Santa Fe Place Mall — Attraction in Santa Fe

UPDATED REVIEW: I'm not going to lie, I planned on coming to the mall for the Dairy Queen inthe food court. What happened was that the calm and quiet atmosphere of the mall convinced me to take a lap from end to end to window shop whilst carrying my package of food. I guarantee that I looked like a mall employee on lunch break because two lovely ladies walked up to me to ask for directions to the chinese restaurant (other than the food court, I didn't know of one). This mall has really progressed over the years, and the new aesthetics of the place really make it look nice. I dropped the review two stars from five to three because many businesses have closed their doors, and business turnover in the mall is the highest I have ever seen. I have spoken with a few owners and constant rate increases on already extremely high rent are making it very difficult to be there. This means that the shop you always love to go to at that mall most likely won't be there within the next year. With that being said, every empty place is a major reduction in employment in the city. It's not just mom and pop shops leaving, but major retailers (like Gap Inc.) are leaving the mall as well. Retailers like that tend to employ around 20 -30 people per store if not more. The problem is that I want to recommend coming to this mall, but the large amount of empty stores and newly opened stores closing in only a few months of opening really makes a statement that this mall is not the place to go. All of the typical mall stores like Spencer's and Hot Topic are there plus a super good coffee shop called Rebel Coffee. Try the mall out for yourself, and soak in the charm while it...

We tried to park here for ONE night on our way through town. It was late and dark, we’re not from here and just needed somewhere to crash. We parked at the FAR side of the mall completely out of the way after 10:00pm when everything was closed so we were not inhibiting any shoppers and we woke with a TOW ASAP sticker on our window for overnight parking. There was NO signage in the parking lot to indicate we could not overnight park. There was also a few dozen cars parked in the parking lot but it appeared we were the only ones to receive a sticker.

Here we are trying to be safe and mind our own business for no more than 9 hours and we get a tow sticker. Yet they have kids doing donuts and burnouts at 1100pm - midnight and there is no security present then. Also the amount of homeless people is astounding. Digging through trash cans and dumpster diving well into the morning.

I think the focus needs to turn from RVers minding their own business with a little money to spend AT your mall to the other BIG issues...

As far as design goes, this is probably one of the prettiest one story malls I've ever seen. From a business stand point, it's one of the saddest. About a quarter of the mall is closed down stores with no sign of any businesses filling them. The food court also disappoints with a total of three or four places and none are really that spectacular (of course, I usually don't expect anything awesome from a mall food court, unless it's a sit down restaurant). On the plus side of things, the mall has an awesome candy shop and a lot of the bigger mall businesses are still present. It also surprisingly has a Sports Authority, which is becoming more common in malls now. It's also easily accessible to anyone, including those who have disabilities and are on crutches or in wheelchairs.

So overall, if businesses would fill in the blank spots in the mall, this mall would be perfect. It has a beautiful look and lighting. It's just a shame that businesses seem to be leaving it...