Los Portales Is Becoming a Market. Here's Where Its Carefree Shops Went in the Meantime.

The arched mall at 99 Easy Street is being redeveloped. Most of the shops that were inside it are still in Carefree, and several are a short walk from their old doors. The Town of Carefree's October newsletter listed where each tenant went after the Los Portales redevelopment got "officially underway." Read that list next to a map and the addresses bunch together on East Ho Road and Easy Street. The mall's old lineup now fills a few storefronts in the blocks around it.

So the people who shopped Los Portales mostly don't need to drive anywhere new. They need new addresses. Here they are, block by block, along with what's planned for the building they left.

Where each Los Portales tenant moved

These moves come from the Town of Carefree's October 2026 newsletter, plus street addresses where the Town or the business has published one.

Of the six listings, four landed on East Ho Road. Only one left town, and only partly.

The 7200 block of East Ho Road picked up most of the mall

Historic Spanish Village lists its address as 7211 E. Ho Road. The Town's visitor page puts Thunderbird Artists Gallery in the Sundancer building at 7202 E. Ho Road, Suite A2, starting in September. The same page still showed the gallery at 99 Easy Street for August. Those two addresses are nine numbers apart.

Spanish Village now holds three former Los Portales businesses: Carefree Collective, Little Barber Shop and It's a Nail Thing. If you're due for a trim or a manicure, the appointment simply moved down the road. Carefree Collective is the vintage shop. A Town profile describes vintage Pyrex, kitchenware, glassware, clothing, books, games, décor and collectibles. That August profile still called the shop's next location undetermined. The October newsletter settled it on Spanish Village.

The courtyard already had a reason to draw people this fall. The Foothills Focus reported that Pizzicata in Spanish Village reopened on Oct. 12 after a four-week renovation of its dining rooms, bar, kitchen and patios. Haircut, vintage browsing and dinner now all happen at one address.

The Sundancer side took the other two Ho Road moves. Arizona Territorial Antiques carries antiques, primitives, Native American and Old West goods, décor, gifts and consignment, according to its Chamber listing. That listing still shows the old 99 Easy Street address. Use the Town's Sundancer Center placement instead.

Thunderbird Artists Gallery is the move with the most reach. The gallery carries original work in painting, ceramics, glass, wood, metal, stone, bronze, gourds, mixed media and jewelry. The group behind it has presented fine-art festivals for more than forty years and runs the gallery as a year-round art destination. Its own website still lists 99 Easy Street, so trust the Ho Road address when you plug it into your phone.

One shop moved and changed its name

If you've been looking for Compass & Crow Studios, look for EverStitch Yarn & Gifts. The shop's website now calls itself EverStitch, "formerly Compass & Crow Studios." It sells luxury hand-dyed yarn, tools and gifts, and it offers classes and lessons. The new address is 7275 Easy Street, Unit A-105, open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Town's newsletter places it in Carefree Plaza.

This is the shop's second reinvention in a year. A Town profile from March said Compass & Crow reopened inside Los Portales on Nov. 15, 2025, as a dedicated fiber-arts shop. Now it has a new name and a new door. The Carefree Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce lists a grand-opening ribbon cutting for EverStitch on Nov. 17, from 5 to 6 p.m.

Local Finds split in two

Local Finds is the only tenant that crossed the town line, and it kept a Carefree storefront when it did. The Cave Creek / Carefree Independent reported that the boutique opened two locations over Labor Day weekend. One is at 100 Easy Street in the Carefree Post Office building. The other is at Frontier Town, 6245 E. Cave Creek Road. It's a co-op-style shop for work by local women artists, including handmade jewelry, woodworking and home décor. Per the same story, the Frontier Town shop is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and the Carefree shop Monday through Saturday.

If you mail packages at the Carefree Post Office building, the shop is in the same place. Frontier Town also turned up in our October look at Cave Creek's calendar.

What 99 Easy Street is turning into

The building the shops left is planned as a food market with artisan makers, restaurants and wine bars. The Town's July announcement of the Orchard Street Market project names co-founders Ken Martindale and Sharon Aulicino and operating partner Charlie Yamashita. The Council unanimously approved a sales tax development agreement on June 2, 2026. The Independent reported the project at 18,200 square feet of building.

The plan splits the building by floor. A fresh market and artisan makers go upstairs. Downstairs gets restaurants, wine bars and what the Town calls experiential concepts. The Orchard Street Market website is recruiting bakers, butchers, cheesemongers, growers, coffee and specialty-food merchants, cafés and wine-bar concepts. No opening date or confirmed tenant list has been announced.

The Town wants to keep what makes the building recognizable. Its announcement calls Los Portales an architectural landmark since the 1980s and commits to preserving the stained-glass dome ceilings and archways. It also lists the problems behind the rebuild: aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance, underused space and areas that don't meet modern code. Mayor John Crane put it this way in the announcement:

"Los Portales has long been one of Carefree's most iconic landmarks. This investment represents an opportunity to breathe new life into a treasured property, create new destinations for residents and visitors, and strengthen the economic vitality of our Town Center for decades to come."

That same July announcement said the Town would work with ownership and tenants on ways for those businesses to stay in Carefree if they chose to. The October list reads like the result of that promise. The old tenants mostly stayed on art, antiques, vintage and personal services. The new building leads with fresh food, makers and wine. When the market opens, Town Center gains a food destination while the galleries and shops that left Los Portales stay nearby.

November on the new map

The fall calendar runs right past the new addresses. Here's how the month lines up, starting with the first weekend of November:

1. Nov. 7–8: The 33rd annual Fall Carefree Garden Art Experience at Carefree Desert Gardens, 101 Easy Street, runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free. Thunderbird's new gallery on East Ho Road is an easy add-on stop.
2. Nov. 14 and 21: Sanderson Lincoln Saturday concerts run 1 to 3 p.m., with Scott Jeffers from the Traveler and then Fooji Magoo.
3. Nov. 17: EverStitch Yarn & Gifts holds its Chamber ribbon cutting at 7275 Easy Street, 5 to 6 p.m.
4. Nov. 19: Carefree Art Night in Town Center, 4 to 7 p.m.
5. Nov. 28: Kiwanis Christmas for the Kids at Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is free. Carefree Lights Up! is listed at the pavilion that evening from 5 to 7 p.m.

The pavilion schedule that sets the season's pace is in our fall guide to Easy Street. More on the town itself is on our Carefree neighborhood page.

I've watched Town Center change for years, and a project like Orchard Street Market changes how Carefree's core works day to day. If you own nearby and want to talk through what a revived 99 Easy Street could mean for your corner of town, Wendy O Real Estate is happy to walk it with you. Let's Connect.