Sunvalley Shopping Center

Sunvalley Shopping Center, or more popularly Sunvalley Mall, is a regional shopping center located in Concord, California (one of the suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area, in east central Contra Costa County). Located off Interstate 680, Sunvalley is owned and operated by the Taubman Company and is anchored by two Macy's locations, JCPenney, and Sears. The total square footage of the mall is 1.333 million square feet.

Sunvalley Shopping Center
LocationConcord, California, USA
Opening dateAugust 5, 1967 (1967-08-05)
DeveloperA. Alfred Taubman
OwnerTaubman Centers
No. of stores and services160[1]
No. of anchor tenants4 (3 open, 1 vacant by around October 2020)
Total retail floor area1,333,000 square feet (123,800 m2)
No. of floors2 (3 in both Macy's locations and JCPenney, closed 3rd floor in Sears)
Websitewww.shopsunvalley.com
West entrance
Macy's and parking lot
Northeast side of mall from parking structure

History

At the time of its construction, Sunvalley Shopping Center was said to be the largest air-conditioned regional shopping center in the world.[2] Developed by A. Alfred Taubman,[3] the shopping center opened on August 5, 1967 with a performance by Tony Martin and is 1.333 million square feet on two floors. In the mall's early days it had 40 vendors including three anchor stores: a 233,000 square-foot Macy's, [3] a 241,000 square-foot Sears, and a 216,000 square-foot JCPenney on three floors.[2] A fourth anchor tenant was built in 1981: a three-floor, 180,000 square-foot Emporium Capwell, which operated as The Emporium from 1990 to 1995 until the department store's sale to Federated Department Stores; this location later became a Macy's Men's/Home/Cellar/Backstage, reducing the number of different anchor tenants in the mall to three.[4] A World's Fare food court made up of international restaurants also included staples like donuts and Kentucky Fried Chicken;[3] stores included piano-organ stores, an art gallery, a pet shop, a post office, an ice skating rink, cages of rare birds, and water fountains in numerous locations. The SunValley Cinema had 1,500 seats and the parking lot had 9,000 spaces.[2]

On December 23, 1985, a twin-engine light plane crashed into the mall after missing its initial landing attempt at nearby Buchanan Field. Seven people died, including three on the plane, and seventy-seven were injured. The accident caused $3.5 million in damages to the mall.[5][6]

In 1991, the Center completed a two-year $40 million renovation which included installing 198 skylights, Italian marble walkways and chrome and glass railings.

In 2012, Sunvalley Shopping Center completed a multimillion-dollar renovation that included new mall entrances with illuminated signage, seating and landscaping. Parking amenities were also enhanced with energy-efficient LED lighting on the upper east parking deck, new exterior directional signage and landscaping. Inside the center, Grand Court was completely renovated with the addition of Wi-fi, device charging,[3] and a full-service customer service desk. The amount of seating throughout the center was doubled and new faux landscaping was installed.

In 2016, the mall opened a new Food Court[7] containing restaurants such as Chicken Connection, Charley's Philly Steaks, and Lotus Express, and Round 1 opened in the former Sports Authority space.[8]

On June 23, 2020, JCPenney announced that it would close by around October 2020 after nearly 53 years of operation as part of plan to close 149 stores nationwide.[9]

Anchors

References
  1. Sunvalley Shopping Center Store Index
  2. Katie Dowd, "How many of SunValley Mall's original stores do you remember?", November 29, 2019.
  3. "Passing the test of time", SCT magazine, International Council of Shopping Centers, July 29, 2016.
  4. "Mayor Butt: Hilltop and the Sign", Radio Free Richmond, March 9, 2015.
  5. Mark A. Stein and Jerry Belcher, "4th Victim of Mall Air Crash Dies; 88 Injured", Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1985.
  6. Ryan Huff, "The Sunvalley mall plane crash: 20 years later", East Bay Times, December 21, 2010.
  7. Anna Sciacca, "How Contra Costa County's largest mall is trying to innovate in a changing retail landscape", San Francisco Business Times, January 15, 2016.
  8. Annie Sciacca, "Concord: New entertainment center at Sunvalley mall opens Friday", Mercury News, August 25, 2016.
  9. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/23/jcpenney-store-closings-liquidation-sales/3240917001/

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