Valley Fair Shopping Center

The Valley Fair Shopping Center was a shopping mall in Appleton, Wisconsin which opened on August 11, 1954. The mall billed itself as the first enclosed mall in the United States,WGBA newcast, August 9 2007] [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?s_site=postcrescent&f_site=postcrescent&f_sitename=Post-Crescent%2C+The+%28Appleton%2C+WI%29&p_theme=gannett&p_product=PTCB&p_action=search&p_field_base-0=&p_text_base-0=Valley+fair+Mall&Search=Search&p_perpage=10&p_maxdocs=200&p_queryname=700&s_search_type=keyword&p_sort=_rank_%3AD&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date%3AB%2CE&p_text_date-0= Articles on the mall] from the "Appleton Post-Crescent", Retrieved April 1 2007] though the Westminster Arcade predates it by 126 years. Demolition of parts of the shopping center began on August 8 2007.

History

Construction on Valley Fair began on July 1, 1953 [http://www.foxvalleyhistory.org/turningpoints/modelT/modelt-valleyfairarticle.html] , and originally was located in the town of Menasha, Wisconsin until this portion of land was annexed to Appleton. The mall's grand opening was done on March 10, 1955 [http://www.foxvalleyhistory.org/turningpoints/modelT/modelt-valleyfair.html] , and opened fully on August 11, 1955. It originally had six stores: Krambo Supermarket, House of Camera & Cards, Badger Paint & Hardware, Donald's, Hamilton Bakery and Eddie's Self-Service Liquor. The mall was built by Hamilton Construction Company under the name Hoffman Shopping Centers, Inc. The mall was one of the first in Wisconsin to be enclosed.

The next two years would see further expansion in phases, fronted on the eastmost end by a W.T. Grant discount store. With this, the mall was fully completed by 1956. It would remain relatively unchanged at least up through 1976, when the Grant's anchor would cease with the rest of the entire chain.

In 1978-1979, the mall would re-tenant and emphasize less on local businesses and bring in more nationally known tenants with a huge expansion and renovation project. This project included.

* An extension of the east wing of the mall, going through the former W.T. Grant store. Space was created for 15-20 new shops, most of them national chains. Included were Brauns, RadioShack, Thom McAn, and Hallmark Cards, were among the new tenants. This section fronted a huge Kohl's Department Store / Supermarket combo...one of four built north of Milwaukee, the other three supermarket locations include Green Bay west (Lombardi Plaza near Lambeau Field, next to Kmart) and Oshkosh (both are now Big Lots), and Green Bay east (next to Kmart, now Rogan's Shoes Superdome). Kohl's Department Store at Valley Fair would eventually close near the close of the 1990s, with a new replacement store opening near Darboy (Southeast corner of Appleton).

* A new Marcus 3-screen cineplex was built onto the rear of the mall adjacent to Center Court. In the late 1980s they were divided to create a 6 screen cineplex.

* Alterations were done to the older 1950's portion of the mall to blend it into the newer section, including new carpeting laid atop the original concrete flooring, new lighting fixtures and exterior signage.

Through the 1980s and early 1990s, the mall changed ownership several times. Foot traffic started to decrease when Northland Mall in the north side of Appleton completed a major expansion, adding its own Kohl's Department Store anchor (built out of another former W.T. Grant store), joining a freestanding ShopKo with a new enclosed mall of 25-30 stores built between the two anchors in 1983. Another 15 stores in a prexisting 1960s-era strip was also connected to Kohl's, creating a rare instance of a hybrid strip / enclosed mall. Dartmouth Clothing & Lady Dartmouth (based in Ashwaubenon WI) opened a store in the Valley Fair Mall during the early 1980s, it eventually closed and re-opened with a new name, American Clothiers (closer to the Kohl's anchor store). Another attraction was the addition of Pedro's (Mexican food), one of the first and only place to get authentic Mexican food in Northeast Wisconsin (at the time). Pedro's was eventually purchased by George Wall and the name changed to Sergio's Mexican Bar & Grill.

This was followed up a year later by Fox River Mall opening in 1984. Tenants started to relocate to both malls immediately as leases came up, though others would stick it out up through the late 1990s.

Youth Futures

Youth Futures was a non-profit organization created in 2002. Buying out the mall, they started to re-tenant a 3rd time, booting out all the national chains that were left, and refocusing solely on local tenants that were more family-oriented in nature. The former Kohl's building was split between an indoor skateboarding park, and a gathering place for teens, where local bands would often play on weekends. This venture would have created the nation's first functioning "youth mall" had it taken off. The venture was bogged down due to high maintenance costs to heat and cool the nearly 50-year-old structure, and remodeling was far beyond their reach in costs.

Present

Youth Futures finally gave up in October, 2005, and the mall was sold in March 2006 to "VF Partners", a partnership between Rollie Winter and Associates and Bomier. They intend to demolish most of the property. The former Kohl's building, as well as the Marcus Cinemas, are still new enough and structurally sound, weren't torn down. A September 2007 Appleton Post-Crescent article indicated that the former Valley Fair site and surrounding blocks was placed into a tax district by the city council to facilitate improvement of that site and the surrounding area [http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/APC0101/709060643] . Meanwhile, demolition is underway (leaving only the cinemas and Kohl's building), and despite the expected completion of late September to early October, 2007 [http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070807/VIDEO0101/70807116] , is not finished.

References