Park Central Shopping City, as it originally was known, was first envisioned by Ralph Burgbacher and his older brother, A.J. Burgbacher. The two men purchased the Central Avenue Dairy in the 1950s. At the time Phoenix was a much smaller city, and the mall's location, north of the
state capitol was an early
edge city, which in time came to be known as "Uptown" Phoenix. Other developers criticized the brothers, believing a development out in the "dairy farm" area was futile, but development proceeded and the open-air mall was completed in 1957. The mall was designed by a collaboration of architects in the
Mid-Century Modern style.
Welton Becket designed the Goldwater's building and
Ralph Haver and John Schotanus Jr. designing other parts of the mall. The mall was built by Kitchell-Phillips Contractors Inc. When the mall opened, the primary anchors were a twin-level
Goldwater's which predated the initial opening of the mall. It opened November 8, 1956. There were also a twin-level
Diamond's, and a
J.J. Newberry five and dime store. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the mall and its first 31 stores were held on April 1, 1957. Goldwater's and Diamond's soon closed their older, downtown stores favoring their new midtown location in the mall. When JCPenney closed its downtown location in the mid-1960s, the downtown area never would regain its status as the retail draw it once was. The original Phoenix-based
Playboy club was across Central Ave. to the East; it closed in the mid-1980s. As Phoenix quickly grew, the area around Park Central Mall saw an increasing number of mid-rise and high-rise office buildings built along Central Avenue, and eventually became known as the central business district. Part of this mid-1960s transition included the new addition of a twin level
JCPenney store at the mall, and a covered parking deck on the northeast end of the property built in 1967, to help combat the hot summertime temperatures. The new structures were designed by Al Beadle. Unable to compete with newer enclosed and air-conditioned shopping malls, Park Central, still an open-air facility, had lost most of its major retailers by the very late 1980s. The first major anchor to leave was
Robinson's, which had purchased and converted the Goldwater's store years earlier, closing the location down just before the end of the decade. The second major anchor to leave was JCPenney, closing just at the start of the 1990s. Finally the last anchor,
Dillard's, which had purchased and converted Diamond's a few years prior, became a discount Dillard's Clearance Center and remained open in that format until the mid-1990s. ==Current==