Omaha Exploration

With the news that the old Park Fair Mall is currently being demolished, I thought we’d re-visit this odd attempt at bringing the indoor mall concept to downtown Omaha.

Parkfair Mall was an attempt to revitalize the 16th Street corridor which had a long history of retail stores including Brandeis, the flagship location of the department store chain. The three-story mall was constructed in 1983 on the western side of the Central Park Plaza towers between Douglas and Farnam Streets. The city went so far as to install brick sidewalks along the mall. The intent was to draw shoppers back downtown and to compete with enclosed shopping centers to the west including The Center, Crossroads and Westroads among others.

Its main anchor was Walgreens but it also housed many other retailers focused on clothing. Over the years, some of its other tenants included F. W. Woolworth, Hallmark, Payless Shoes, Bacalls, Merle Norman, Brigitte 16, Casual Corner, Waldenbooks, Main Street Movies and Paul Harris among others.

Among the restaurants in the lower level food court were Runza, Little King, Great Wall, Pizza Pizza, Great American Steak, Amigos, and Blimpies. It also included a Citibank and later Commercial Federal as well as a newsstand along the front sidewalk.

Just three years after it opened the $8.2M mall failed to meet expectations with only about 65% of the space leased. While it was busy during lunch hours, the shopping crowd disappeared after 5:30 when downtown workers went home for the day. The mall became a gathering place for high school kids attending Central and Benson among others. Fights became a regular occurrence in the early 1990s leading to an on-and-off ban of unaccompanied minors.

When the mall was sold in 1991 it had never reached full occupancy and a portion of the third floor was never occupied. By 1994 it was less than 20% occupied with the top two floors vacant and the first floor only half full. At that point, the atrium, escalators, and a two-story clock were removed in an attempt to convert at least a portion of it into office space. Union Pacific moved into the top two floors in 1997. The food court remained until 1998 with Runza leading the departures.

By the time its original anchor, Walgreens, closed in 2004, Blimpie’s was the only restaurant remaining and it closed months later. After it was sold in 2005, Parkfair Mall gutted and converted to a 125-space heated parking garage.

Today Pakfair Mall is being demolished as a part of a project led by NuStyle Development which is in the process of converting the former Central Park Plaza from office to residential. The mall, meanwhile, will be replaced with a new 10-story building that has 5-levels of parking and 150 apartments. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.

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