Retail in the City: Starting with Phoenix

Someone turned an old Sears department store into a high-end wine bar, complete with golf simulators and a cigar lounge. Fender is moving its global headquarters next door.

There is a rooftop pool just down the block.

If you want to understand the modern mall renaissance, Phoenix is the place you have to see in person.

The Detail That Stops You Cold

When developers tore down the old Paradise Valley Mall to build PV (a massive $2 billion, 100-acre mixed-use neighborhood), they kept the concrete shell of the former Sears.

Then, they turned it into Trevor’s, a 13,700-square-foot spirits destination. It features:

• A full-service restaurant

• An upscale cigar lounge

• State-of-the-art golf simulators

• An outdoor patio so vibrant that locals say it is impossible to picture its department-store past

"Same bones. Completely different soul."

That is not just a clever renovation story. It is the entire thesis of what Phoenix is doing with its retail real estate right now.

Time to Update Your Mental Map

If your mental picture of Phoenix is still endless strip malls, blistering heat, and oceans of asphalt, your data is seriously out of date.

The Valley of the Sun is in the middle of one of the most ambitious retail transformations in the country. It is the kind of shift that does not fully land until you are standing right in the center of it. We are talking about:

• Old mall sites morphing into walkable neighborhoods with rooftop pools, craft breweries, and corporate headquarters.

• Brand-new open-air centers popping up in suburbs that have been starved for retail for a decade.

• Market fundamentals that are currently the strongest they have been since the early 1980s.

  
  

The RAIC team is packing our bags. Here is the history of how Phoenix got here, and what needs to be on your itinerary when you visit.

How Phoenix Got Here: A Quick History Lesson

Phoenix has always grown fast and planned late. The constant tension between explosive housing growth and retail scrambling to catch up is basically the city’s origin story.

1. The Mid-Century Boom — Post-WWII population surge drives rapid suburban development, cementing Phoenix as a car-centric, strip-mall-heavy market.

2. The Regional Mall Era — Massive indoor hubs like Metrocenter and Paradise Valley Mall open, becoming the cultural and economic anchors of their respective decades.

3. The Great Overbuilding & Shift — E-commerce acceleration and an oversupply of traditional retail square footage lead to massive department store vacancies and the decline of the traditional indoor mall format.

4. The Mixed-Use Renaissance — The modern era: flattening dead retail spaces to build high-density, live-work-play neighborhoods anchored by experiential retail, wellness, and unique local concepts.

   
   

PV is the One Everyone Needs to See

There are developments that sound amazing in a PR deck, and then there are developments that actually deliver when you show up. PV is absolutely the second kind.

Just look at the tenant roster:

• Wren House Brewing: One of Arizona's most respected craft breweries. They could have put a new taproom anywhere, but they chose PV.

• Federal Pizza: A beloved local institution that had not opened a second location in over a decade decided PV was finally the right move.

• Velvet Taco: Opened its highly anticipated second Arizona location here.

• Fender Musical Instruments: Relocating its entire global headquarters from Scottsdale into a brand-new, 77,000-square-foot building on the property.

• Life Time: A massive 92,000-square-foot athletic club with Pilates studios, a spa, pickleball courts, and a rooftop pool.
  

These brands did not sign leases because they got a cheap deal. They signed because this project has a magnetic energy.

Image via 12news.com

Creating Non-Transactional Foot Traffic

At the heart of PV is a 3-acre central park that hosts outdoor movie nights, fitness classes, and live music.

This is the secret sauce: it draws people in on days they were not even planning on spending money. That "non-transactional" foot traffic is what keeps retail tenants thriving through slow seasons.

As Jeff Moloznik, Senior VP at RED Development, puts it: the vision is to give every single block its own distinct identity, all tied together by ground-floor retail. Because PV is only about halfway built (with full completion aimed for 2030) visiting now means you get to watch a neighborhood discover its identity in real time.

📊 The National Context

• The Trend: Nearly 200 U.S. malls were actively planning apartment conversions as of early 2024 (according to Realogic).

• The Mix: About 46% of all mall redevelopments now incorporate at least three different uses, and 54% include housing (from JLL data).

• The Anchor: Healthcare and wellness have replaced old department stores as the fastest-growing anchor categories nationwide. Phoenix has two of the most advanced examples of this in the country.
  

Park Central: The One That Started It All

While PV gets the Instagram love for its rooftop pool, Park Central is actually the more instructive story for retail operators.

The redevelopment worked because the developers were honest about what they had: a mid-century campus with great bones, a central location, and two light rail stops.

By bringing in Creighton University’s health sciences campus as the anchor, they guaranteed 900 students, faculty, and patients walk through the property every single day. The surrounding restaurants and offices have a built-in customer base that is completely recession-proof. A university does not close because retail trends shift.

Image via Phoenix Magazine

What Nobody is Writing About (Yet)

The mall renaissance is the headline, but the equally important story is playing out about 35 miles west of PV, in Buckeye, Arizona.

Buckeye is currently one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. For years, residents had to drive 20 to 30 minutes just to get basic services because the retail infrastructure simply had not caught up to the housing boom. That changes with the opening of Verrado Marketplace:

• A $275 million, 500,000-square-foot open-air center right at I-10 and Verrado Way.

• Anchored by Target, Safeway, Harkins BackLot, Marshalls, Ross, and HomeGoods.

• Home to more than 50 restaurants and specialty shops.
  

This is not speculative retail hoping for customers. The customers have been there for years, waiting. Urban planners call this "filling the donut" (when residential sprawl outruns commercial infrastructure until the gap is impossible to ignore). When you fill a genuine void like this, the leasing math looks completely different.

📈 Phoenix by the Numbers

Metric	The Data
Retail Vacancy (Q1 2026)	4.5% (Lowest since the early 1980s)
Asking Rent Growth (Y-o-Y)	~7%
National Construction Rank	Top 5 for new retail construction pace
Construction Rate	>1% of existing inventory (Double the national average)

Go See It. Seriously.

Reading the data is great, but walking PV and then driving out to see Verrado Marketplace in the same afternoon is a completely different experience. You instantly feel why tenants are signing those leases.

The "retail apocalypse" narrative was always about outdated formats running out of road. Phoenix lived that story faster and harder than almost anyone else, and they are miles ahead of the rest of the country in writing the sequel.

🗺️ Put These on Your Itinerary

PV

• The Vibe: A $2 billion mall-to-neighborhood conversion.

• What to do: Grab a drink at Trevor’s (in the old Sears), eat at Blanco Cocina + Cantina or Flower Child, and sit by the park.

• Address: 4568 E. Cactus Rd, Phoenix
  

Park Central

• The Vibe: Phoenix's original 1957 mall turned mid-century mixed-use campus.

• What to do: Check out how Creighton University integrates with the local eateries and public transit.

• Address: 3110 N. Central Ave, Phoenix
  

The Metropolitan Site

• The Vibe: The $850 million redevelopment of the iconic Metrocenter.

• What to do: Drive by to see what a closed regional mall looks like when a city is brave enough to start from scratch.

• Address: I-17 and Dunlap Ave, Phoenix
  

Verrado Marketplace

• The Vibe: A $275 million open-air hub serving a booming suburban community.

• What to do: Walk the newly opened spaces to see the suburban infrastructure story playing out in real time.

• Address: I-10 and Verrado Way, Buckeye
  

The Council team will be in Arizona for May 28th's Phoenix Mixer, an invite-only evening for Phoenix retailers to build community and connection. Request an invitation, it's free for approved retailers with cocktails and bites included. We will see you out there!