Park Plaza Mall

Upon opening in 1960, Park Plaza was considered the first major shopping center in West Little Rock (now called Midtown, and today's West Little Rock is further west) and was eventually blamed for the exodus of retail stores from downtown Little Rock. Park Plaza Shopping Center, as it was originally named, consisted of retail stores, a grocery store, a bowling alley, and a cafeteria.^[1] In 1963, Gus Blass, a defunct downtown Little Rock department store founded in the 1860s, announced plans to build a store at Park Plaza.^[5] Its Park Plaza location opened in 1965, becoming the first large store from downtown Little Rock with a presence at Park Plaza.^[1][5] The site of the Gus Blass downtown location still stands today and is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.^[6] In 1964, Gus Blass was sold to Little Rock-based Dillard's; in 1967, the Park Plaza Gus Blass was rebranded as Pfeifer-Blass, and in 1974, it finally became Dillard's.^[7] Dillard's remains at Park Plaza today with two separate stores at the mall: Dillard's East and Dillard's West; the two locations serve as company flagship locations.^[1]

In 1967, the enclosed, "revolutionary"^[8] University Mall opened one block south of Park Plaza Shopping Center.^[8] Just as Park Plaza had caused retail stores to migrate from downtown Little Rock to its location, University Mall caused a migration from Park Plaza down the street to the new, enclosed, and air-conditioned University Mall. For about 20 years, Park Plaza struggled as University Mall established itself as the more desirable shopping location in Little Rock. The University Mall went through two renovations, including adding an additional story to the structure, reaching a size of 535,000 square feet (49,700 m²). In response, Park Plaza Shopping Center temporarily closed in 1987 to undergo $20 million in renovations and reopened in 1988 as Park Plaza Mall, a three-story enclosed mall with 680,000 square feet (63,000 m²) and a movie theater. University Mall was eventually demolished in 2007.^[8]

Park Plaza Mall's standing was threatened throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with Simon Property Group, owner of the University Mall, planning to build Summit Mall: a 1,100,000-square-foot (100,000 m²) mall^[9] with three adjacent six-story office buildings, two restaurants, and a 10-story, 250-room hotel.^[10] The proposed mall was to be located in West Little Rock and was the focus of controversy and litigation, as it was predicted cause economic decline to Midtown. Park Plaza Mall was expected to be in turmoil had Summit Mall been built, as Dillard's, Park Plaza's sole anchor, had committed to being an anchor tenant at Summit Mall.^[10][9] Plans for Summit Mall collapsed in 2004 amid a zoning battle and the prospect of a city referendum on the deal. With the fate of Park Plaza Mall secure, mall owners First Union Real Estate Equity and Mortgage Investments sold Park Plaza to CBL Properties of Chattanooga, Tennessee, for $77.5 million later that year.^[11]

In 2021, the mall went into foreclosure due to a $99 million loan originating in 2011. The owners of the mall at the time, CBL Properties, claimed they did not earn enough income to afford the required payments. The trustee for the holders of the original loan against the mall, Deutsche Bank, took ownership of the mall after a Pulaski County circuit judge granted an $86.2 million judgment against CBL and granted immediate possession of the mall to Deutsche. Shortly after, Deutsche was the sole bidder of $100,000 at the mall's foreclosure auction. Deutsche operated the mall under the LLC The Woodmount Company and marketed Park Plaza as "the premier shopping center in Little Rock."^[12]

In March 2023, Florida-based investment company, Second Horizon Capital, announced it purchased the property with plans for a "significant investment"^[13] to revitalize the mall. The company chose JLL as the mall's new management.^[13]

The two Dillard's locations at Park Plaza has not been included in the mall's ownership changes throughout the years, as Dillard's owns its retail spaces, the lots they sit on, and its adjacent parking structure.^[14]

In 2013, an ex-Sbarro employee shot two Sbarro employees, including a supervisor, at Park Plaza Mall, leaving the supervisor dead and a female employee critically injured with eight gunshot wounds.^[15][16] The man charged in the death was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2014. His accomplice, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted capital murder, and aggravated robbery was sentenced to 40 years in prison.^[15]