NAMPA, Idaho — Several businesses are leaving the Karcher Mall ahead of its scheduled demolition on Monday, July 29.
Just one, a nonprofit theater company called DreamWeaver Theatrical Productions, has been doing shows in the mall for years. Since the Karcher Mall is closing, the Executive Director of DreamWeaver, Annie Castiel, says the company's current show, Beauty and the Beast, will be their last.
"For us to find what we've had at Karcher Mall somewhere else is virtually impossible," Castiel said. "We've been extremely fortunate to have this for the last four or five years."
Castiel said she's sad to see the close of this chapter of her life, and so are several other merchants in the mall, but she's thankful the new owners of the Karcher Mall allowed the company to stay until the final show opens.
Some of the set pieces--designed and handmade by Castiel and the cast of the show--and some of the costumes from Beauty and the Beast will go to Weiser High School after the show closes. The show runs July 26 and 27 at Jewett Auditorium at the College of Idaho.
A California-based investment group is planning to spend more than $30 million to redevelop the mall, adding multifamily housing and a hotel to the site. The property had been on the market for three years.
The indoor shopping mall opened in 1965, but it started struggling when a newer and larger mall opened in nearby Boise in 1988.
