McFarland Mall Tuscaloosa 2022. By . Ben Flanagan ... (Ben Flanagan / AL.com) Demolition of McFarland Mall at 900 Skyland Blvd East that opened in February 1969. Pictured May 3, 2022.

McFarland Mall initiated a drain from downtown Tuscaloosa. With its broad span of goods and services, entertainment and leisure choices, it became a de facto city center, but weather-proofed.

Stan Pate's plan to bring a $50 million open shopping development to the area would mean great things for Tuscaloosa as long as the tenants show up.

It’s one of Tuscaloosa’s choicest pieces of commercial real estate, but its future remains uncertain.. Since Tuscaloosa developer and businessman Stan Pate purchased the 36.5-acre McFarland ...

Demolition of the mall began in 2014, and eight years later, it is nearly complete. "It looks awful when you pass by. It just looks awful," said Daisy Williams, a Tuscaloosa resident.

As just the sixth fully-enclosed mall in Alabama and biggest new kid in town, ... Cars fill the parking lot at McFarland Mall in Tuscaloosa, on May 20, 2009. [Staff file photo] ...

With mid-20th century suburban sprawl sprang McFarland Mall, which bent the Druid City southward, encouraging additional highways, roadways, with massive retail and residential growth.

Plans are in flux for how to redevelop a 36.5-acre site that was once home to not just a major shopping outlet for West Alabama, but a gathering joint for generations, who saw "the mall" not just ...