I have always been intrigued with small enclosed malls and recently stumbled upon Lawrence Plaza in the Koreatown district of Santa Clara, California. Located at 3561 El Camino Real, a large sign was hung outside stating "Food Court." Food sounds good, so we gave it a try...
The exterior is a typical suburban strip mall and it looks like the enclosed mall was originally one or two remodeled anchors, such as a grocery store or drug store. The enclosed food court debuted in August of 2008.
Inside the mall is a large seating area for dining and flanked by a number of eateries. Most of the selections are Korean, but you will find other choices, too (like Fondue). A walkway loops from the north side of the food court to the south side of the food court. We found cell phones, electronics, baby clothes, facial products, golf items, and more. We counted about 17 stores in the enclosed mall. Surprisingly, we found only one vacant store.
The pictures above are of the modest exterior, the food court itself, and a bit of the loop walkway.
How can a tiny mall like this do so well in Koreatown, but would disappear like a bad cold elsewhere?
Enjoy!
Scott
See the aerial view.
4 comments:
The last thing to occupy that full space was CompUSA (starting off named Soft Warehouse), and before that was a home electronics store called The Federated Group. I don't remember what it was originally but supermarket and/or drug store sounds pretty likely, being typical anchors of strip malls that size.
There is a smaller space that met a similar fate; a supermarket subdivided into an ethnic micromall, at the corner of Prospect and De Anza Blvd on the Cupertino/Saratoga/San Jose border.
I'm glad that somebody is having success in the retail market around here, but I worry that those that focus heavily on one ethnic market tend to discourage shoppers outside that ethnicity. Sometimes it's a worthwhile trade-off, but it can't always be.
Boy..no one is discouraging anyone from shopping wherever they want to....the hell u get that idea from?
Is there any music store that sells KPOP CDs?
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