"Los Portales has long been one of Carefree's most iconic landmarks," Mayor John Crane said in the Town of Carefree's July 1 announcement about the mall's new ownership. Since then the archways at 99 Easy Street have mostly gone dark, and walking past them now makes it look like downtown lost a building's worth of shops. The galleries, the antique dealer, the barber and the yarn shop actually moved to other Carefree addresses. The Town's agreement with the new owners also requires the building to reopen as a place where people buy food and goods, with restrooms the public can use.
The Shops Moved a Few Streets, Not Out of Town
The Town's October Carefree Connection newsletter announced that the conversion of Los Portales Mall into Orchard Street Market is "officially underway." It listed where the departing tenants went. Here is that list, with addresses and hours where the businesses or the Town have published them.
| Business | What you'll find | New location | Published hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderbird Artists Gallery | Original art in a range of media and one-of-a-kind jewelry | Sundancer building, Suite A2 | Wed–Sun, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., as listed for September |
| Arizona Territorial Antiques | Antiques, rustic décor, gifts and collectibles | Sundancer Center | Not yet posted for the new space |
| EverStitch, formerly Compass & Crow Studios | Hand-dyed yarn, fiber-arts tools, gifts, classes and lessons | 7275 Easy Street, Unit A-105, at Carefree Plaza | Tue–Sat, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Local Finds | Co-op boutique showing work by about a dozen local women artists and artisans | Inside Seared Living, 100 Easy Street, in the Post Office building, plus Frontier Town in Cave Creek | Carefree: Mon–Sat, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Frontier Town: daily, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Carefree Collective | Vintage Pyrex, tableware, glassware, books, jewelry and home décor | Spanish Village | Not yet posted for the new space |
| Little Barber Shop | Barbershop | Spanish Village | Not yet posted for the new space |
| It's a Nail Thing | Nail salon | Spanish Village | Not yet posted for the new space |
The town's Visit Carefree charm page shows Thunderbird Artists Gallery at its Sundancer suite starting in September, and it still lists the old Los Portales address under August. The yarn shop has a new name as well as a new address. EverStitch's site describes it as formerly Compass & Crow Studios.
Local Finds opened in two places at once. The Cave Creek / Carefree Independent reported that the shop teamed up with Seared Living at 100 Easy Street and added a second store in Frontier Town at 6245 E. Cave Creek Road. The Frontier Town store leans toward western, cowboy and Arizona pieces, and both locations opened Labor Day weekend. The Local Finds website has more.
Spanish Village now has three former Los Portales tenants. The Town lists the center at 7212 E. Ho Hum Road, the same address it gives for Pizzicata. The newsletter names the center for Carefree Collective, Little Barber Shop and It's a Nail Thing but no suite numbers, so the courtyard is where to look. Call ahead before a haircut or a nail appointment.
What the Town Is Paying For
The building's future is set by the agreement the Town Council approved, so the details matter. The Council voted unanimously on May 5, 2026, to give notice that it intended to sign a retail development tax-incentive agreement with the owner, Los Portales HR, LLC. On June 2 it voted unanimously again to authorize the mayor to sign that agreement. According to the June 2 Council agenda packet, the Town's support breaks down this way:
- A grant covering 50% of exterior blight removal, up to $250,000
- A development-fee waiver estimated at $40,000
- A reimbursement of construction sales tax estimated at $40,000
- A ten-year sales-tax reimbursement: 49% in years one through three, then 25% in years four through ten
- A cap of $1.3 million on the Town's total payout
The owner's side of the deal is where the building's future gets defined. The packet requires at least $2.2 million in developer investment and at least $2.6 million in taxable revenue. Restrooms have to be open to the public during normal business hours. Non-retail uses can't take up more than 20% of the space, and construction has to be finished by July 1, 2028.
Taken together, those terms decide what kind of building comes back. The largest incentive is a share of the sales tax the property produces, so the Town pays out only when the building is selling things. The 20% cap keeps offices and other uses that don't generate sales from filling the space. The restroom rule makes the building useful to people walking Easy Street even if they never buy anything there.
The deal also fits a longer plan. The Council created a Town Center redevelopment area in August 2021 and adopted the Village Center Redevelopment Plan on January 3, 2023. That plan designates Los Portales for adaptive-reuse retail. The Town has kept working on the surrounding blocks, too. It scheduled a forum for October 21 on a potential Town Center zoning overlay covering signage, lighting, parking and other design standards. The notice presented it as a discussion, and nothing has been adopted.
The Building That Comes Back
The Orchard Street Market website describes a European-inspired food marketplace. Fresh-food and artisan vendors would be upstairs, with restaurants, wine bars and culinary experiences downstairs. The Cave Creek / Carefree Independent's June report listed the food the owners plan to bring in: butchers, bakers, fishmongers, fresh cheese and gelato.
The project is led by co-founders Ken Martindale and Sharon Aulicino, with Charlie Yamashita as operating partner. In the Town's announcement, they say they plan to keep the stained-glass dome ceilings, the archways and the building's overall architecture. The building isn't large. The agenda packet lists about 18,200 gross square feet, and the draft agreement describes about 18,000 gross and 15,300 net leasable square feet. That's roughly the size of a neighborhood grocery store split across two floors, so the vendor list will probably be short and carefully chosen.
No vendors have been named yet. The project site is still recruiting "founding purveyors" and lists the kinds of vendors it wants. No opening date has been announced either. The only firm date on record is the July 1, 2028 construction deadline in the agreement.
ABC15's July coverage says the mall was built in the 1970s, and the Town's release calls it a Carefree landmark since the 1980s. The Town also describes a property that has spent decades piling up deferred maintenance, aging infrastructure, underused space and code problems. The incentive package is meant to fix that.
Meanwhile, the Holidays Happen Next Door
Two of the season's biggest downtown events take place at Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion, 101 Easy Street, next door to Los Portales.
The Town reports that holiday lights are going up in Carefree Desert Gardens. The Easy Street string lights are being replaced, and the Council approved hiring a local vendor to put up and take down the displays so Public Works staff can handle other work. Here's what's on the calendar from Thanksgiving through Chanukah:
- November 27–30: The ThanksLiving Music Fest runs from Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday at Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center, 7415 E. Elbow Bend. Mark Mulligan, John Patti, Carrie Welling and Rudy B are on the program.
- November 28, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.: Kiwanis Christmas for the Kids is free and has Santa, animals, hayrides, food, children's activities and bicycle giveaways.
- November 28, 5–7 p.m.: Carefree Lights Up! takes place at Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion. The Chamber says more details are coming.
- December 4–11, 5:30 p.m. nightly: Chanukah in Carefree holds a menorah lighting each night at Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion.
November 28 could fill a whole day downtown. You can stop at EverStitch on Easy Street, Local Finds at the Post Office building and Thunderbird Artists Gallery in the Sundancer building, then catch Carefree Lights Up! at 5 p.m. next to the closed archways where several of those shops used to be.
If you own near the Town Center and want to know how a project like Orchard Street Market could figure into your home's value over the next few years, Andy Berglund has followed Carefree's downtown since 1995 and is happy to talk it through. Get Your Instant Home Valuation as a starting point, and we can go over the details together.
