Nolan Plaza

Nolan Plaza from the east

Nolan Plaza is a strip mall located in Dawson.

History

Early History

Nolan Plaza was opened in 1955 as the Dawson Retail Strip. Built and operated by Thomas Grady, the original strip mall featured 10 small stores with 4 dining venues. In 1959, a fire gutted the eastern half of the building, destroying 5 stores. The affected area was razed and left empty until 1963 when Brian McNamara reached an agreement with Thomas Grady to construct a Super Duper Mart branch on the site. Originally, the agreement was to apply the surviving facade of the building's western half to the new eastern half. Due to intervention by the Super Duper Mart Corporation, this was scrapped and a taller facade was created to accommodate higher ceilings for the grocery store. The result was a distinct difference in styles between the original strip mall and the new addition. The Super Duper Mart facade was completed in November 1963.

Legal Issues

Thomas Grady was vocally unhappy about the changes in construction as it effectively "split" the strip mall and made it look like two different structures. He sued the Super Duper Mart Corporation and Brian McNamara in March of 1964 for breaching their contract, but lost after it was discovered that the agreement to retain the same facade across the entire building was not written in the contract. In addition, the contract stipulated that Grady would surrender all control over the site the Super Duper Mart was built on. Grady tried to sue again in June of the same year for being misled as to the contents of the contract, but the case was junked after the Super Duper Mart Corporation offered a settlement out of court, which Grady accepted.

Arson Attempt

On the night of November 20, 1964, Thomas Grady broke into the Super Duper Mart after it had closed, triggering an alarm. He attempted to set a fire in the store's storage room, but Landon McNamara, a shift manager at the time and the son of Brian McNamara, spotted Grady and escorted him outside via the service entrance and told him to leave quietly. When asked why he did not turn over Grady to the police later on, he simply said "Mr. Grady was an upset man, but he was also the father of my girlfriend. I didn't want my relationship with her to end because of him, so I just let him go and hoped he would come to his senses."

Nora Grady, the daughter of Thomas Grady, eventually found out about the arson attempt and confronted her father. After being berated for doing something that could have killed Landon McNamara and burned down both the Super Duper Mart and the Dawson Retail Strip, Thomas Grady turned himself in out of guilt and was arrested on November 21, 1964.

He was released just days later after Brian McNamara paid for his bail and later convinced the Super Duper Mart Corporation to not press charges.

Name Change

On August 10, 1971, newly-married Nora Grady and Landon McNamara and their 2 children were driving up the Pacific Coast Highway towards San Francisco for their honeymoon when their car was caught in a rockslide. The car plummeted of a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean, killing Nora and Landon. Miraculously, their children were thrown clear of the car and were discovered by the California Highway Patrol a few hours later. The car and the bodies of Nora and Landon were lost and never recovered. In memory of their children, Thomas Grady and Brian McNamara renamed the Dawson Retail Strip as the Nolan Plaza after their children's names.

Decline

Nolan Plaza began to decline in the mid-1980s after the deaths of Thomas Grady in 1981 and Brian McNamara in 1983. The Magic Strip Malls Company purchased the property, but failed to perform regular maintenance. Complaints from tenants included wiring issues, leaks, and mold growth. In 1987, asbestos in the walls and ceilings was discovered, forcing the entire building to be shut down for asbestos removal. During this process, an accumulation of dust and grime was set ablaze by sparks from corroded wiring, burning the roof of the western half of the building. The Super Duper Mart restarted operations in May 1988 after undergoing improvements to meet modern safety standards, but the rest of the building was left abandoned.

Revival and Restoration

In July of 1994, the Magic Strip Malls Company went bankrupt after losing several corruption and bribery lawsuits, and Nolan Plaza was under the threat of demolition after complaints from residents. The building was a blight on the neighborhood and its prominence along a major road made it an eyesore. Property values around the building were also significantly lower than the rest of Dawson. Before any demolition work could be approved, the property was jointly purchased by Billy and Caroline McNamara - the children of Nora Grady and Landon McNamara - in October of 1994. After hearing that the strip mall bearing their parents' names was at risk, they decided to purchase the property in an attempt to save it.

With funding from both Landon's income as a lawyer, Nora's catering business, loans from banks, and donations from people who wanted to save the historic building, Nolan Plaza was gutted in January 1995. Only the original facades were left intact, and the structure was retrofitted against fires and earthquakes. After extensive restoration work on the facades and reconstruction, Nolan Plaza reopened in April 1997. The Super Duper Mart - now independently operated with the collapse of the Super Duper Mart Corporation in 1996 - was the first store to reopen.

Nolan Plaza Today

Nolan Plaza is considered a local landmark, surviving fires, demolition, economic downturns, and the rise of online retail. It remains a popular destination for both leisure and services. Affordable prices offered at the Super Duper Mart remain attractive and draw in shoppers from the local area, drawing in a majority of the strip mall's income. Its parking lot hosts multiple community-organized events throughout the year such as flea markets and soup kitchens for the homeless.

Retail and Services

Nolan Plaza is anchored by the Super Duper Mart and has 5 other stores:

• GameHub
• Global Parcel Service
• SaniTea
• Jill's Sandwiches
• Umbrella Pharmacy

The strip mall also provides parking for up to 22 vehicles and has bathrooms, ATMs, and bike parking.

Trivia

• Nolan Plaza is NLCaelum's 45th build on the Greenfield server.
• The facade of the western half of the building was conceived with input from Greenfield build team supervisor Golden.

Gallery

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