West Acres turns 40

[IzzyFlexion]

I was at NDSU when it opened.

Are you the dude tickling that other dude's right moob?



sorry. Forgot to preface post with "asshole jokey boy warning"

[56BISON73]

I almost forgot about the Grainery......I seem to remember their kick-ass beer cheese soup????

Correct. They used to serve it in little metal caldrons. Great stuff. The prime rib and the grilled shrimp were excellent.

[roadwarrior]

I wonder if any other store besides Sears has been in the same location in the mall under the same name for the 40 years?

[Hammerhead]

Here's what the Fargo-Moorhead area looked like in 1985.



Fargo1985.jpg

[TheBisonator]

Here's what the Fargo-Moorhead area looked like in 1985.



Fargo1985.jpg

Wow. It was probably only 60 percent of the size that it is now...

[OrygunBison]

It seems really weird to think of people shopping downtown as a primary thing rather than as a fun little thing to do when on a vacation.

What's weird to me is the strange nostalgia that some feel for the mall, rather than the sadness of what it's creation did to downtown. West Acres and the surrounding area have made Fargo into the picture perfect model of "Anywhere, USA". Had the city any foresight, they would have encouraged the developer to build heavily in downtown. In architecture school, there were stories of the original developer wanting to be in the city's core but they made it too hard. I think they built outside of the city limits to escape the costs/hassle. (I've never confirmed this but there were instructors of mine that I am paraphrasing now.) This is a common theme throughout America and is a core reason why most of our cities really suck. We've turned our back on what makes each one of them special and have opted for a watered-down Disneyland of architecture as a result.

When I was in Fargo last December for the playoffs, I was happy to see some of the investment that has been made downtown. It is wonderful and it seems that there is some momentum to continue it.

[tjbison]

What's weird to me is the strange nostalgia that some feel for the mall, rather than the sadness of what it's creation did to downtown. West Acres and the surrounding area have made Fargo into the picture perfect model of "Anywhere, USA". Had the city any foresight, they would have encouraged the developer to build heavily in downtown. In architecture school, there were stories of the original developer wanting to be in the city's core but they made it too hard. I think they built outside of the city limits to escape the costs/hassle. (I've never confirmed this but there were instructors of mine that I am paraphrasing now.) This is a common theme throughout America and is a core reason why most of our cities really suck. We've turned our back on what makes each one of them special and have opted for a watered-down Disneyland of architecture as a result.

When I was in Fargo last December for the playoffs, I was happy to see some of the investment that has been made downtown. It is wonderful and it seems that there is some momentum to continue it.

Well with the mall being where it is the growth it created was far greater than if it had been downtown...right on the 2 interstates for visibility and access. I would not have been in favor of spending the money downtown then either

[Hammersmith]

What's weird to me is the strange nostalgia that some feel for the mall, rather than the sadness of what it's creation did to downtown. West Acres and the surrounding area have made Fargo into the picture perfect model of "Anywhere, USA". Had the city any foresight, they would have encouraged the developer to build heavily in downtown. In architecture school, there were stories of the original developer wanting to be in the city's core but they made it too hard. I think they built outside of the city limits to escape the costs/hassle. (I've never confirmed this but there were instructors of mine that I am paraphrasing now.) This is a common theme throughout America and is a core reason why most of our cities really suck. We've turned our back on what makes each one of them special and have opted for a watered-down Disneyland of architecture as a result.

When I was in Fargo last December for the playoffs, I was happy to see some of the investment that has been made downtown. It is wonderful and it seems that there is some momentum to continue it.

That story was in the first of the four Forum articles.

But by 1966, Sears had outgrown its confines, and the building had no more room to accommodate expansion. Bill Schlossman, George Black’s son-in-law, who was managing the building and other downtown properties, started looking for a new home to bring the department store and a handful of other scattered shops together in one location.

Location, location ...

A champion of downtown business, Schlossman first proposed a shopping center at the foot of Broadway, near the current location of the YMCA’s Fercho Branch and the Fargo High Rise tower.

