STORIES FROM:
West Acres - Alissa Adams, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Business Development
Summer 1981
Founder William Schlossman on the construction site of West Acres.
The Beginning
The history of West Acres dates back to the Black Building in Downtown Fargo, which was built in 1930 by George Black, the father-in-law of West Acres visionary William (Bill) Schlossman, and the grandfather of West Acres’ current CEO, Brad Schlossman. In 1966 when Sears, the centerpiece of the Black Building, was looking to expand to nearly double in size, William Schlossman approached the city about its urban renewal district on Main Avenue from Broadway to the river to build a small shopping center. The project was rejected by the city, and Schlossman instead turned his sites to a bigger regional center.
For More Information
3902 13th Ave. S, Fargo westacres.com Twitter/Instagram: @westacresmall facebook.com/westacresmall 28
August 7, 1972. You can see the sign for the deLendrecie's store (in the current Herberger's spot), which used to be located downtown in what is now the Block 6 building.
From Wheat Field To Retail At the time, a city-sponsored engineering and land-use study showed that the best place for “regional marketing” would be the intersection of interstates 29 and 94. Schlossman purchased a wheat field located along I-29 and 13th Avenue South as the site of West Acres, a mile outside of Fargo’s city limit. He and his partners faced many obstacles, including obtaining financing and completing off-site improvements such as water, sewer and roads. In fact, 13th Avenue South, which connected West Acres to Fargo, was not paved until two years after the mall opened. Today, the intersection where West Acres is located is the busiest in the state.
Early Leasing Another obstacle for West Acres’ original partners was securing tenants. When Bill Schlossman first attended a national leasing convention in 1971, only one tenant showed up. Local merchants were hesitant to move out of downtown and national stores didn’t know where Fargo was. Fast forward to 1978, after the mall had a proven track record, there was a steady stream of retailers interested in the space and the meeting schedules at leasing conventions filled up. To this day, West Acres still attends this same conference and continues to have more stores interested in spaces than they have spaces available, including 30 meetings with retailers and restaurants at the recent convention in May of 2017.
West Acres
West Acres