Fiesta Mall in Mesa closes for good, to be replaced with education facility
Jan 30, 2018, 5:05 AM | Updated: 10:16 am
(Google Maps Photo)
(Google Maps Photo)
PHOENIX — It’s the end of an era for East Valley shoppers: Fiesta Mall in Mesa has officially closed its doors.
Reports of the closure made the rounds last week on social media, as several people posted photos of signs taped to the mall’s doors that announced the closure.
Some people originally said the mall would close this coming Wednesday, but the posted signs said it would be shuttered on Saturday.
Other photos posted online showed the facility was almost completely empty of both stores and shoppers. A video showed a worker taking down the sign above Bath and Body Works, one of the mall’s final remaining tenants.
@acesadventures1 The sign came down yesterday as we left Fiesta Mall. Mall closes for good on 1/31 pic.twitter.com/7XjoM2XhyA
— Enrique Cortez (@KoubuPilot) January 22, 2018
A worker who answered the phone at the Dillard’s clearance store at the mall said it would remain open.
There is a future for the East Valley mall: Ray Cashen with the Phoenix-based Cashen Realty Advisors said the structure would be transformed into a education and health care facility called “Campus @ US 60.”
The campus would mainly house “well-known, household name” education and health care businesses, but would also feature some retail businesses — such as day cares, coffee shops and restaurants — to support the tenants.
Cashen said there is still a ways to go in developing the campus — securing tenants, submitting plans to the city, etc. — but renovations are expected to kick off before the end of the year, with businesses moving in during the second part of 2019.
The mall had been struggling to retain tenants in recent years as other nearby shopping centers, such as Mesa Riverview and Tempe Marketplace, opened relatively nearby.
There are also three other malls — Chandler Fashion Center, Scottsdale Fashion Square and Superstition Springs Center — within a 20-minute drive of Fiesta Mall.
The shopping center opened Oct. 3, 1979. It enjoyed a prosperous 20 years, before it began to decline in the 1990s.
KTAR News’ Nailea Leon contributed to this report.
