Twenty years ago a teddy bear holding a machine gun was displayed outside of a Pepto-Bismol pink building in downtown Scottsdale.
Mandall’s Shooting Supplies at 3616 N. Scottsdale Road opened in 1975 and closed in the early 2000s when the owner Marty Mandall retired. In its place, the Creative Center of Scottsdale emerged in February 2016 as a 4,000-square-foot shared-working space for creatives.
Formerly a shooting supplies store with an underground shooting range, the Creative Center embraced the integrity of Mandall’s while transforming it for modern use.
Original shipping containers for weapons have been converted into a table and bar chairs, handmade filing cabinets have been converted into lockers for artists’ supplies, underground shooting tubes now support beer kegs from the neighboring Goldwater Brewery, and thousands of bullet casings extracted from the tubes are scattered throughout the facility.
The center’s logo sports the same teddy bear, but now he’s holding a blow torch. The original can be found on display at the entrance of the wide-open space that makes up the main room. In the same room are 10-ft. x 10-ft open art spaces, as well as private studios that can be rented.
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This article originally appeared in the Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, Mar/Apr 2019 issue, Vol. 8, No.2. The Arizona Contractor & Community magazine is a bi-monthly publication.