SouthPark Mall (Charlotte, North Carolina)

For other malls with this name, see Southpark Mall.

SouthPark Mall, is an upscale shopping mall located in Charlotte, North Carolina (United States). with nearly , making it not only the largest mall in Charlotte but also the Carolinas. The mall is located approximately five miles (8 km) south of Uptown Charlotte at the corner of Sharon and Fairview Roads in its eponymous neighborhood.

History

SouthPark Mall opened on February 12, 1970 with anchor stores Belk, Ivey's and Sears. The area where SouthPark is today was considered to be the on outskirts of Charlotte at the time it opened; people were skeptical about a big shopping mall in the middle of pastureland. The mall was developed by the Belk and Ivey families, owners of the eponymous department stores, who jointly owned and operated the mall, and included a Sears store as a complement due to its focus on homewares. The mall had approximately when it opened, and the design of the shopping mall was starkly modernist, with an underground parking deck, a signature white brick facade and tinted windows. The inspiration for the mall's original architecture reportedly was Dallas' NorthPark Center. A strip mall opened behind Sears in June 1970 with a Colonial Stores grocery store (later a Big Star food market, then acquired by Harris Teeter in the 1980s) and the SouthPark Cinemas I & II.

The mall did not face any real competition until the two-story Eastland Mall was built about northeast....
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