Three competing developers fought over who would build Twin Falls’ first enclosed mall in the early 1980s: General Growth Properties proposed Canyon Ridge Mall in 1980, Woodbury Corporation planned a separate center across the street, and Price Development Corporation’s zoning application triggered a two-year legal battle with the city before Price abandoned its original site and bought out General Growth’s instead.
Price’s mall, renamed Magic Valley Mall after Shopko signed as anchor in 1985, opened October 29, 1986 with Shopko and JCPenney, the two-mall competition resolving into a single property that became Twin Falls’ dominant shopping center rather than the three-way split originally proposed.
JCPenney, Kohl’s and Hobby Lobby anchor the current mix, with American Eagle, Sephora and Barnes & Noble carrying the specialty floor and Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse forming a restaurant row that runs larger than most malls this size carry.
Woodbury Corporation, the same company that once competed to build a rival center, bought Magic Valley Mall outright in 2004 and now operates the property that draws from eight counties across South-Central Idaho and northeastern Nevada, crossing the Snake River via the Perrine Bridge’s 34,000 daily vehicles to reach it.
