Heavy machinery is chipping away at the former shell of an original landmark anchor department store at Washington Square shopping center, Sears, to make way for a recent-years trend in mall development known as experience retail.
The initiative will install Dick’s House of Sport, a sports-entertainment center to open in fall 2027. In-store activity offerings will include a climbing wall, multiple golf bays with TrackMan-brand simulators and HitTrax-brand multi-sport cages that can be used for baseball, softball and soccer.
The Dick’s expansion will take shape at Oregon’s largest shopping mall and Tigard’s largest employer as part of a “multi-phased renovation project designed to refresh and modernize the property,” according to a news release from owner-operator Macerich.
The mall trend to feature non-shopping participatory facilities, such as bowling lanes, movie theaters and batting cages, offers in-person entertainment as a complement to in-store shopping, as online retailing has put pressure on the business of mall shopping alone…