Crossroads Plaza is an outdoor shopping center located in Cary, North Carolina, United States. The shopping center was opened in 1992 and has been added on to and renovated several times since then. It contains over 70 stores, including national chains and locally-owned stores.[1]
Originally planned as a $240 million, 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) regional mall on 237 acres (0.96 km2) of land with anchor stores by top New York based retailers, this new "megamall" was intended to attract more than local customers with a planned opening of Fall 1989. Original plans included 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m2) of non-retail space including a corporate park and hotel. The original owner was NCNB (now NationsBank) acting as trustee for the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio and developer was LJ Hooker Developments. The planned development alone would have increased Cary's tax base by 18%. A bankrupt Hooker was purchased by New Market Development which drastically changed plans to a more modest 640,000-square-foot (59,000 m2) plaza anchored by Toys R Us, Uptons department store (now Old Navy), Stein Mart, Bookstar (closed when the chain was acquired by Barnes and Nobel), Pet Depot, Marshalls and Home Quarters Warehouse (closed when the chain was acquired by Hechinger, now occuped by Dick's Sporting Goods and Bed, Bath & Beyond) and Phar-Mor (closed when the chain entered bankruptcy, now occupoed by Best Buy). Service Merchandise was later added as an anchor but closed when the chain entered bankruptcy, now occupied by DSW, Inc. and AC Moore.[2]
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Since Crossroads was built, several adjacent or nearby shopping centers have been established. These surrounding centers have grocery stores or discount stores such as Target as anchors, though they also include competitors of anchors of Crossroads itself. Cary Towne Center is approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) from Crossroads Plaza down Walnut Street.