COTTONWOOD*, Holiday, UT

Cottonwood Mall—History

Originally developed in 1962, Cottonwood Mall was among the first enclosed shopping centers west of the Mississippi River and served for decades as a regional retail destination anchored by Macy’s and J.C. Penney. Over time, physical constraints, aging infrastructure, and evolving retail formats diminished its competitiveness, particularly as newer centers — including Fashion Place in neighboring Murray — expanded and captured market share.

In 2007, General Growth Properties (GGP) announced a comprehensive redevelopment strategy to raze the existing structure and reposition the site for long-term relevance. The mandate reflected a broader portfolio strategy to modernize legacy retail assets and redeploy capital into higher-performing mixed-use environments aligned with shifting consumer patterns and urban growth trends.

Land Plan & Architectural Vision

The redevelopment of the Cottonwood Mall site is founded on the principles of New Urbanism. The new land plan took into account the mountain vistas by framing these views with the newly created network of streets. Cottonwood fits the optimal size of a traditional neighborhood design being a quarter-mile from the center to edge. This distance is the equivalent of a five-minute walk at an easy pace. Neighborhood streets are laid out to create efficient blocks for both building efficient sites and to shorten the routes traveled by pedestrians. This efficient design gathers the residents and surrounding existing neighborhoods within walking distance of many daily needs while the concurrent provision of sidewalks, street trees and on-street parking slows the automobile and increases pedestrian activity, encouraging the casual meetings that form the bonds of community.

Cottonwood.

Redefines quality of life In Salt Lake City. It’s all about the street And your place in it.

The design envisions Main Street's business core ringed with residential blocks of condominiums, townhomes and cottages culminating in a traditional community within an authentic and natural setting. The design creates an urban neighborhood with places of distinction which appear incremental as if developed over a long period of time.

In the spring of 2006 GGP began to assemble a team of nationally and internationally renowned design professionals to trans- form the Cottonwood Mall property into one of the nation’s premier mixed-use destinations. The internationally recognized planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company led a nine month collaborative effort to de- velop the Master Plan for the project in 2006.

DPZ began planning the site by identifying physical characteristics to define planning objectives. Buildings, streets, plazas, retail and entertainment venues were placed to take advantage of the surrounding environment using the slope of the site towards Cottonwood Creek, existing buildings, and the panoramic views to the surrounding mountains to frame views of the mountains at the end of streets, terminate views with architectural features providing engaging pedestrian spaces. The plan grew from the physical characteristic of the site. To insure the visual quality of the space being created DPZ collaborated with the entire design team to reduce the visual impact of parking, operation and servicing requirements.

Main street retail would occupy the ground floor of residential buildings ranging from three to six stories.The street retail would include a variety of store sizes with several restaurants strategically placed along Main Street and around the plaza. The cinema and tower are also located on the plaza. In addition, Main Street includes two Class A office buildings with lobby areas on the street level.