Vancouver Mall

Vancouver Mall is a shopping mall owned by Cenntenial Real Estate, and located in the city of Vancouver, Washington, U.S., which is within the Portland (Oregon) metropolitan area. It is anchored by Gold's Gym, H&M, JCPenney, Macy's, AMC, and Old Navy. Longtime past anchor stores included Meier & Frank, Sears, Nordstrom and Mervyn's. Opened in 1977, it was known as Westfield Vancouver mall from 1998 to 2015.

Vancouver Mall
Mall Main Entrance
LocationVancouver, Washington, United States
Coordinates45°39′29″N 122°35′1″W
Address8700 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive
Opening dateAugust 1977 (1977-08)
DeveloperMay Centers, Inc., a subsidiary of May Department Stores
ManagementCentennial Real Estate
OwnerCentennial Real Estate Co.
No. of stores and services122 as of June 2020[1]
No. of anchor tenants8 (by August 2020)
Total retail floor area883,000 square feet (82,000 m2)[1]
No. of floors2
Parking4,250 Parking Spaces
Websiteshopvancouvermall.com

History

Vancouver Mall opened in August 1977 with Meier & Frank, Nordstrom and Sears as anchors. During phase two of mall expansion, a JCPenney was added. A Lipman's was also planned,[2] but was not built. Eventually, Mervyns would open where the Lipman's had been planned. A 50 foot oak tree was planted on the southwest side of the property to commemorate the grand opening. This tree still exists to this day.

While the mall is now located within the Vancouver city limits, until 1993 the property was in an unincorporated part of Clark County.[3]

In 1993, the mall added a new food court and underwent a renovation of its interior.[1] The mall was acquired in 1994 by Westfield America, Inc.

In 1998, the mall was renamed "Westfield Shoppingtown Vancouver", at which time the mall had 146 stores using 870,000 square feet (81,000 m2) of space.[4] However, "Shoppingtown" was dropped from the name in September 2005,[5] making it Westfield Vancouver mall.[3]

In mid-2005,[6] work was started on a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m2) expansion to the Meier & Frank store by its then-owner, the May Department Stores Company, adding 30,000 square feet on each of two levels, completed in 2006.[7] Following the acquisition of the May Company by Federated Department Stores, the Meier & Frank store was renamed Macy's in September 2006.[6]

The 82,225-square-foot (7,639.0 m2) Mervyn's closed in January 2007. On June 1, 2012, it was converted to the Cinetopia "Vancouver Mall 23" video movie theater.[8][9]

In 2009, Westfield looked into expanding the mall. These plans would have demolished the former Mervyn’s and added additional retail space. By this point the mall was 17% vacant. These plans never came into fruition.

In 2011, plans were announced to renovate the shopping center. These renovations included new floors, lighting, exterior entrances, and new tenants. Renovations were completed in July 2012. Cinetopia opened their new multiplex cinema just a month after renovations were finished.

The mall from the southwest in 2017

In February 2014, it was announced that Nordstrom would be closing its store at the mall.[10] The store closed in January 2015, at which time the mall managers announced that Gold's Gym would move into the upper level and H&M would move into the lower level of the former-Nordstrom space.[11]

In 2015, Sears Holdings spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Westfield Vancouver, into Seritage Growth Properties.[12]

On December 18, 2015, Vancouver Mall along with some other U.S. Westfield properties were sold to Centennial Real Estate Company. Vancouver Mall was sold to Centennial for 45 million dollars. "Westfield" was removed from the mall's name.[13] Any other references to Westfield online or at the property were removed the same day. Mall management was retained.

On August 22, 2018, Sears announced that its store would also be closing as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. The store officially closed after 41 years on November 25, 2018 [14] After the store closed, Macy’s, JCPenney, Gold's Gym, Old Navy, Cinetopia, and H&M are the remaining anchors left.

In March 2019 it was announced that Hobby Lobby and Round One Entertainment would move into the vacant Sears space. Chick-fil-A and Five Guys are also planning on opening stores on the mall property in 2020. Construction on the Round One and Hobby Lobby commenced in September 2019 with an estimated opening date of August 2020.

Also in March 2019, the Vancouver Mall general manager, JB Schutte passed away. He was replaced by former Mainplace Mall general manager Tracy Peters.

Shoe Dept. Encore opened a 15,000 square foot store in April 2019. This store is the only location within a 360-mile radius.

On May 23, 2019, AMC Theaters purchased the Cinetopia theater chain. All Cinetopia locations including the Vancouver Mall theater were rebranded under AMC.[15]

In March of 2020, Tillys began construction on a location at the Vancouver Mall.

On March 17, 2020, the mall temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated re-opening in June. Select retailers began offering curbside pickup in late May.

On June 8, 2020, the Vancouver Mall announced they would be reopening on the 10th with restrictions and new safety measures in place to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Beginning in 2020, the mall lost several national retailers. Those included: Michael Kors, GNC (store), The Walking Company, Kay Jewelers, Aveda, and Aeropostale (clothing).

References
  1. "Westfield Shoppingtown Vancouver". Westfield Group. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
  2. Sorensen, Donald J. (May 25, 1976). "Metro area draws top retailers". The Oregonian. p. C7.
  3. Hewitt, Scott (April 5, 2006). "Neighborhood focus: Van Mall". The Columbian. Neighbors section, p. 14.
  4. Brown, Craig (December 13, 1998). "Owners of mall opt to use full name". The Columbian. Vancouver, Washington. p. E1.
  5. Anderson, Julie (September 18, 2005). "Marketplace: Jobless rate not precise". The Columbian. p. E1.
  6. Nelson, Jonathan (September 9, 2006). "Macy's moves in". The Columbian. p. E1.
  7. Nelson, Jonathan (July 14, 2006). "Old mall, new challenges". The Columbian. p. E1.
  8. Lane, Steven (February 6, 2011). "Cinetopia to transform Westfield Vancouver mall". The Columbian. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  9. Lane, Steven (May 31, 2012). "Cinetopia to begin phased opening Friday". The Columbian. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  10. Njus, Elliot (February 5, 2014). "Nordstrom to close Lloyd Center, Westfield Vancouver stores". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  11. Njus, Elliot (January 21, 2015). "Gold's Gym to take over former Nordstrom space at Westfield Vancouver mall". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  12. http://www.seritage.com/retail/property/8800-ne-vancouver-mall-dr/3312647/landing
  13. Oliver, Gordon (December 18, 2015). "Vancouver Mall gets a new owner, old name: In $1.1 billion deal, shopping center is again Vancouver Mall". The Columbian. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  14. https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2018/08/23/sears-at-fair-oaks-mall-is-closing-all-of-it.html
  15. KATU Staff. "Cinetopia movie theaters acquired by AMC". KATU. Archived from the original on 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
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