University Mall

The newly-renovated University Mall is located near the University of Alabama and nearby thriving manufacturing facilities including JVC electronics and the new Mercedes-Benz plant.

University Mall is the largest mall in western Alabama. It is located at the intersection of McFarland Boulevard and Veterans' Memorial Parkway in Tuscaloosa, the busiest in the city.

Owned and managed by Montgomery-based Aronov Realty, the mall opened on August 20, 1980.Anchor stores of the 733,254 sq ft (68,121.5 m2) enclosed mall include J.C. Penney (99,450 sq ft (9,239 m2)), Sears (105,000 sq ft (9,800 m2)), Belk Women (82,222 sq ft (7,638.7 m2)) and Belk Men, Home & Kids (90,174 sq ft (8,377.4 m2)). The only outlier properties on mall premises are branches of Regions Bank and Cadence Bank.

The property where University Mall now stands was previously home to the ruins of World War II-era Northington Naval Hospital. These ruins were finally destroyed during the filming of the climactic scene of the 1978 Burt Reynolds film Hooper. The ruins of the hospital had lain derelict for many years and included a few dozen buildings as well as two immensely tall brick smoke-stacks.A few of the old buildings remained until the late 1990s and housed the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education offices until they were relocated to the old Tuscaloosa High School (later Tuscaloosa Middle School) building on Queen City Avenue.

On April 27, 2011, the mall was damaged by a powerful tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa killing dozens of people. The mall was directly in the path of the tornado and sustained moderate damage.

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