being evicted to make way for a $29 million shopping-center makeover.^[6]

In June 2006, the signs of the mall were taken down.^[7] June 07, 2007, demolition began and was scheduled to be done in 60 days.^[8]

[edit] Present as of Summer 2007

As of July 2007, most of the mall was completely torn down except for the Graham Central Station night club per an agreement that the new location will be built and ready to be used before the last section is demolished. Graham Central Station is the only business in the mall that is still open. Olive Garden, on the property but not in the mall, is also open. No changes are planned for Olive Garden. Plans are to begin building as soon as the debris is cleared.

[edit] Future

The new retail center will include 10 buildings for retail, restaurant and office use. Some of the stores that will be moving to Western Crossing is Petco, Michaels Craft Store, and Burlington Coat Factory and the restaurant Cheddar's along with a separate building for Graham Central Station and an office building.^[9]

The mall and its land is owned by Santa Ana, California-based company, Triple Net Properties since 2001.^[10] Western Plaza's past owners include: Mattie Hedgecoke Properties, Southmark Corporation of Dallas, Texas, Spigel Properties of San Antonio, Texas, and General Electric Capital Corporation, the financial arm of General Electric.^[1]