Meadows Mall in Las Vegas nearly full with stores

Inside the Meadows Mall, the average shopper mills around as laser sounds from Round1 and rummaging from Nellis Auction echo throughout the mall, large ornaments hang from the ceiling as the lasting remnants of the holidays and a mall train slithers.

What was coined by the Review-Journal as the “odd mall out” in 2015, Meadows Mall has positioned itself as a place for all, rather than a retail hub — but, it’s always been that way.

Located on 80 acres, with almost one million square feet of space and 115 storefronts, the Meadows Mall is “nearly full,” General Manager Melissa Aguilar said.

Now, similar to the Boulevard Mall, Meadows Mall is trying to cater to the surrounding community, rather than the buzzy retail landscape of today.

History

The name derived from Las Vegas’ namesake: Meadow, the mall opened in Aug. 5, 1978. From developers Dayton-Hudson Corp., it took around three years to build and cost $40 million.

Since opening, Meadows Mall was the second indoor mall in Las Vegas after the Boulevard Mall opened in 1968. With the Boulevard originally catering to wealthier residents, Meadows Mall was for the average Las Vegan.

“This was a close second to the opening of Boulevard,” said Aguilar. “(Meadows Mall) being a hub of the community and sort of serving local residents versus other more you know, touristy areas of Vegas.”

The first stores to open in the mall were Sears, JCPenney, The Broadway and Diamond’s.

There have been multiple changes of ownership since opening, but when Brookfield Properties, then General Growth Properties, bought the site in 1998 they did a major overhaul, reopening with a new look in 2003. Brookfield also owns Fashion Show mall on the Strip.

In 2015, like most malls at the time, Meadows Mall struggled due to the rise of online shopping and its location. At the time, Meadows was considered to be in a “no-man’s land” off the I-11 and Decatur Boulevard.

With Dillard’s vacating the first floor of its 180,000-square-foot, two-floor location in 2014, and converting the top floor to a clearance center, anchor vacancies hurt the mall. It also faced threats from Downtown Summerlin.

After the bottom floor of Dillard’s was left empty for four years, the mall needed new life.

Breathing new life into the mall

Curacao opened on the first floor of the former Dillard’s in October 2016 and thousands showed up. People waited in line for hours before the store opened to take advantage of deals like $12 microwaves and no down payments on payment plans.

At the end of the first day, the store had 40,000 visitors.

Curacao was the start of a new life for the mall, with popular local retailers revitalizing the space, while still keeping the classics, with anchors Dillard’s Clearance Center, JCPenney, Macy’s and Curacao.

“On the national side, we have your Victoria Secret, Bath and Body Works and Lane Bryant,” said Aguilar. “We just had the opening of Nellis Auction, which is local favorite and a new version to their business model.”

Nellis Auction, a liquidation store which opened in December, has been a quick local hidden gem. Price-per-item changes daily: $7 on Friday, $5 on Saturday, $3 on Sunday, $1 on Monday and 50 cents on Tuesday.

On a recent Friday, the store is jam packed with bargain hunters.

The food court is a unique mixture of local and national food offerings such as Joy Burger, Bobablastic, 702 Churros and a Charlie’s Cheesesteak.

The local-national mixture has served successful for the mall, but Aguilar prefers the small.

“I always have a soft spot for community driven activation retailers,” said Aguilar, who spoke highly of local retailers such as Vercini. “I love being a central part of the community.”

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.