The site is on the western edge of the city, near the state border with Washington. It is fronted by Pullman Road, State Highway 8, which becomes State Route 270 in Washington and connects to Pullman, the other chief city on the Palouse, seven miles (11 km) west.
History
Grading of the property began in October 1974;[2] the first stores to open at the site were, from the east end, Kmart, Rosauers, and Pay 'n Save (now Rite Aid) drugstore, all in 1976.[3] The mall had been in development since 1964,[4] and the land on which it was built was leased from the University of Idaho.[5] The land was previously owned and farmed by the Mix family for several generations.[6][7] Developer Earl D. McCarthy died in 1979,[8] and the ownership of the mall went to his children, Madeline Edgren and Mike McCarthy.[5] The main enclosed portion of the mall opened that October,[9][10][11] featuring J. C. Penney and The Bon Marché (now Macy's) department stores,[11][12] and Lamonts opened the following August.[13]
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the mall underwent several changes in anchor stores. Rosauers became Excell Foods
in 1990,[14][15] but was gone by 1992,[16] then Price Connection, which closed in 1995.[17] After closing in 1995, the Kmart space was expanded by 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2) on its east end and converted to Waremart, now known as WinCo Foods.[17] A year later, the mall structure itself underwent a renovation,[5] held a grand re-opening in November 1997,[18] and dropped the "Empire" from its name.[19] The J. C. Penney store closed in 1998 and became Troutman's Emporium the same year.[20]
