Scottsdale City Council approves expansion of Fashion Square Mall
“The Scottsdale City Council gave final approval Tuesday night to zoning changes that will allow for a major expansion of the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.
The 5–2 vote just after 8 p.m. will allow the mall’s developer, Macerich, to add high-rise towers, offices and a hotel up to five stories above the existing height of the shopping center.
“Five floors more than what’s already permitted allows this community to protect and sustain a critical tourism attraction and economic engine,” said Macerich’s attorney, John Berry, during Tuesday night’s council meeting.
Although brick-and-mortar malls have struggled with the rise of online shopping, Macerich says Fashion Square is among the 10 most profitable malls in the country based on sales per square foot, and the expansion will cement the shopping center’s future.
The mall already generates about $13 million in sales tax per year or about 7 percent of the city’s sales tax revenue, according to the Downtown Scottsdale Economic Vitality Coalition.
“It will generate more sales tax. It will generate more bed tax. It will generate more taxes for transportation, more taxes to preserve the Preserve,” Berry said, referring to Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve.”