McFarland Mall: See what’s left of the demolished Tuscaloosa shopping center

Driving together Skyland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa, you’ll see what appears like an ancient wreck. A skeletal construction standing on rows of beams hovering around piles of steel debris, or what’s left of McFarland Mall.

Demolition of the mall resumed this spring immediately after crews in the beginning started razing the house in early 2021 when a number of excavators lined the front of the mall — which after housed stores like Dillard’s (previously Gayfers), Goody’s, TJ Maxx, Picadilly Restaurant and the Fox 12 movie theater — as the diggers then tore into the previous Shoe Station and Sticks N Stuff storefronts.

Now, there remain a number of diggers and other construction tools noticeable from the mall parking lot, with piles of rubble sealed off with chain website link fencing and signals stating “Construction Spot Retain Out.” The only issue left standing will be the Greenback Tree, nevertheless operational — and rather occupied — inspite of the ongoing demolition.

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Property proprietor and area businessman Stan Pate explained to The Tuscaloosa News the completion of the 38.6-acre site’s demolition is “overdue” and said he hopes it becomes a “legacy job.”

Pate claimed final year the plan was to redevelop the assets into “a regional sports activities-plex” beginning with the 2021 demolition. Pate and Amason Associates introduced through press release that they engaged Athletics Facilities Advisory (SFA), LLC, to start out a industry research to establish the unique aspects of the upcoming blended-use, multi-sport and situations facility.

District 7 Tuscaloosa Council Member Cassius Lanier shared in April 2022 some concepts for potential options with WVUA 7.

“I have desires for Top Golf, Buc-ee’s…Bass Professional Stores,” Lanier explained. “It’s vast open up for tips. I think we have got a large amount of options. We have been conversing to a great deal of distinctive developers. After we get it down and cleared up, I think the alternatives are countless.”

One restaurant constructing on the assets was now razed prior to the February 2021 demolition, which marked the destruction of the original constructing, the 100,000-sq.-foot home at 900 Skyland Blvd East that opened in February 1969. Building staff took down about 2.5 acres underneath roof and, in the coming months, will shift forward on another period the place they’ll demolish a different three acres.

The mall was constructed in 1968 and opened in 1969. Throughout the yrs, it was residence to Gayfers section retail store (afterwards Dillard’s), plus the Fox 12 motion picture theater (later on a Regal franchise), a foods courtroom and other organizations like Woolco, TJ Maxx, Shopping mall Shoe Repair service, Orange Julius, Zayre, Drug Mart, Lee’s Significant and Tall, Aladdin’s Castle arcade, Diamond Jim’s arcade, Goody’s, Piccadilly Cafe, Bookland, The Athlete’s Foot, Vieux Carre Sporting activities Bar and lots of other individuals.

Businessmen Ward Wharton McFarland and James Hinton initially produced the mall for its very first phase, with Woolco and Gayfers serving as anchor retailers with 30 full suppliers at the opening.

Read: Fox 12 theater at McFarland Shopping mall guided my motion picture journey