Fiesta Mall is a former shopping mall in Mesa, Arizona, United States. Opened in 1979 after nine years of development, it was built by Homart Development Company, the former shopping mall development division of the department store Sears. Sears was the first anchor store to open in the mall, doing so in 1977. Also present as anchor stores were The Broadway and Goldwater's, with Diamond's following in 1980. The mall began experiencing declines in traffic following the opening of Arizona Mills in 1997, and saw numerous anchor store and inline tenancy changes. After a long period of decline, it was shuttered in January 2018.The development that would become Fiesta Mall was announced on October 8, 1970, by officials from the city and Sears, Roebuck and Company. Sears officials said the company would develop the mall, which would include one of their stores, through its subsidiary Homart Development Company. The mall was projected to cost $35 million to $55 million and encompass 1.2 million to 1.4 million square-feet of retail space on 120 acres. Its projected opening was 1973. By 1973, the opening date for what was at the time called the "Sierra Vista Mall" was listed as 1975. Development shifted to Mesa after Homart could not secure land in south Tempe.The first component of the mall to open was the Sears, on April 13, 1977. The store replaced the retailer's location in downtown Mesa.Fiesta Mall officially opened October 3, 1979, with Sears, The Broadway and Goldwater's as its first three anchor stores; the fourth anchor, Diamond's, opened July 4, 1980. the mall was developed by Homart, which at the time of the opening of Fiesta Mall was developing several shopping centers nationwide anchored by Sears retail locations.Fiesta Mall and other large developments in the area such as Desert Samaritan Hospital (now known as Banner Desert Medical Center) were facilitated to a great extent by population growth in the southeast Valley and the construction of the Superstition Freeway.In June 1982, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold a 50 percent stake in the mall to Grosvenor International. The selling price was not disclosed. Under the deal, Homart remained as the mall's management firm.Homart announced plans in 1985 to grow the mall by nearly 40 percent from 921,046 to about 1.3 million square feet. Part of the company's $50 million expansion plans included a fifth department store and an expansion to the Sears; in addition, the existing Diamond's would have been converted into mall space and a new Diamond's store built in a three-story addition. Homart withdrew plans the following year after several delays due to concerns about traffic and parking from the city and other developers with nearby properties.Fiesta's owners renovated the mall in 1989, doing away with the orange and brown color scheme of the 1970s and installing skylights.By the early-1990s, Fiesta Mall was at the zenith of its success. It was the commercial hub of the East Valley and ranked within the top 15 percentile of regional malls in the nation in sales. A survey conducted by The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette in 1992 identified the mall as the preferred shopping center for most Valley residents, and in 1993, as many as a dozen companies were vying to purchase Fiesta. L&B Real Estate Counsel of Dallas, a commercial real-estate investment firm, bought the mall for $124.3 million in December 1993. Citing continuing robust population growth in the southeast Valley, the owners announced new plans for a major expansion that again included a fifth anchor store.General Growth Properties Inc. acquired Homart and all of its malls in December 1995. Fiesta's management announced in July 2001 that they were searching for a buyer, but said it had nothing to do with increasing competition from newer malls in the area.On April 13, 2004, pop music star Avril Lavigne hosted a free concert at Fiesta Mall, drawing about 3,000 people. The concert was seen as a coup for Fiesta, which was responding to changing times by updating its entrances and adding a children's play area.Fiesta Mall started showing early signs of trouble in terms of shrinking customer traffic in the late 1990s. When Arizona Mills opened in the neighboring city of Tempe in 1997, mall officials saw an initial decline in shoppers. Fiesta management said the change was short-lived after initial interest in the new mall peaked. When Chandler Fashion Center opened on October 17, 2001, about eight miles away from Fiesta, the mall suffered its first sustained revenue drop due to a competing mall.
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