I think this would fit in really well if you put it inside the Stubbs Deluxe style business highrise of the city. You could dedicate a floor of that highrise somewhere below the office floors and insert a mall in there in place of one of the residential floors, or maybe even put it near/right at ground level.
In practical terms with a mall in this game one issue would be having it seem abandoned because the citizens aren't spending time in there. However having it integrated in the business highrise would put it right in the way of the unreal rush-hour that happens when the people in the offices move around with their schedules, and I guess there's just a lot of citizens living in those big highrises in general. So in terms of scheduling it would be well in the reach of a lot of citizens' routines and could look pretty natural.