San Tan Village Opening

The grand opening of the San Tan Village mall has been getting some press. The AZ Republic says that the weekend was more profitable than expectations:

Sales at the new SanTan Village, a mixed-use project in Gilbert that has 1.2 million square feet of retail space, surpassed expectations during the center's opening weekend, according to project developer Westcor.

"Foot traffic and sales steadily increased throughout the weekend," Art Coppola, president and chief executive officer of Macerich, Westcor's parent company, said in a statement.

The Mister and I checked it out, and we agree that there were a lot of folks there. I heard someone say that Gilbert is growing up.

There are also some murmurs about the gigantic signs on the outside of the Victoria's Secret store:

Irate mallgoers have contacted Gilbert officials and town council members, expressing shock and dismay about large posters of scantily clad women hanging outside a lingerie store at the new outdoor mall.

The displays in question are at the Victoria's Secret store in SanTan Village, which had its grand-opening celebration last week.

Although many mall throughout the Valley have a Victoria's Secret store, the new Gilbert location occupies a prominent corner outdoor location, and the signage is much larger than an ordinary window display.

I'm not sure how the store will respond; but I am sure that Gilbert will not easily give up its family-friendly atmosphere.

There are plenty of new stores and restaurants yet to open, so it will seem like "the new mall" for quite some time. By the way, some folks may be surprised to see that it is an open-air mall, which is the latest trend in mall building. Part of the allure is the sense that one could conceivably drive right up to a store and park on the street. The truth, of course, is that those front parking spots will almost always be full, but it is at least possible. The openness also makes it feel larger than a typical mall, and it is, but not by much. Most traditional malls are about a million square feet, and SanTan Village is 1.2 million square feet.

I'm pretty excited that we don't have to drive the outer loop to get to the theater. But then, I get excited about things like roads and such, so don't mind me.

Do go look around at the new mall.