Festival Marketplace Demolition Begins
Demolition crews razed the Festival Marketplace today. The demolition will make way for a $66 million business park development. Phase I of the Pioneer 360 Business Park construction will include 1.3 million square feet of office and warehouse space which will cost around $55 million. Phase II will include a $10 million redevelopment of the Montgomery Ward site.
The mall was better known to us Arlington old-timers as the Forum 303. The Forum, built in 1970, featured an ice skating rink and anchor stores Dillard’s, Montgomery Ward and Wilson’s (which later became Service Merchandise). My family did plenty of shopping at the Forum when I was growing up and I had my photo taken with Santa there most every Christmas. I remember the soda fountain at Saturday’s where you could order up a “suicide” made with every soda they had, and even chocolate syrup. I shopped for my clothes at Stuart’s as a teen. During the early 80’s it became the premier hangout for junior high students with the Forum Fair arcade and the AMC movie theater.
But with all of the students hanging out at the mall, shoppers tended to prefer Six Flags Mall. Then after the Parks Mall was built in 1988, the Forum fell into decline and, in 1998, the mall was converted to the Festival Marketplace, kind of an indoor flea market. The mall closed for good last summer.
Even though I hadn’t been to the mall in many years, and knowing it was in dire need of renovation or demolition, it is still strange to think it won’t be there. Yet another childhood memory blown to bits.
The former AMC Forum Theatres, deserted and grown up with weeds.
The closed Montgomery Ward auto center became a canvas for grafitti.
Photos by Randy A. Carlisle
Arlington, Arlington TX, Festival Marketplace, Forum 303 Mall, Demolition
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