But the city turned him and his partners down in favor of other projects. Brad Schlossman, Bill’s son and the current chief executive of West Acres Development, said the rejection was likely a blessing.

“Right now, this would be on deadmalls.com,” Brad Schlossman said, referring to a website that catalogs failed shopping centers. The space “is nowhere near big enough, and then the accessibility would have been a problem.”

From part 2 of the series:

Moorhead suffered much the same fate, compounded by a decision to bet heavily on the downtown mall concept Fargo had rejected. As West Acres was being built, Moorhead tore up much of its own downtown to make way for the Moorhead Center Mall, which opened in 1973 as a shopping center attached to City Hall.

The project was spurred in part by federal dollars earmarked for urban renewal projects, said Lanning, the longtime Moorhead mayor. Like West Acres, it was seen as a new, centralized home for scattered retailers.

But while West Acres thrived from opening day, the Moorhead Center Mall stumbled out of the blocks and never quite caught fire.

The lack of a department store hurt early on. The mall went without one until Eckstein’s, a regional store, opened in 1980. Herberger’s, the current anchor tenant and the mall’s most prestigious draw, didn’t come until 1983.

Unlike West Acres, the mall was tucked far from easy access to the interstate. In Lanning’s view, it was literally on the wrong side of the tracks, cut off from the southern portion of the city by not one but two sets of railroad lines carrying dozens of trains a day.

“That’s a barrier,” Lanning said. “Knowing what we all know today about railroad traffic, I think Moorhead would’ve been better off if its redevelopment had occurred south of Main Avenue instead of north,” he said.

All four parts to the Forum series on West Acres:
West Acres Turns 40: How a remote field became Fargo’s retail giant (Part 1 of 4)
West Acres Turns 40: Booming mall shifted action to the west (Part 2 of 4)
West Acres Turns 40: A business balancing act (Part 3 of 4)
West Acres Turns 40: Mall an always evolving commercial circus (Part 4 of 4)

[cbline]

This also makes me remember the severe consequences of lack of vision. School district boundaries, anyone?

I am an employee of the West Fargo School District, and the topic of the development west of I-29 in the District comes up quite regularly. Here is the history, as I recall. Someone with more knowledge feel free to add more facts:

1. Long ago, school districts expanded when city limits expanded. The Fargo School District took a "bite" out of the West Fargo School District when Fargo annexed the 12th Ave business park on the west side of I-29. If you look at the school districts' maps, you will see that one "peninsula" off of the rest of the Fargo District.

2. In response to losing land in the West Fargo District, West Fargo State Rep. Lodoen introduced legislation that kept boundaries as they were at the time of passage. As a result, the rest of the land generally west of I-29 remained in the West Fargo School District, even when the city limits of Fargo expanded into that area.

3. I have heard people in Fargo say, "Give us back West Acres for the School District." This is a curious statement, as that area never was in the Fargo School District. How could they receive an area back when that area had NEVER been served by the Fargo School District?

[tjbison]

I am an employee of the West Fargo School District, and the topic of the development west of I-29 in the District comes up quite regularly. Here is the history, as I recall. Someone with more knowledge feel free to add more facts:

1. Long ago, school districts expanded when city limits expanded. The Fargo School District took a "bite" out of the West Fargo School District when Fargo annexed the 12th Ave business park on the west side of I-29. If you look at the school districts' maps, you will see that one "peninsula" off of the rest of the Fargo District.

2. In response to losing land in the West Fargo District, West Fargo State Rep. Lodoen introduced legislation that kept boundaries as they were at the time of passage. As a result, the rest of the land generally west of I-29 remained in the West Fargo School District, even when the city limits of Fargo expanded into that area.

3. I have heard people in Fargo say, "Give us back West Acres for the School District." This is a curious statement, as that area never was in the Fargo School District. How could they receive an area back when that area had NEVER been served by the Fargo School District?

It also really pisses Xcel energy off because I believe Cass County electric has 13th ave and south in Fargo and West Fargo