El Con Mall opens in a booming Tucson
El Con Mall opened on November 16, 1960, about 2.5 miles east of downtown Tucson in midtown. The site sat along East Broadway, with the property bounded by East Broadway and East Fifth Street.
By then, Tucson’s population had risen from about 45,000 in 1950 to more than 200,000 in 1960, and new retail space was arriving to match the city’s growth.
The land’s earlier landmark was the El Conquistador Hotel. In September 1953, brothers Simon and Joseph K. Kivel, along with partners, bought the hotel and its 120-acre property on East Broadway…