Mesa Riverview is an outdoor shopping center in Mesa, Arizona located in the northwestern corner of the city near Loop 202 and Dobson Road. The shopping center has a gross leasable area of 1,115,112 square feet. Anchor stores include Bass Pro Shops, Cinemark Theatre, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Petco, Walmart, Marshalls, Office Max, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. Owner, Kimco Realty Corp., is a real estate investment trust headquartered in New Hyde Park, New York, that is one of North America's largest publicly traded owners and operators of open-air shopping centers. As of September 30, 2017, the company owned interests in 507 U.S. shopping centers comprising 84 million square feet of leasable space primarily concentrated in the top major metropolitan markets. Publicly traded on the NYSE since 1991, and included in the S&P 500 Index, the company has specialized in shopping center acquisitions, development and management for more than 50 years.
History
De Rito Partners, the developer of the mall, began seeking approval from the Mesa City Council in 2005 with plans for commercial, retail, offices, and automotive dealers. Several ballot measures were proposed to change the zoning for the site, formerly agricultural land, and give tax incentives to the developers, which passed on referendum. Construction began in 2006 and stores began to open in 2007. In March 2009, Sports Authority at Country Club Drive and Southern Avenue in Mesa moved to Mesa Riverview, thus, beginning a new start to the mall. When Sports Authority declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in March 2016, the store shuttered. It is set to be replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory. In 2012, part of the Mesa Riverview complex was demolished to provide a more pedestrian-friendly means of access to the outdoor parts of the mall. This was carefully observed by City of Mesa planning officials as the development had been given over $80 million in financing tax incentives to build the complex. The property is located less than away from neighboring outdoor mall Tempe Marketplace in such a way that both malls compete for similar traffic, with Arizona State University students primarily being drawn to the Tempe Marketplace mall.
