Western Plaza Mall!

[thetornado]

It finally looks like there doing something now a fence is around the whole mall now and they will eventually start tearing the rest of the mall down for western crossing which i believe should be open by march of 2008!

[tigerlily]

I think the paper this weekend said something about have all but the SE part down by September 28th this year. Grahams has about 7 months before they have to find a new location. . I also read that among the business American Housing is trying to get a small apartment complex complete with a fitness center built there.

[pjustus]

I think it's really sad that they aren't instead trying to renovate Western Plaza instead of demolishing it. It would cost far less money, and it's just a shame that the building is going down. I spent a great deal of my childhood playing at the arcade there (AGA, later Buffalo Nickel, which was never as good), and eating pizza downstairs. I also miss the sandwich shop that served the best Cherry Cokes I've ever had. Anyway, I think it's monumentally boneheaded that they're replacing it with individual buildings. It's gonna cost several fortunes, and will there really be anything unique at all? A total waste, and tragic, if you ask me. Is Buffalo Nickel still there, and if not, does anyone know what happened to it? It's been years since I went there, and I never went to the second location inside the Plaza after they tore down the mezzanine. It used to be a great building, and still could be, if they had any sense.

[joe]

Buffalo Nickel is listed at 2201 S. Western in the phonebook.

[bunnyface]

Graham Central Station is also 2201 S. Western. That's Western Plaza.

I wish I knew if Buffalo Nickel was able to relocate somewhere also. That was a good (cheap) place to take my nephew when I had him. They're not listed in the new phone book (that I can find), so I guess maybe not.

[rena]

I remember Western Plaza as a child.....That place was huge to a little girl. I also saw Santa there for the first time....

[bag from canyon]

Buffalo Nickel was owned my Paul Borchardt. Owner of Wonderland. He moved all the games out to Wonderland a while back.

My office is on Hobbs. I'm having fun watching it come down. It was time for it to come down. It's too old to remodel. They have already done that once. When they remodeled it, it didn't help one bit. Amarillo people still wouldn't shop there. And new stores wouldn't go in. The only way to help Western Plaza it to demolish it and start over.

[zebrarick]

Yeap nuke it. The good ole days of Orange Julious are long gone.

[tinkerbell]

zebrarick said:

Yeap nuke it. The good ole days of Orange Julious are long gone.

Wow forgot about those! Yummy!

[pjustus]

bag said:

Buffalo Nickel was owned my Paul Borchardt. Owner of Wonderland. He moved all the games out to Wonderland a while back.

d**n... that sucks...

My office is on Hobbs. I'm having fun watching it come down. It was time for it to come down. It's too old to remodel. They have already done that once. When they remodeled it, it didn't help one bit. Amarillo people still wouldn't shop there. And new stores wouldn't go in. The only way to help Western Plaza it to demolish it and start over.

When was it remodelled before? It was really Montgomery Ward closing that sealed its fate, IMO. As long as it was open, people went there. What kind of insanely bad business deals could have ben made that lead to WP's disintegration? In 1994-1997, it was plenty busy... then, POOF.

[catsmeow]

While I know it's going to look better when finished, I can't say I'm too impressed with any of the stores moving in. Kind of disappointed about that.

[bag from canyon]

pjustus said:

bag said:

Buffalo Nickel was owned my Paul Borchardt. Owner of Wonderland. He moved all the games out to Wonderland a while back.

d**n... that sucks...

My office is on Hobbs. I'm having fun watching it come down. It was time for it to come down. It's too old to remodel. They have already done that once. When they remodeled it, it didn't help one bit. Amarillo people still wouldn't shop there. And new stores wouldn't go in. The only way to help Western Plaza it to demolish it and start over.

When was it remodeled before? It was really Montgomery Ward closing that sealed its fate, IMO. As long as it was open, people went there. What kind of insanely bad business deals could have ben made that lead to WP's disintegration? In 1994-1997, it was plenty busy... then, POOF.

I can't remember exactly when it was remodeled before. But it was like in the late 80's or early 90's. That was when the food Court was added. I don't think Montgomery Wards had anything to do with is demise. I would go to MW and walk into the Mall. There was nothing in there worth going to. Most of the stores were empty. I would go at Christmas to take my son to see Santa. He was the best in town. Plus, you didn't have to wait in line.

I remember one year, my son was about three. We took him to WP to see Santa. Santa happened to be standing at the food Court taking a break. I went up and asked him how long he would be. He took my sons hand and waked down the mall to his chair. It would have been a great picture if I had had my camera. They were so cute walking hand in hand.

[petiepanzer]

MW went broke across the country because they couldn't keep up with discount chains like Target and Wal-Mart. The same thing happened to stores like Woolworth's, Woolco, and TG&Y. I say good riddance. The stuff at Monkey Wards was crap and it didn't have any price advantages to shopping there.

[pjustus]

M-W was the only place I could get my favorite jeans and shorts at the time. Do you think they'd still be demolishing Western Plaza if M-W hadn't gone under?

[west-texan]

Losing Service Merchandise and then Dunlaps and then M-W...is what really put the nails in the Western Plaza coffin.

Those stores and Furrs and Ladies Spa...were all that was really keeping the place going.

It was supposed to be a shopping center mall...and Graham's was contributing nothing to that...except a couple of hundred police calls...every year.