Frances Phillips has been shopping at Broadway Square Mall for nearly 40 years and recalls when it was “out in the open.”

A lot has changed since it was constructed in 1974-75, when that area of town was considered “out in the country.” Now, South Broadway Avenue is home to hundreds of businesses bustling with activity.

With 95 shops and nine food-related stores, Broadway Square Mall recently has seen several new tenants and will soon say goodbye to a few. And although retailers always seem to be changing, there are a handful of stores that have been there since the beginning.

“There weren’t very many malls then going in,” Mrs. Phillips said of the Tyler mall, where she has shopped since 1976. “This is really the biggest place to come.”

Mrs. Phillips, 76, of Chandler, shops for herself and her two grandchildren.

“We come here to do all of our shopping,” she said on a recent morning as she waited for her favorite store, Dillard’s, to open to hit the store’s big sale.

Candace Foster, 27, grew up in Linden and shopped at the Tyler mall when she was in high school. She is now the mall’s director of marketing and business development.

BUILDING A CITY

The construction of the mall was a big to-do for the city. It followed Bergfeld Center, which when it opened in 1949, was the town’s first retail shopping center outside of downtown

“Within the climate controlled environment of Broadway Square, East Texas’ first regional shopping center, and on its 55 landscaped acres, will be 70 shops and stores catering to any shopper need and to any taste,” according to a 1974 press release announcing the mall’s opening.

Dillard’s already was at the site, and the mall was constructed around the department store, Ms. Foster said. It still serves as one of the mall’s anchor stores, along with Sears and JC Penney, which also were the mall’s original tenants.

Other stores that originated in the mall included Selbers, Poise ‘N Ivy, Craddock’s and Olmstead’s, and restaurants, such as Chick-Fil-A, Hickory Farms, Wyatt’s Cafeteria and Baskin-Robbins.

The mall’s developer, Raymond D. Nasher Co., planned, developed and managed shopping centers, new towns, planned communities and industrial parks, according to a 1974 news release. The company started in 1950 and developed NorthPark Center in Dallas, from which Broadway Square Mall was modeled.

“Broadway was built as a baby sister to NorthPark,” Ms. Foster said, adding that the Dallas mall remains in the Nasher family.

Broadway Square Mall has had several different owners and is now owned by Simon Property Group, which also owns the Houston Galleria, Barton Creek Square and The Domain in Austin.

“It is like building an entire city,” construction manager Robert Duffin said of the mall in 1974. “A multi-story building is much easier to build than a horizontal building because it is not just a repeat of one level; every area is completely different.”

Construction started on the 615,000-square-foot mall in April 1974 and opened it on April 1, 1975 “in spite of a 50-day delay on the delivery of steel caused by a steel shortage at the time,” the news release states.

Many innovative techniques of the day were used in its construction, including using helicopters to install the air conditioning instead of cranes because it was faster and less disturbing to Dillard’s, which already was open.

The mall was renovated in 2008. One of the projects at the time was taking the water fountain in front of Dillard’s out and replacing it with a seating area.

The mall has had many special events throughout the years, including a petting zoo and a visit from Santa Claus, who flew in on a helicopter. Annual events include a Mother’s Day indulgence event, a back-to-school event and Paint the Mall Pink, a breast cancer awareness event planned for Oct. 11.

They partner with several nonprofit organizations, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Salvation Army and the East Texas Crisis Center, which hold annual events there. Mrs. Foster said they take donations throughout the year for the Simon Youth Foundation, which gives a scholarship each year to a Tyler area high school senior.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

When walking in the mall, shoppers might think their favorite store has closed, but it could have just relocated. Several retailers have recently moved to new spaces, including Pro Image Sports, Sleep Number and Body Central.

“A lot of stores play musical chairs,” Mrs. Foster said.

There is one space that currently is empty, left vacant by the Hallmark Coach House Gifts store. Generations, which sells home d￩cor and novelty gifts, plans to open a temporary holiday store from October through December, she said, adding that another store plans to come into the space after Generations leaves.

Another temporary holiday store in the mall is Toys “R” Us Express, which opened Aug. 28. The express stores provide shoppers convenient access to Toys “R” Us throughout the holiday season, Alyssa Peera, corporate communications for the company, said in an email. At about 4,000 square feet, the pop-up stores are much smaller than their traditional stores and carry an edited assortment of board games, dolls, action figures, educational toys and video games. The company began opening temporary holiday stores in 2009.

“Establishing a presence in malls and other shopping centers allows us to take advantage of seasonal foot traffic in these locations, and cater to on-the-go parents, grandparents and last-minute shoppers looking to purchase everything on little ones’ wish lists in one quick trip,” Ms. Peera said.

 Other seasonal stores open as kiosks throughout the mall.

On a permanent basis, Francesca’s is under construction and plans to open in October.

Starbucks opened a permanent kiosk and Altar’d State opened a store this year. Others who have opened in the mall within the last year include Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Cinnabon, Soma Intimates and White House Black Market.

Old Navy and Lane Bryant are moving out of the mall soon to move to new locations in town, and Kirkland’s already has closed to relocate in Tyler.

As some tenants get ready to leave, the mall is preparing for others to take their place.

“It’s exciting what all will happen next year; what all new stores will be coming,” Mrs. Foster said. She couldn’t yet announce who the new tenants would be.

“A lot of times, a store closing is for a good reason,” she said, adding that it allows for new stores to come in. She said they always are looking to keep up with the retailer mix, and what stores people want to see.

Mrs. Foster couldn’t say how many employees work in the mall but estimated that each shop probably has at least seven or eight workers, she said, adding that the larger anchor department stores employ many more than that.

“It’s a pretty big (economic) impact,” Ms. Foster said. “Just the taxes the mall pays alone is mind boggling. … It’s a good community center.”

She said they have people come to the mall from as far away as Nacogdoches and Northeast Texas.

But not everyone goes to the mall to shop like Mrs. Phillips.

Mrs. Foster sees a large group of people who come to the mall for exercising and walking before the stores open and who gather for coffee.